In 1974, he joined Iron Butterfly as its bass player, playing on two of the group's albums, Scorching Beauty and Sun and Steel, both released in 1975.
[2] After the breakup of Iron Butterfly, Kramer continued to play with founding member Ron Bushy in the groups Magic and Gold between 1977 and 1980.
In 1964, at the age of 12, he won the science fair at Liberty School in Youngstown, Ohio, by building a laser with a beam strong enough to pop a balloon.
[4][6] Kramer co-developed SoftVideo based on fractal compression and he also claimed to work on a transmission project that would result in faster-than-light speed communications.
His disappearance led to a massive search, many news reports, and talk show segments including an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, America's Most Wanted, The Unexplained ("Strange Disappearances," first aired June 7, 2000) and Unsolved Mysteries (Season 8 Episode 3).
[7] In the beginning of the March 6, 1997, episode of Coast to Coast AM, remote viewer Ed Dames told Kathy Kramer-Peterssen, Phil's sister, that his team's findings were that Phil was murdered, the body was buried but quickly decayed due to water, and it was brought to Montana from California.
The FBI did not believe there was enough reason to launch a separate criminal investigation of its own, although it assisted the Ventura County sheriff's office.
[10][11] On May 29, 1999, Kramer's Ford Aerostar minivan and skeletal remains were found[12] by photographers looking for old car wrecks to shoot at the bottom of Decker Canyon near Malibu, California.