‘60s Guru Remains a Fugitive in Slaying Case

Police officers removed a steamer trunk from the apartment of Philadelphia’s star flower child 10 years ago, and the world created by the so-called “Unicorn” began to wither.

The trunk contained the remains of Helen Maddux, a blonde former cheerleader known as Holly, Ira Einhorn’s lover.

She had been missing for 18 months by the time private investigators hired by her family in Tyler, Tex., pieced together enough information to point an accusing finger at Einhorn, until then a living symbol of nonviolence with incredible personal charm and a nimble intelligence.

Today, the Unicorn is a fugitive from justice and faces a murder trial if he is ever caught.

Was Corporate Consultant

Einhorn was a ‘60s hippie guru of drugs and free love who rode the tide of peace and unity to acceptance as a corporate guru-consultant in the ‘70s. People looked to Einhorn for guidance as the New Age dawned. He became a Harvard fellow and an environmental leader as he and the times matured, although he still dressed as a campus radical, right down to the ponytail.

“He was a very engaging person,” recalled Thacher Longstreth, former president of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and now a city councilman. “I have nothing but respect for what he was, or seemed to be.”

An investigative journalist who chronicled Einhorn’s case in a recent book said the Unicorn was both the product and property of Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love nurtured him and worshiped him. It was also his stage, and Einhorn was the ringmaster, New York City’s Steven Levy wrote.

Einhorn was a founder of the Free University at the University of Pennsylvania in 1964, organizer of the city’s first Be-In in 1967, first Smoke-In in 1969, Earth Day in 1970 and Sun Day in 1978. He was an expert in the paranormal and spoke at meetings around the world.

Body Partly Mummified

But the battered and partly mummified body in the steamer trunk, along with some startling disclosures by Levy, led investigators and, finally, even his close supporters to conclude that there was a grim, hidden side to the Unicorn.

“It’s a shame,” Longstreth said, because here was a man who held in his power the magic of the mythical creature whose name he used as his own. The Unicorn focused the attention of the nation on himself, on the environment and on Philadelphia when he organized the city’s Earth Day observance.

“It was truly wonderful,” Longstreth said, recalling the day on which thousands gathered to honor the sanctity of Earth and mankind in Philadelphia and other cities. The premier event was in Philadelphia, on Independence Mall near the Liberty Bell. The Unicorn presided as the television cameras zoomed in to show him kissing Sen. Edmund S. Muskie full on the mouth.

Levy said the Unicorn was more than just a nickname. It was an ideal for Einhorn.

“Since someone had pointed out how his name (Einhorn--One Horn) relates to the mythical horse-like creature with a single horn between the eyes, Ira had fancied himself as kin to that mythical creature, representing purity, uniqueness, gentleness and sexual power,” Levy wrote.

The district attorney’s office and police think he still has some of his old magic left because he is still free.

‘He’s a Brutal Killer’

“Somehow, he’s still able to get the confidence of some people, especially women, it seems,” said Terry Williamson, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. “But he’s a brutal killer as far as we’re concerned.”

Einhorn was arrested on March 28, 1979, and charged with the murder of Maddux. The arrest shared the headlines with another big event that day, the nation’s worst commercial nuclear accident, at Three Mile Island power plant in Middletown, Pa.

He contended that he was innocent and said it was a CIA-KGB frame-up. He was able to get the services of a top attorney of the time, Arlen Specter, now a U.S. senator.

But there was no evidence of a frame and, in January, 1981, when free on bail, the Unicorn skipped. His trial was to have begun in February or March.

Grew Up in Philadelphia

Einhorn grew up in Philadelphia’s Jewish neighborhoods, attended the University of Pennsylvania and was among the many caught up in the activism of the Vietnam era. Levy grew up within a mile of Einhorn and attended the same high school where Einhorn studied and played football. There was a chance meeting when Levy was working on the underground newspaper known as the Drummer.

Those memories prompted his decision to research and write “The Unicorn’s Secret,” which was published in October.

“I remembered well that Ira was the big presence in Philadelphia,” Levy said. “He stood for nonviolence, and it seemed unreal for him to be charged with murder.

“I didn’t set out to prove guilt or innocence. I just wanted to find out what the real story was.”

There was the story everyone knew.

Here was a man fluent in science, literature and hippiedom who had built a worldwide network of intellectuals from all walks of life. He was the prophet of new concepts, which he found in books, articles and his own brain and disseminated around the world to those in his network. Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania even paid the postage and listed him as a company consultant.

“I’m a communicator,” he told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1975. “I dig up facts and data and convey them.”

Had Two Faults

Longstreth says Einhorn had only two faults.

One was body odor. Another was simply his own motion.

“He was erratic,” Longstreth said. “He pushed his bad ideas as hard as he pushed his good ones.”

Levy’s digging uncovered another Einhorn, who could hide things from nearly anyone, even his network of intellectuals and supporters, nearly to the end of his reign.

His network was still somewhat intact when he fled, first to Ireland, because it has no extradition treaty with the United States, according to law enforcement agencies.

At some point, he assumed the name Ben Moore.

One of those who helped finance his exile was Barbara Bronfman, ex-wife of an heir to the Seagram’s fortune, Swedish authorities told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Bronfman read Levy’s book and decided to cooperate with the Philadelphia district attorney.

Williamson said he could not disclose how much cooperation there might have been or the extent of the investigation over the years, but he added: “I can say that he’s definitely always been a high-profile fugitive for us.”

Fugitive Tipped Off

In December, Interpol conveyed a tip to Swedish authorities that Einhorn was in Stockholm. But Bronfman’s boyfriend tipped off Einhorn, and authorities found only empty rooms, the Inquirer said.

“The book definitely turned the heat on, and a few people have also contacted us,” Levy said.

“The Unicorn’s Secret” is about how, in 1972, the Unicorn met the former cheerleader from Texas, then a graduate of Bryn Mawr, and how such a man could wind up as her murderer while fooling those around him.

Levy discovered a stormy relationship during which Maddux tried repeatedly to shed Einhorn’s overpowering influence. But her own insecurities kept pushing her back.

Then, in September, 1978, she dropped out of sight. Einhorn said he knew nothing other than that she had left the apartment to go shopping and never returned.

At first, that seemed plausible, and police considered Maddux a missing person who wanted to be missing. But Fred and Elizabeth Maddux had not liked their daughter’s companion and hired a retired FBI agent to find out what happened. The retired agent turned to other retired agents for help.

Case Built by Investigators

Levy’s book follows the case as it was built against Einhorn by the private investigators, including reports by residents of the apartment house who told of a terrible smell. One man even remembered a scream.

Levy found that Einhorn had asked two women for help in disposing of the trunk. He had told them it was full of “Russian papers” he had to get rid of. He wanted to dump it in the Schuylkill River. But the trunk wouldn’t fit in their car, Levy said.

In addition, he turned up two women who had been attached to Einhorn in the past. One relationship ended when Einhorn choked the woman, nearly killing her. The other ended when Einhorn smashed a bottle over the woman’s head.

According to Levy, only one question remained:

“How could a smart guy like him deny that trunk in his apartment?”

Blames Drug

Levy concluded that the answer was a drug, ketamine, which wouldn’t cause brutal behavior but would allow Einhorn to dissociate himself from it.