Ira Einhorn Trial: 1993

Einhorn appeared at a bail hearing before Judge William M. Marutani on April 3. He was represented by Arlen Specter, who had served two terms as a district attorney in Philadelphia, but who would withdraw from the case shortly afterwards as he began his successful campaign for election to the U.S. Senate. Specter was able to produce such an impressive array of prominent professionals as character witnesses for Einhorn that the judge released him on a $40,000 bond, a remarkably low amount in a murder case. Einhorn consistently and stridently maintained his complete innocence. He knew nothing about the body in the trunk; he expressed doubts that it was that of Holly Maddux. He suggested that the whole affair was a conspiracy by the CIA designed to interfere with important work he was currently engaged in, which had international security ramifications.

The process of preparing for trial was a lengthy one, but a trial date of February or March 1981 was set; Barbara Christie was assigned to lead the prosecution. Norris E. Gelman had taken over Einhorn's defense. The trial did not take place because Einhorn fled, probably in the second week of January 1981. He is believed to have left the country via Canada, and then gone on to Europe. A bench warrant for his arrest was issued on January 14 when he failed to appear for a pretrial hearing. The search to locate him and bring him back to the United States would go on for the next 20 years. Rich diBenedetto, of the extraditions office of the Philadelphia district attorney's office, headed these efforts. Einhorn was located in Ireland late in 1981, and again in 1984 and 1986, but international legal problems prevented his arrest, and he fled again. In 1988 he narrowly escaped arrest in Stockholm, Sweden, and again disappeared.