Convicted Murderer Is Sent Home to U.S.

After two decades on the run, convicted murderer Ira Einhorn was extradited today from France to the United States, where he faces a new trial in the 1977 bludgeoning death of his girlfriend.

Einhorn, 61, was handed over to U.S. authorities at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris early today, before boarding a flight for Philadelphia, FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said.

Einhorn’s departure came just hours after the European Court of Human Rights decided Thursday to drop its request to delay his extradition. France had been preparing to extradite him last week but agreed to wait a week until the European court examined the case.

The court in Strasbourg, France, said the request was being dropped because Einhorn’s medical condition was satisfactory and U.S. officials had provided assurances that he would not face the death penalty.

Einhorn fled the U.S. in 1981, shortly before he was to stand trial for the killing of Helen “Holly” Maddux. Her battered corpse was found stuffed in a trunk in a closet of the Philadelphia apartment she had shared with the onetime antiwar activist.

Einhorn was tried in absentia, convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1993. He now faces a retrial in the case.

He lived in England, Ireland and Sweden under pseudonyms before he was arrested in France in 1997.

“When we see him in handcuffs in the custody of an American citizen, we will be really happy,” Maddux’s sister, Meg Wakeman, told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Einhorn denies killing Maddux, saying he was framed by the CIA.