Specter: Just doing my job as his lawyer

I couldn't find the date of this one, but I'm guessing it's around 2000, possibly 1999. It is another article but has some worthy quotes from Arlen Specter, Ira's lawyer in 1979.


He was only doing his job.

That was how U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter described his role as a private lawyer 20 years ago in getting low bail for Ira Einhorn, launching the hippie guru into 16 years on the lam in Europe.

Lawyer and radio talk-show host Michael A. Smerconish asked Specter yesterday if he had any regrets about his role in freeing Einhorn after Einhorn's arrest in 1979 in the killing of his girlfriend Helen "Holly" Maddux.

"I was doing my job as a lawyer," Specter said on the call-in show. "That's what a lawyer is supposed to do."

Einhorn, then 38, was arrested after Maddux's battered body was found in a trunk in Einhorn's apartment. She had been dead about 17 months, police said.

At a bail hearing before Common Pleas Judge William M. Marutani, Specter asked for bail for Einhorn of $5,000.

The district attorney's office asked for $100,000.

Marutani compromised and set bail at $40,000. Einhorn made the required 10 percent, was turned loose and soon fled the country.

That was the only time Specter represented Einhorn, who could not afford Specter's high fees.

Specter suggested that his successors in the DA's office have been less than diligent in going after Einhorn.

"The law has to be very tenacious in pursuing him and bringing him back to justice," he said.

"When I was district attorney, I didn't ask anyone else to do my job," Specter said. "The district attorney has a lot of power and a lot of leverage. I would be interested to know what kind of surveillance Einhorn is under."

- John F. Morrison

Hippie icon fights murder charge by invoking the stars

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the author of this article, printed in 2002, and then reprinted on Buzzle. I've probably read this one 4 or 5 times over the years so I thought I'd include it here on the All Ira page. The last line is indicative of the general feeling for Ira. It is also one of the articles that has mention of Peter Gabriel. In fact there is even some promise here that Gabriel was still in the mix and could have attended the courtroom proceedings. Alas, he played his show in Philly that week, and turned the other cheek. We can make some assumptions as to why -- maybe he had given Ira some coin to sock away for one of those rainy nights while on the run, or maybe The Unicorn self-worthed Peter in some conversations he didn't want to hear. In any case, there is not more than a peep from Peter about his relationship with Ira Einhorn so mark that as yet another sad ending.

Author not credited

In the Sixties and Seventies, when flower power raged, Ira Einhorn liked to describe himself as a 'planetary enzyme'. It was a suitable term for the former guru who was not even present for his first murder conviction nearly a decade ago.

Tomorrow, the long odyssey of Ira Einhorn nears its conclusion: the infamous New Age fugitive goes on trial again for the 1977 murder of his lover, a pretty Texas heiress named Helen 'Holly' Maddux. This time Einhorn will be present in the flesh and apparently in spirit in a Philadelphia courtroom.

'He's remarkably well, upbeat and looking forward to it,' says his defence counsel William Cannon. So well, in fact, that 62-year-old Einhorn has invited some old friends from his hippie seer heyday to speak to his good character, among them singer Peter Gabriel, actress Ellen Burstyn and Edward Bacon, father of actor Kevin Bacon.

Such is the bizarre world of Ira Einhorn, a man who once hung out with beat heroes and hippie superstars such as Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, organised 'be-in' events, ran for mayor of Philadelphia on a ticket of free love and expanded consciousness, and considered himself too mythic to wash; a man who preferred to be known as 'The Unicorn' because that was the creature that would lead us into the Age of Aquarius.

The trial is unlikely to involve too much free-thinking or proselytising of the benefits of group sex. Einhorn, who was arrested in France in 1997 after a 16-year manhunt and extradited by the French on condition that he would be retried, is facing a charge of murder in the first degree which carries a sentence of life without parole.

Prosecutors say it is an open-and-shut case and do not believe any stars will turn up to revisit their acquaintance with Einhorn or wish to be associated with a man who has already been found guilty once of bludgeoning Maddux to death and stashing her body in a steamer-trunk yards from where he slept in the apartment they had shared.

Eighteen months after the murder, Maddux's mummified corpse was discovered after neighbours had complained of the stench from fluids dripping down the wall. When police made their grim discovery, Einhorn said simply: 'You found what you found.'

However, the long road to justice was only beginning. Einhorn said Maddux had vanished one night after saying she was going to the grocery shop. But even after his arrest, he managed to get respected, if deluded, members of Philadelphia society to speak on his behalf.

He was granted bail for a small sum put up by Barbara Bronfman, former wife of Seagram distilling heir Charles Bronfman. Shortly before his trial was set to begin in 1981, Einhorn disappeared. 'The evidence was so insurmountable, he had no choice but to take off,' says Michael Chitwood, the lead detective in the case. 'There was no way this guy was going to stand trial.'

Einhorn's flight took him first to Ireland where he lived under the name Ben Moore. Philadelphia investigators believe he was supported by wealthy benefactors taken in by his strange charm and ideas of paranormal psychology and mind control during his flight. 'Even if you're a sack of shit who's a planetary enzyme, you've got to eat something,' said one.

One theory has Einhorn seeking support from British rock star Peter Gabriel, a founder of Genesis. But although Gabriel admits meeting Einhorn in the Seventies, and Richard DiBenedetto, who led the manhunt for the Philadelphia district attorney's office, says the pair met in London within the past decade, there is no evidence that Gabriel - who did not apparently know Einhorn was an accused murderer - supplied him with any financial assistance.

Einhorn's lawyer, Richard Cannon, says Einhorn visited Gabriel at the singer's Wiltshire millhouse on several occasions. 'He [Einhorn] thinks Mr Gabriel's testimony could be very helpful,' he says. (Ironically, Gabriel is scheduled to play in Philadelphia on 18 November - in time, perhaps, for a visit to the court. A spokesman for Gabriel said he had not decided one way or the other.)

Einhorn then met up with Anika Flodin, daughter of well-to-do parents in Stockholm. Using the appropriated identity of Eugene Mallon, he moved with her to the secluded village of Champagne-Mouton near Bordeaux. The poet-prophet passed himself off as a writer of mysteries and an anti-nuclear campaigner, and attracted a following of impressionable French hippies who dubbed him Vieux Baba Cool - Old Cool Daddy.

'We were not surprised that even before the murder he was a guru,' recalled a neighbour of Einhorn during his his French exodus. 'He talked about things uncommon, but not extraterrestrial.'

In 1997, the authorities caught up with him after tracing a driver's licence Flodin had applied for in Sweden. But after his arrest, the French authorities refused to repatriate him unless he was granted a new trial - a condition met by a change in the state constitution. When Einhorn came home to face trial two years ago, he seemed to have lost none of the self-importance and self-promotion skills that had served him so well in attracting benefactors. He likened his stay in France to the apartheid-era imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and his situation to that of some 4,000 black men on death row in the US.

Prosecutors say their case against Einhorn is water-tight. 'We have a smoking gun already: we have the victim's body in a chest in his closet,' says assistant district attorney Joel Rosen.

The defence plans to introduce contradictory forensic tests from 1979 that could raise doubt in the minds of jurors and testimony from witnesses who say they saw Maddux alive after the time prosecutors contend she was bludgeoned to death. They also say they have an FBI report that says that - besides her corpse - no evidence of decomposition was found in the trunk or on the floorboards.

'If her body did not decompose in the trunk that upsets the case,' says Cannon. Dr Herbert Fillinger, a forensics expert, is expected to testify that Maddux could have been dead for as little as two months when her body was discovered.

Whatever turns the case may take over its projected six-week duration, the trial will shed light on an era of hippie dreams. How were wealthy and impressionable counter-culture dreamers of Philadelphia, Ireland and France taken in by a man who has been found guilty of beating his girlfriend to death?

One former acolyte, George Keegan, recalls meeting Einhorn before he jumped bail. 'We were walking down the street together. People who once would come up and hug Ira crossed the street and averted their eyes... He looked at me, sad, and said, "I'm not going to be able to be Ira Einhorn now". And I realised he was a selfish, arrogant bastard.'

© Guardian News & Media 2008
Published: 9/29/2002

Ira cherished freedom. So his pals weren't surprised he fled

Barbara Beck
Daily News Staff Writer

After they found his girlfriend's decomposed body in a steamer trunk, it was little surprise to those who knew Ira Einhorn that he chose freedom over the prospect of life in jail.

For Ira was a generation's symbol of freedom, a "free-thinker" who clung to his 1960s image as Philadelphia's most celebrated counterculture leader.

Those caught unprepared by Einhorn's disappearance in December 1981 - a month before he faced a court hearing for the 1977 murder of Helen "Holly" Maddux - were members of the legal system that allowed him to run free after posting $40,000 bail, along with a host of agencies that have been trying to find him ever since.

The 47-year-old Einhorn has outsmarted the Philadelphia district attorney's office, the FBI, the International Police Agency (Interpol) and law enforcement agents from a dozen countries who have chased his cold, confusing trail.

And now Steven Levy, a free-lance writer who grew up in Philadelphia, joins the search for the elusive Einhorn. Levy has reconstructed the crime and portrayed Einhorn as a troubled, violence-prone man in a new book called "The Unicorn's Secret: Murder in the Age of Aquarius," to be published this month by Prentice-Hall.

Many well-known Philadelphians are mentioned in this painful tale about the self-styled New Age guru, including Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who represented Einhorn at his bail hearing.

Einhorn originally thought he would use Bernard Segal, an expert criminal lawyer who, before he moved to California, was one of Philadelphia's best- known attorneys. However, by the time of the hearing, Einhorn had hired Specter, then a private citizen, who had served two terms as Philadelphia's district attorney. Specter was eventually replaced by Philadelphia attorney Norris Gelman because, writes Levy, Einhorn could not afford Specter's high fees.

Specter refused to comment to the Daily News on Einhorn until he saw a copy of Levy's book.

Nevertheless, here is what other prominent Philadelphians remember about accused murderer Ira Einhorn.

MICHAEL CHITWOOD. A former homicide detective with the Philadelphia Police Department, he was the first to arrive at Einhorn's Powelton Village apartment with a search warrant. Chitwood is now chief of police in Portland, Maine.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Ira did it. It's unfortunate that the city's court system let him out on bail. You knew there was no way in the world that he was going to jail . . . Look, once you read the probable cause that was contained in the search warrant, there was no doubt in your mind that he did it. God, the warrant read like an Alfred Hitchcock story."

NORRIS GELMAN. A former assistant district attorney, he became Einhorn's lawyer. Gelman recently defended Cyril "Tony" Brown, the man accused of helping "House of Horrors" slayer Gary Michael Heidnik.

"The last time I saw Ira was a couple of weeks before he was due to go to trial. This is not an open-and-shut case. There's real doubt here . . . If Ira returned to the United States, I think he would retain me in the case."

BARBARA CHRISTIE. An assistant district attorney, she was assigned to the Einhorn case. Levy describes her as "the most aggressive prosecutor in the district attorney's office, a workaholic bantamweight black woman . . ." Although Christie is not black, the rest of the description is accurate.

"When was the last time I saw Ira? Well, he hasn't sent me a Christmas card - nothing. He just doesn't keep in touch anymore. But I have every hope and expectation that he will be caught and brought to trial very soon."

WILLIAM MARUTANI. A respected former Philadelphia judge, he now practices law. He presided over Einhorn's bail hearing.

"I don't think it would have made any difference if the bail was $40,000 or $400,000. As I remember, his mother put up her house for security. So a man like that is not going to worry whether there's an extra zero behind it . . .

"Is he guilty? You wonder how many people have bodies lying in a trunk in their homes. I said to him at the hearing that it's not as though someone else committed the offense. It's not akin to someone coming to your apartment and dropping a glove. We have a body in the trunk . . .

"I have very little doubt that one of these days he will be caught. The odds are overwhelming against him. People will not give up. And by his fleeing, he has admitted his guilt. I dare say that Mr. Einhorn is not living peacefully. He is always looking over his shoulder. In a real way, he is already in jail."

JUDY WICKS. Waitress at and later manager of La Terrasse, the former University City restaurant where Einhorn spent much of his time, she now owns the White Dog Cafe.

"I feel fairly certain that he did murder Holly. He destroyed Holly, a wonderful person and, in turn, himself. There's no way you can forgive someone for that. I think Ira was deeply in love with Holly so he couldn't stand to lose her. His relationship was simply one of possessing her. He couldn't stand the idea that she would be free from him. He didn't want her to live if he couldn't possess her. Look at the fact that he kept the body right there in the house . . .

"The last time I saw him was at his bail hearing. I testified in his defense that he had always paid his bills on time . . . The thought of running into him now petrifies me. I would just be horrified."

STEPHEN J. HARMELIN. A partner in the law firm of Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish and Kauffman, he had known Einhorn since high school.

"I'm hurt that he didn't stand trial. By leaving, he not only disappointed his friends, he hurt his family. A lot of people had vested a lot of confidence in him and he didn't repay that . . .

"He never espoused violence. He was quite to the contrary. There was no reason to feel that he was doing anything other than following a different style of life. If he walked into my office now, I'd ask him to sit down, and then I'd call the district attorney's office. I'd have him arrested because he's a felon. And then I hope he'd get a fair trial."

HARRY J. KATZ. Now the owner of Hesch's restaurant, he hired Einhorn to write book reviews for Katz's weekly alternative newspaper, "Electricity."

"I feel badly for his mother, who is really a wonderful lady. I miss Ira. I liked him.

"The last time I saw Ira was two days before he left. I told him to leave the country. There was a computer show at the Civic Center and Ira went with me to look at them.

"We ate dinner outdoors because he smelled so badly. I refused to let him eat inside. I knew he was leaving because he was scared to death. He had cut his hair fairly short. And I said to him, why did you do that? Norris (Gelman, Einhorn's lawyer) suggested it . . .

"I'm glad that he left. Maybe he was guilty. I don't know."

ABBIE HOFFMAN. One of the '60s counterculture stars Einhorn cultivated, he now lives in the Philadelphia area.

"I briefly knew him. He arranged a talk for me at Rittenhouse Square - I can't remember the date - but it was an anti-war rally. That was probably the last time I saw him."

THACHER LONGSTRETH. Now a Republican city councilman, as head of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce he helped convince local businesses to cooperate with Einhorn's Earth Week project.

"I saw quite a lot of Ira during the Earth Week period and at the time I was so struck how stimulating, interesting and intelligent he was. In fact, I continued to see him regularly after that because I enjoyed talking to him. He was very articulate."

FRANK RIZZO, the former mayor and police chief.

"I saw Ira around. He was a bit of a flake. You never paid too much attention to him. He was one of those radicals who never struck me as being particularly dangerous."

Ira on Education

Most of those who end up incarcerated, whether guilty or innocent, suffer from an educational and cultural deficiency that is a major cause of the incarceration and will lead to a life of incarceration if the deficiency is not corrected.
The future belongs to those with education.

Read the rest HERE.