Blu
10-18-2002, 07:58 AM
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Former hippie guru Ira Einhorn, who eluded police for 20 years as a fugitive in Europe, was convicted in the 1977 murder of his girlfriend Holly Maddux on Thursday and sentenced to life in prison.
More than a quarter-century after police discovered the blond Bryn Mawr College graduate's mummified remains in his apartment, a sequestered jury of six men and six women needed less than 2-1/2 hours to reach their unanimous verdict on a charge of first-degree murder.
"He had a warped mind. I can't say it no plainer than that," juror Tracy Garett told reporters after 17 days of trial proceedings that included lengthy testimony from Einhorn himself.
"Even on the witness stand, it was like he thought he was God," he added.
While imposing a sentence of life in prison without parole, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge William Mazzola lashed out at the 62-year-old radical as "an intellectual dilettante who preyed on uninitiated, uninformed, unsuspecting and inexperienced people."
Einhorn, standing red-faced in a dark business suit as the verdict was announced, declined to make a statement, but will appeal the conviction and seek a new trial, his lawyer said.
The counterculture leader, who was once known as "the Unicorn" because his last name means "one horn" in German, showed no emotion but pursed his lips as if to whistle while sheriff's deputies hustled him from the packed courtroom.
"This should go to prove that justice delayed is not justice denied," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham later observed.
Einhorn, who helped launch Earth Day in 1970 and hobnobbed with counterculture luminaries from Yippie leader Jerry Rubin to poet Allen Ginsberg, allegedly bludgeoned Maddux to death on Sept. 11, 1977, when she tried to end their five-year relationship. Police found her body in a steamer trunk in the closet of his West Philadelphia apartment 18 months later.
He was first arrested in March 1979 but jumped bail on the eve of his 1981 murder trial and spent two decades on the run in Europe, where he lived under three different aliases.
Another Philadelphia jury convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison in 1993.
But after police tracked him down in 1997 to a cottage in France, where he was living with his Swedish-born wife, Annika, French authorities agreed to extradite him only after U.S. authorities said he would get a new trial and not face the death penalty.
Maddux's three sisters and one brother, who all grew up in Texas, said they were not disappointed that he escaped a death sentence.
"I'm just vindictive enough to wish him a long life in prison in hopes that he'll experience just one iota of what he did to Holly," said Buffy Hall, one of Maddux's three sisters.
"We're locking him in a box and locking the closet door on him," she said.
Meanwhile, Einhorn attorney William Cannon said his client continues to maintain his innocence. Einhorn claims the CIA framed him because of his Cold War research into Soviet psychic weaponry.
"He's very disappointed, of course," said Cannon, who readily admitted that the case was a tough one to defend.
"In terms of difficulties, start with the body in the trunk in his closet. You have to start there. That was huge."
More than a quarter-century after police discovered the blond Bryn Mawr College graduate's mummified remains in his apartment, a sequestered jury of six men and six women needed less than 2-1/2 hours to reach their unanimous verdict on a charge of first-degree murder.
"He had a warped mind. I can't say it no plainer than that," juror Tracy Garett told reporters after 17 days of trial proceedings that included lengthy testimony from Einhorn himself.
"Even on the witness stand, it was like he thought he was God," he added.
While imposing a sentence of life in prison without parole, Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge William Mazzola lashed out at the 62-year-old radical as "an intellectual dilettante who preyed on uninitiated, uninformed, unsuspecting and inexperienced people."
Einhorn, standing red-faced in a dark business suit as the verdict was announced, declined to make a statement, but will appeal the conviction and seek a new trial, his lawyer said.
The counterculture leader, who was once known as "the Unicorn" because his last name means "one horn" in German, showed no emotion but pursed his lips as if to whistle while sheriff's deputies hustled him from the packed courtroom.
"This should go to prove that justice delayed is not justice denied," Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham later observed.
Einhorn, who helped launch Earth Day in 1970 and hobnobbed with counterculture luminaries from Yippie leader Jerry Rubin to poet Allen Ginsberg, allegedly bludgeoned Maddux to death on Sept. 11, 1977, when she tried to end their five-year relationship. Police found her body in a steamer trunk in the closet of his West Philadelphia apartment 18 months later.
He was first arrested in March 1979 but jumped bail on the eve of his 1981 murder trial and spent two decades on the run in Europe, where he lived under three different aliases.
Another Philadelphia jury convicted him in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison in 1993.
But after police tracked him down in 1997 to a cottage in France, where he was living with his Swedish-born wife, Annika, French authorities agreed to extradite him only after U.S. authorities said he would get a new trial and not face the death penalty.
Maddux's three sisters and one brother, who all grew up in Texas, said they were not disappointed that he escaped a death sentence.
"I'm just vindictive enough to wish him a long life in prison in hopes that he'll experience just one iota of what he did to Holly," said Buffy Hall, one of Maddux's three sisters.
"We're locking him in a box and locking the closet door on him," she said.
Meanwhile, Einhorn attorney William Cannon said his client continues to maintain his innocence. Einhorn claims the CIA framed him because of his Cold War research into Soviet psychic weaponry.
"He's very disappointed, of course," said Cannon, who readily admitted that the case was a tough one to defend.
"In terms of difficulties, start with the body in the trunk in his closet. You have to start there. That was huge."