Ira Einhorn

Ira Samuel Einhorn
1979 mugshot and a 2001 mugshot taken upon his return to the U.S.
Born	(1940-05-15) May 15, 1940 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Criminal status	In prison
Criminal charge	Murder
Penalty	Life imprisonment

Ira Samuel Einhorn (born May 15, 1940), known as "the Unicorn Killer", is an American convicted murderer and former environmental advocate. Einhorn beat his ex-girlfriend, Holly Maddux, to death and then stored her body in a locked trunk in his apartment for more than a year — about 18 months — before she was discovered by the police. He fled to Europe and was convicted 25 years later for her murder in 2002 and is serving a life sentence.

His moniker, "the Unicorn," came from his name, Einhorn — unicorn in German.

Early life and activism

Born into a middle-class Jewish family, Einhorn studied at the University of Pennsylvania. He became active in ecological groups and was part of the counterculture, anti-establishment and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s. He called himself "the Unicorn," because Einhorn and Unicorn translate as "One Horn".

Einhorn claimed to have been master of ceremonies at the first Earth Day event in Philadelphia in 1970. He claimed to have been instrumental in the creation and launching of the Earth Day event itself. However, other event organizers dispute his account.

Murder of Holly Maddux

Einhorn had a five-year relationship with Holly Maddux, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College who was originally from Tyler, Texas. In 1977, Maddux broke up with Einhorn, which infuriated him. She went to New York City and became involved with Saul Lapidus, a rejection that Einhorn would not accept. After learning about this turn of events, Einhorn called Maddux and lured her back to Philadelphia under the guise of retrieving her belongings, although his intention was to murder her for breaking off their relationship. She was never seen alive again.

When questioned, Einhorn told police that Maddux had left to go to the store but never came back. Eighteen months later on March 28, 1979, Maddux's decomposing corpse was found by police in a trunk stored in a closet in Einhorn's apartment. After finding Maddux the police reportedly said to Einhorn "It looks like we found Holly" to which Einhorn reportedly replied "you found what you found". Einhorn's bail was reduced to $40,000 at the request of his attorney Arlen Specter; Einhorn was released from custody in advance of his trial by paying 10% of the bond's value, or $4,000. This bail was paid, not by Einhorn, but by Barbara Bronfman, a Montreal socialite and one of the many people Einhorn had convinced into supporting him financially.

In 1981, just days before his murder trial was to begin, Einhorn skipped bail and fled to Europe. Einhorn traveled in Europe for the next 17 years, along the way marrying a Swedish woman named Annika Flodin. Back in Pennsylvania, as Einhorn had already been arraigned, the state convicted him in absentia in 1993 for the murder of Maddux. Einhorn was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Extradition

In 1997, Einhorn was tracked down and arrested in Champagne-Mouton, France, where he had been living under the name "Eugene Mallon." The extradition process, however, proved more complex than initially envisioned. Under the extradition treaty between France and the United States, either country may refuse extradition under certain circumstances and Einhorn used multiple avenues to avoid extradition.

Although his sentence was not the death penalty, Einhorn's defense attorneys argued that Einhorn would face the death penalty if returned to the United States. France, like many countries which have abolished the death penalty, does not extradite defendants to jurisdictions which retain the death penalty without assurance that the death penalty will be neither sought nor applied. Pennsylvania authorities pointed out that at the date of the murder, Pennsylvania did not have the death penalty and therefore Einhorn could not be executed, due to provisions in the U.S. and Pennsylvania Constitutions regarding ex post facto law. Einhorn's next strategy involved French law and the European Court of Human Rights which require a new trial when the defendant was tried in absentia, hence was unable to present his defense. On this basis, the court of appeals of Bordeaux rejected the extradition request.

Following the court's decision, thirty-five members of the United States Congress sent a letter to President Jacques Chirac of France, asking for Einhorn's extradition. However, under France's doctrine of the separation of powers, which was invoked in this case, the President cannot give orders to courts and does not intervene in extradition affairs.

As a consequence of this refusal, in order to secure the extradition of Einhorn and ensure that he was imprisoned for the murder he committed, the Pennsylvania legislature passed in 1998 a bill (nicknamed the "Einhorn Law") allowing defendants convicted in absentia to request another trial. In another delay tactic, the bill was criticized as being unconstitutional by Einhorn's attorneys and they tried to get the French courts to deny the extradition again, on the grounds that the law would be inapplicable. However, the French court ruled itself unable to evaluate the constitutionality of foreign laws. Another point of friction with the U.S. was that the court freed Ira Einhorn under police supervision — French laws put restrictions on remand (the imprisonment of suspects awaiting trial). Einhorn was then the focus of intense surveillance by the French police.

The matter then went before Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, since extraditions, after having been approved by courts, must be ordered by the executive. The French Green Party stated that Einhorn should not be extradited until the issues concerning his case were fully settled. Jospin rejected those claims and issued an extradition decree. Einhorn then litigated against the decree before the Conseil d'État, which ruled against him; again, the Council declined to review the constitutionality of foreign law. He then attempted to slit his throat to avoid prison for the murder, and eventually litigated his case before the European Court of Human Rights, which also ruled against him.

On July 20, 2001, Einhorn was extradited to the United States.

Trial and penalty

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". After two hours of deliberation, the jury convicted him on October 17, 2002. The following day, he was sentenced to a mandatory life term without the possibility of parole.

See also

• Crime in Philadelphia

Sources

• Einhorn, Ira. 78-187880. (1972) ISBN 0-385-06387-3 Its title is its Library of Congress number.
• Einhorn, Ira. Prelude to Intimacy. August 2005, ISBN 1-4116-4911-7. Einhorn's account of his life underground from the time he fled the United States in early January 1981 until he met his Swedish wife, Annika, in November 1987.
• Levy, Steven. The Unicorn's Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius. 1988 ISBN 0-13-937830-8. Published while Einhorn's whereabouts were unknown.

External links

• Excerpt from Larry King Live about Einhorn's attempts at denying extradition
• News Photo of the box containing the victim being removed from the house. (See photographs #33-35.)
• "A touch of Eden" by Russ Baker, Esquire December 1, 1999. A series of interviews of Einhorn in France just prior to his extradition.
• Ira Einhorn at IMDb
• The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer 1999 Movie about Ira Einhorn