Ira Einhorn

Ira Einhorn (full name Ira Samuel Einhorn, born 1940, was an activist in the 1960s and 1970s who is now serving a life sentence for the murder of Holly Maddux in 1977.

Einhorn was active in ecological and antiwar groups in the 1960s. At one time, he was a friend and contemporary of Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. He also claimed to have been instrumental in creating Earth Day in 1970. However, other organizers of Earth Day dispute his account. He was known to some of his supporters as "the Unicorn", a pun on the German "ein horn".

He studied in Pennsylvania and had a five-year relationship with Holly Maddux. In 1977, Maddux went to New York and became involved with Saul Lapidus. When Einhorn found out about this, he angrily called Maddux to come back to Philadelphia, which she did on September 9.

She was never seen in public again. When questioned, Einhorn stated to police that she left to make a call and never came back. Eighteen months later, Maddux's decomposing corpse was found in a trunk stored in a closet in Einhorn's apartment.

In 1981, days before his murder trial was to begin, Einhorn evaded bail and escaped to Europe. Einhorn traveled in Europe for the next 16 years, along the way marrying Annika Flodin. Back in Pennsylvania, the state convicted him in absentia in 1993 of the murder of Maddux. Einhorn was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Einhorn was eventually tracked down in Champagne-Mouton, France, where he had been living under the name "Eugene Malllon". On July 20, 2001, he was extradited to the United States after French authorities were promised that he would receive another trial and would not face the death penalty under any circumstances. The extradition was delayed because Einhorn's supporters alleged that Einhorn had been unfairly treated by American criminal justice and that he would perhaps not receive a fair trial. The French Green Party, in particular, complained that Einhorn should not have been extradited until the matters concerning his trials were fully settled.

Taking the stand in his own defense, Einhorn claimed that Maddux was murdered by CIA agents who attempted to frame Einhorn for the crime, due to Einhorn's investigations on the Cold War and psychotronics. However, the jury did not find his testimony credible, and affirmed his conviction on October 17, 2002 after only two hours of deliberation.

Einhorn is currently incarcerated in the state prison at Houtzdale, in central Pennsylvania.