Ira Einhorn | Photos | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Ira Samuel EINHORN

Ira Einhorn was born in 1940, in New Jersey, to an orthodox Jewish family.
Einhorn attended the University of Pennsylvania, but dropped out, there
were some alleged drug and sex accusations, but there were no charges.

Ira Einhorn

Ira Einhorn (the "Unicorn") gives victory sign at first Earth Day Extravaganza.

Ira Einhorn

Ira Einhorn tries to hypnotize Robert Eringer.

Einhorn aka Eugene Mallon lived like a sun king in the south of France, sharing a tile-roofed farmhouse with his strawberry-blond Swedish wife. He read books, put idle thoughts to paper and played in a bridge club every Friday. She baked bread, tended garden and strolled into the nearby village of Champagne-Mouton on market day, tall and delicate, a sight so fair the mayor's tired old heart would stir.

It was paradise, until June 13, 1997. A small army of French national police crept in before sunrise and surrounded the house. Three of them, 9-mm Berettas drawn, went to the door and knocked firmly as the others hid in the fields.

Ira Einhorn

Ira Einhorn, center, is escorted by French police in Champagne-Mouton, central France, July 19, 2001. Einhorn, a former hippie guru convicted in 2002 of killing his girlfriend in Pennsylvania a quarter century earlier, lost his appeal to a state court Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006. A three-judge Superior Court panel rejected all 10 issues raised by Einhorn, 66, who is serving life in prison without parole in a Pennsylvania prison for the murder of girlfriend Holly Maddux.

Ira Einhorn

Einhorn is finally extradited after 22 years.

Ira Einhorn

The victim

Holly Maddux

Holly Maddux corpse.

On March 28, 1979, at 9 a.m., homicide detective Chitwood knocked on Einhorn's door. Once inside, he headed straight for the locked closet. He pried it open with a crowbar and immediately smelled a "faint decaying smell, like a dead animal." Next he sprang the lock on the steamer trunk.

The newspapers inside were dated August and September 1977. Under them was Styrofoam packing material. Chitwood scooped through it until he came to something he couldn't identify at first, and then it was clear. A hand. A human hand. He scooped some more, and as he did, Holly Maddux slowly emerged.