Philip Taylor Kramer joined psychedelic rock group Iron Butterfly in 1974, playing bass on two albums and touring for a few years. After the band’s breakup, he played with founding member Ron Bushy in several off-shoot projects.
Leaving his music career behind, Taylor earned a degree in aerospace engineering. He worked on the MX missile guidance system for a contractor of the US Department of Defense. Later, he concentrated on developments in the fields of fractal compression, facial recognition systems, and advanced communications. In 1990, Taylor founded Total Multimedia, Inc, with his partner Randy Jackson, Michael Jackson‘s younger brother. The company developed data compression techniques for CD-ROMs.
In February 1995, Taylor was supposed to pick up a business associate at LAX. On his way, he called his wife to say that plans had changed. He told her that his business associate (and his wife) would be going directly to a hotel. Taylor and his wife would meet the couple later. However, Taylor still went to to airport and spent forty-five minutes there, as per security camera footage. During his drive to the airport, Taylor made a number of cell phone calls to his wife, to Ron Bushy and to the police. In his frantic call to the police, Taylor said, “I’m going to kill myself. And I want everyone to know O. J. Simpson is innocent. They did it.” Taylor was brought in as an expert, hired to analyze the authenticity of a video tape that the FBI obtained during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Taylor did not show up at the hotel for the meeting. He was never seen or heard from again.
On May 29, 1999, Taylor’s Ford Aerostar minivan was discovered by two photographers scouting locations for a photo shoot in Decker Canyon in Malibu, California. The minivan contained skeletal remains, later identified as Taylor’s. He was 42. The case still remains unsolved.