Earth Day: Was The Holiday Founded By A Murderer?

On April 22, 1970, environmental activists gathered atop the Belmont Plateau, one of the highest points in Philadelphia, located in the middle of the sprawling greenspace of Fairmount Park overlooking the Schuylkill River to celebrate just that: Mother Earth.

The founding of Earth Day is said to be the idea of former Sen. Gaylord Nelson, D-Wis., and former United Nations Secretary General U. Thant. Nelson's date of April 22 has stuck with the tradition. Today, 192 countries celebrate Earth Day, and in recent times lobbying groups and environmental organizations use the secular holiday to press for government action on behalf of the environment.

Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 in New York City and Philadelphia, however the Philadelphia celebration seems to be the one more noted. Former Sen. Edmund Muskie, D-Maine, who later became President James E. Carter's Secretary of State, was the keynote speaker of Philadelphia's 1970 Earth Day celebration.

However, the master of ceremonies, a role the original organizers disputed in an official release in 1998, was Ira Einhorn, a former environmental advocate. Ira Einhorn is now serving a life sentence for murder after he "composted" his girlfriend and skipped the country.

In 1977, after a five-year relationship with Helen "Holly" Maddux, a student at Bryn Mawr College, just outside Philadelphia, Einhorn's relationship went sour. The environmental advocate became enraged that Maddux began a relationship with a man in New York City. Threatening to discard her belongings, Einhorn demanded that Maddux return to Pennsylvania to pick up her personal effects from his apartment.

Holly Maddux disappeared the day she went to collect her things from Einhorn. Police questioned Ira Einhorn in Maddux' disappearance, but claimed she left his apartment before she vanished.

In 1979, a search of the Earth Day emcee's apartment revealed a suitcase with Maddux' decomposing body inside, disguised by air fresheners and newspaper. Einhorn was then arrested by police. TruTV reported that the Philadelphia Inquirer headline of Einhorn's arrest read: "Hippie Guru Held In Trunk Slaying. Mr. Peace, Mr. Flower Power, Mr. Save the Earth ... a killer?"

Ira Einhorn's attorney, then-future Sen. Arlen Specter, R/D-Pa., was able to secure a bail amount for the accused murderer, something that is somewhat unheard of. After posting his $40,000 bail, thanks mostly to a Canadian socialite supporter, Einhorn promptly left the United States in 1981, prior to his trial date. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania convicted Ira Einhorn in-absentia, earning him a sentence of life in prison without parole if he was ever found and returned to Market Street.

Sixteen years later, authorities tracked Einhorn to France, where he was using the alias Eugene Mallon. However, due to France's staunch opposition to the death penalty, authorities in Paris were not necessarily cooperative. Fearing that despite his life term, Einhorn would be given the death penalty after being extradited, it took a Congressional letter to then-President Jacques Chirac among other behind-the-scenes diplomacy to convince the French to send Einhorn back to Philadelphia to face justice for Maddux's murder.

Back in Pennsylvania, Einhorn claimed either the CIA or KGB set him up and killed Holly Maddux instead, due to his harsh anti-war, anti-establishment actions during the Woodstock era.

In 1998, the founding members of the Earth Week Committee of Philadelphia: 1970 released an official statement distancing themselves from Einhorn and disputing his and the press' claims that Ira Einhorn was the founder of the Earth Day celebrations. "He is a fraud," the letter bluntly said. Pictures of Einhorn allegedly in his emcee role have surfaced, calling both sides into question. So, was "Philadelphia's head hippie" really the founder of the celebration that is a far cry from the murderous actions of a "global conspiracy" theorist? Einhorn is currently living out the rest of his days reportedly in a state prison in Houtzdale, Pa., near State College.