Einhorn conviction a relief for Holly Maddux's family

For more than two decades, Seattle's Meg Wakeman ached to say the words she spoke in a telephone interview yesterday after a Philadelphia jury found a 1970s hippie cult figure guilty of killing her sister, Holly Maddux.

"The feeling of relief and justice is so incredible," said Wakeman, a Phinney Ridge resident and Ballard High School nurse. "As of now, Ira Einhorn is no longer anything I need to worry about."

Jurors who deliberated less than two hours convicted Einhorn, 62, of first-degree murder, drawing the automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.

Einhorn, who fled in 1981 shortly before he was to stand trial, lived under assumed names in England, Ireland, Sweden and France before his arrest in France in 1997. The case was featured on "Unsolved Mysteries" in 1997 and spawned a two-part NBC movie in 1999.

Even prosecutors say that without the persistent efforts of Wakeman and her family, it's doubtful the widely known counterculture figure would have been brought to justice.

In court yesterday, Wakeman, 48, was flanked by her brother and two sisters, all of whom attended the entire three-week trial. As the lead juror read the verdict, Wakeman said, "We knew we weren't supposed to high-five or anything. So we patted one another's knees surreptitiously, so no one would see us."

Maddux, who had a stormy, five-year relationship with Einhorn, disappeared in 1977 after telling her family she was planning to leave Einhorn, but first was going by his apartment to calm him.

More than a year and a half later — after Wakeman's family hired a private detective to look into the case — Maddux's mummified body was found crammed into a trunk in Einhorn's apartment. Einhorn was a ponytailed, charismatic figure who once hobnobbed with influential players in Philadelphia's moneyed establishment, as well as counterculture figures, including Yippie Jerry Rubin and rock star Peter Gabriel. Einhorn demonstrated against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and took part in the first Earth Day in 1970. His New Age philosophy won him jobs as a consultant and speaker for big companies, which asked him to explain how they could tap into the counterculture.

Einhorn's Philadelphia connections and local celebrity status helped him win release on $40,000 bond, after which he disappeared. He was tried and convicted in absentia in 1993.

Wakeman said the next few years were marked by both encouraging and infuriating developments, and investigators nearly caught up with him several times. Her parents, who longed to see their daughter's killer convicted and behind bars, died before that could happen.

After Einhorn's arrest in France, officials there not only refused to extradite him to the United States, but released him. He talked on television shows afterward and posed naked in his garden for Esquire magazine.

"He developed a following over there," Wakeman said. "The press over there never mentioned his crime or his victim. And some people said, 'Well, he hasn't killed anyone in 20 years, so let's leave him alone.' "

Three trips to France by Wakeman and her kin, bearing photos of Maddux, helped to convey that Einhorn wasn't only a romantic fugitive, but a killer.

"That was key," said Joel Rosen, the assistant district attorney who led the prosecution of Einhorn in both the 1993 and current trials. "If the family does not go to France and does not put a human face on the crime and the victim, then Einhorn probably never leaves France."

Meanwhile, Wakeman and her relatives called attention to the case at every turn, creating a Web site (www.ourholly.org) that fielded support and encouragement from around the world.

Wakeman said she and her relatives worked on some aspect of the case nearly every day, but never had a second thought about devoting the time. "Holly would have done the same for any one of us."

Einhorn was returned to the United States last year after the French government was assured he would get a new trial and would not be subject to the death penalty.

During the trial, friends and acquaintances of Maddux described seeing her bruised and intimidated during her tumultuous relationship with Einhorn.

Einhorn insisted he was innocent and maintained he was framed by the CIA because of his knowledge of secret mind-control experiments. He said he last saw Maddux, 30, in 1977 as she left to make a phone call. He said he had no idea how her body turned up in a locked steamer trunk in his Philadelphia apartment.

Einhorn reportedly showed no emotion after the verdict and, as he had throughout the trial, avoided eye contact with his victim's family.

After the verdict was read, Judge William Mazzola called Einhorn "an intellectual dilettante who preyed on the uninitiated, uninformed, unsuspecting and inexperienced people."

District Attorney Lynne Abraham said: "Metaphorically speaking, Ira Einhorn and his Virgo moon are toast."

Defense attorney William Cannon said Einhorn would appeal.

Wakeman said she's not disappointed that Einhorn was exempt from the death penalty. Like many states, Pennsylvania did not have a death-penalty law at the time of Maddux's killing.

"We've had 25 years without Holly," Wakeman said. "Now he should do at least 25 years."

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report. Jack Broom: jbroom@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2222.