Family's Mission For Justice To Air As Television Movie

On the screen, it's spring of 1988. Fred Maddux, exhausted by tragedy and illness, tells his daughter Meg she must carry on the family's mission to bring her sister Holly's killer to justice.

"Don't let them forget her," he asks. "Promise."

Fred Maddux's plea takes place in a scene from a two-part NBC movie, "The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer," which will air tonight and tomorrow night at 9 on KING-TV. The film is based on the story of former Philadelphia activist Ira Einhorn's brutal murder of Helen "Holly" Maddux in 1977, a crime for which he has yet to serve time.

The promise is one the real-life Meg has lived for her entire adult life.

"This is not pleasant to do," says Meg Maddux Wakeman, 43, who lives in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood. "I'm an eternal optimist and it's hard to be an optimist about something that has a morbid quality. But we owe it to Holly."

For two decades, Wakeman and others in the Maddux family have had one goal. They want Einhorn to be punished for the crime for which he was arrested in 1979 and convicted in absentia in 1993: bludgeoning Holly Maddux to death after she tried to leave him, then keeping her body in a trunk in their apartment until police discovered the mummified remains 18 months later.

To pursue Einhorn, the Maddux family went the law-enforcement route. They hired a private investigator. They worked with the Philadelphia police. After Einhorn skipped bail and fled to France, they contacted U.S. government representatives, including the State Department.

But the Madduxes also went where people in the latter part of the 20th century go when their cause requires attention - the media, especially television.

In an era marked by shows such as "America's Most Wanted," the concept of TV as an auxiliary form of crime-solving isn't new. Nor is the notion that in cases where justice proves elusive, an appearance on TV may get the ball rolling.

What's extraordinary, though, is the willingness Meg Wakeman and her siblings have shown in keeping their sister's story public, particularly since their parents died. A&E's "Investigative Reports," NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries" and "Dateline" and ABC's "20/20" are among the programs that have run stories over the years. Just this past week, KING-TV's "Evening Magazine" interviewed Wakeman.

It hasn't been easy. Einhorn was found in 1997, but a court in France ruled against his extradition to the United States because of the in-absentia conviction for first-degree murder. After Pennsylvania law was changed to ensure a retrial, the French this past February ordered his return. Einhorn appealed that decision and remains free.

A new ruling is expected any day.

The Madduxes, who went to France and used the newspapers and Internet to draw attention to their cause in that country, are keeping the home fires of media attention burning as well.

They lent their full support to "The Hunt for The Unicorn Killer." The NBC film is based on a well-researched book by journalist Steven Levy called "The Unicorn's Secret," which also had the Maddux family's cooperation. ("Unicorn" was Einhorn's self-bestowed nickname.)

When the Madduxes first heard in 1997 that a movie was in the works, they contacted the producers to share their information on Holly.

"We were a little leery because she'd been shoved aside for so long," says Wakeman. She has seen the movie - NBC sent her and family members advance copies on cassette - and is for the most part satisfied with the portrayal of events and with the amount of time the film has devoted to Holly.

NBC's desire for credibility is apparent in the story's casting and production. Starring as Fred Maddux is veteran actor and Seattle resident Tom Skerritt ("Picket Fences"); Ira Einhorn is portrayed by Kevin Anderson ("Nothing Sacred"), who just received a Tony nomination for his performance in "Death of a Salesman." The role of Holly is played by rising star Naomi Watts.

And Richard DiBenedetto, former chief of extradition and fugitives for the city of Philadelphia and a key player in the pursuit of Einhorn, was a consultant on the film.

"When we heard Rich was involved, we were quite relieved," says Wakeman. "We said it must be OK."

Wakeman and her family learned the hard way that they had to control media attention as much as possible. The lesson dates back to Einhorn's 1979 arrest, when a parade of prominent Philadelphia witnesses supported his parole and Einhorn made the most of his radical celebrity past. A wealthy supporter arranged for Arlen Specter, now a U.S. senator, to be Einhorn's attorney.

"First, Holly was stuffed away - she was killed and hidden in a closet," says Wakeman. "Her alleged killer is arrested and, four days later, walks free. Ira took hold of the media at that time, and all the stories were driven by him - all without mentioning Holly as a person.

"It was the final insult after five years of an abusive and demeaning relationship."

Holly Maddux was a Bryn Mawr College graduate who had been voted most likely to succeed by her high-school classmates in Tyler, Texas. Blond and delicately beautiful, she met Einhorn in Philadelphia in the early 1970s.

Einhorn was locally famous. He had participated in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and Earth Day and had friends in the Philadelphia Police Department because of his ability to keep rallies from turning violent.

Maddux and Einhorn lived together for five years. It was an emotionally stormy relationship that grew to include physical abuse. After several attempts to leave Einhorn, Maddux finally went to their apartment on a mid-September day in 1977 to gather her belongings and move out.

She was never heard from again.

The Madduxes, who always maintained contact with Holly even though they did not approve of Einhorn, grew worried when she failed to call or write. The oldest of five children and an artist, Holly had always sent handmade cards to mark her relatives' birthdays.

Earlier in 1977, she'd sent such a card to Wakeman, who was nine years younger than Holly and had just turned 21. As always, Holly had addressed the card using her nickname for Meg, "Phroggie."

But three family birthdays went by in October and no cards came.

Finally, after efforts to get Philadelphia police interested failed, Fred Maddux hired a private investigator. He gathered enough evidence to persuade police to obtain a search warrant for the apartment Einhorn had shared with Holly and still lived in.

The discovery of Holly's remains is one of the movie's most difficult moments, even though - like most of the film - it is handled in a restrained manner.

Asked how she feels seeing events tied to her sister's murder depicted on the screen, Wakeman calls it a fictional re-enactment of what logically could have happened: "My sisters and brother and I have all gone through in our brains a multitude of scenarios - what could have been said, what he could have hit her with, what would have led him to beat her so severely?"

But she is sensitive to the shock others may experience.

"I know it will bother people who might not realize until that point how emotionally invested they are in the story," she says. "It's going to hurt and I'm sorry. But if feelings like that can be channeled into energy to prevent something like this from happening to a loved one, a friend or even a stranger, it's a positive step."

Wakeman, a public-health nurse who has lived in the Seattle area with her two children since 1991, is a supporter of the Domestic Abuse Women's Network (DAWN) and often uses her interviews about Holly to speak out on related issues. Her sisters, who live in Massachusetts and Texas, participate in similar causes.

It is a productive way to commemorate Holly while hoping her killer's appeal is denied.

Not that Wakeman is just hoping. As she and her siblings have so many times over the past 20 years, they are doing their practical best to ensure Ira Einhorn doesn't remain free. They now have a network of media and legal contacts in France.

As for the movie, Wakeman is making copies and they, too, will find their way to France.

"I will send them to some families who've become friends and some other people in the area who want to know about the case," she says. "I don't know what they think of American TV over there, but maybe it will have an influence.

"If anything, I hope the movie helps people in their ability to do something about domestic abuse; to shed that label of victim and get out or to help someone who might be in a crummy situation.

"That's why I go public. That's why I don't sit inside and not talk to the media."