A Killer Abroad

In 1977, Tyler native Holly Maddux was murdered by Earth Day creator Ira Einhorn. More than two decades later, her family is still waiting for the fugitive to return.

A A A Comments By Carlton Stowers Thursday, Dec 14 2000

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"That," says Philadelphia district attorney Lynne Abraham, "is a perfect example of the arrogance and unrepentance of Ira Einhorn."

For Buffy Hall and her siblings, it is Einhorn's attitude that now fuels their cause, energizing their determination to see justice done for a sister who, if still alive, would have recently celebrated her 50th birthday.

Ira Einhorn, a leading force in the 1960s hippie establishment, leads the April 1970 celebration of Earth Day in Philadelphia. Einhorn, a guru of non-violence, drugs, and free love, hid a dark, violent side, according to police.

AP/Wide World

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"We're human," John Maddux says. "We get discouraged and tired, but it seems that every time one of us gets down there's someone in the family there to lift us up." The Maddux siblings, he notes, lean upon each other a great deal.

"We may not be all that strong individually," Buffy Hall says, "but we like to think we have great strength in numbers."

Time was, she says, that the only mental picture she could summon of her deceased sister was one burned into her memory during that long ago trial in Philadelphia. "All I could ever see was Holly lying dead in that trunk," she says. "But now, after a lot of therapy and passage of time, things are different. When I think of her now, I see her alive and laughing, pretty and happy. And that helps a great deal."

No longer do thoughts of Ira Einhorn monopolize her life. Retired from a career in nursing, she helps her husband, a financial administrator at UT-Arlington, tend the quarter horses they raise and show, and she serves on the board of a Fort Worth women's shelter.

She also delights in the simple pleasures of watching her own children grow. There is son Ian, 12, born shortly after her father's death. And a 16-year-old daughter. Named Holly.