"The Unicorn Killer" – Murder, Mayhem, and ... Earth Day?

This story may be old, but those who followed it when it happened likely still remember many of the details. In 1979, reports of a stench from Ira Einhorn's apartment and the finding of his ex-girlfriend's body were big news stories. But what did Ira Einhorn have to do with Earth Day, and why did some people think he started this celebration?

Earth Day may come and go each year, and Einhorn's legacy may have died with him, but his story is interesting.

Ira Einhorn the Activist

Like many murderers, Einhorn was no slouch. He was a pretty intelligent guy who even taught as a professor in English for one semester at a college in Philadelphia – which ended because he had a distaste for academia and taught his students about the joys of drug use. He had a graduate degree in English, and while earning this degree, he got into activism. Perhaps his drive to be part of the counterculture of the '60s and '70s caused some to see him as a guru.

His stint in activism definitely garnered him a speaking spot at the very first Earth Day Celebration in 1970. While he was only a speaker, Einhorn would later claim that he was a big reason the celebration happened in the first place and kept going. He wasn't even an organizer for this event.

Einhorn may have felt he had much to prove to the world, growing up middle-class and Jewish. But that doesn't explain what he did to his girlfriend in 1977.

Ira Einhorn the Killer

Helen "Holly" Maddux started dating Einhorn in 1972. On a memorial page for Maddux, one former friend describes her as "smart, talented, and beautiful, " saying, "She had the kind of beauty that caused people to notice HER in a room full of pretty young girls." Unfortunately, her life is cut short because of her relationship with Einhorn.

In a second-floor apartment in Philadelphia, Maddux's corpse would sit rotting, hidden in a closet. She'd broken things off with Einhorn in 1977, and when she visited his apartment in September of that year, something horrible happened, although no one would know precisely what had happened for almost two years. After a few weeks of Maddux being MIA, police questioned Einhorn. He told them she'd gone out to get groceries and never returned.

It wasn't until late March 1979 that the world discovered what happened to Holly Maddux. While Einhorn dated after Maddux's disappearance, he was wise enough to find someone who had no sense of smell, so even his most recent girlfriend at the time had no idea that Maddux's rotting corpse was stuffed in a closet in Einhorn's apartment. Even though neighbors had reported foul odors and goo dripping through their ceilings, Maddux's dead body stayed hidden in that trunk for 18 months.

When the police finally searched his apartment and that closet on the porch, they discovered a mummified body locked in a trunk.

Ira Einhorn's Freedom

It was discovered that Einhorn had beaten Maddux and crushed her skull. Not knowing what to do with her dead body, he stuffed her in the trunk and hid her away. He claimed to have tried to dispose of the trunk once but was sure the government was watching him.

Upon being caught, Einhorn reportedly said, "You found what you found," before being arrested. One would think jail time, a trial, and a prison sentence would end this story, but it wasn't… not by far.

While being charged with first-degree murder, Einhorn was able to post the small bail set for him to get out of prison in 1981. But he did more than get out from behind those bars; he fled the United States. It would be nearly 20 years before anyone knew exactly where he was hiding. At this point, he'd married a wealthy woman and settled down in a converted windmill home. And, lucky for Einhorn, who was going by the alias "Eugène Mallon" at this time, France didn't have to extradite him. Rumor has it that because the U.S. had a trial in absentia, meaning while he wasn't there, and convicted him of the murder, France was letting him stay because that was considered an unfair trial.

Luckily, in mid-2001, after many court battles, he was finally extradited. He would go to court again to face what he'd done and receive a sentence for his crime.

Einhorn's Trial and End

It took one month for the trial to go on, and only two hours of deliberation were needed to decide the guilt of Ira Einhorn. He was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. And that sentence was upheld until his death.

On April 3, 2020, the Unicorn died of natural causes in prison. While neither his imprisonment nor death could bring back the life he stole, it was still some offering of solace to those who lost Holly Maddux.