Earth Day co-founder killed, composted girlfriend

Ira Einhorn preached against Vietnam War and violence, but had dark side

By Remy Melina

Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the “composted” body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.

A self-proclaimed environmental activist, Einhorn made a name for himself among ecological groups during the 1960s and ’70s by taking on the role of a tie-dye-wearing ecological guru and Philadelphia’s head hippie. With his long beard and gap-toothed smile, Einhorn — who nicknamed himself  “Unicorn” because his German-Jewish last name translates to “one horn”  — advocated flower power, peace and free love to his fellow students at the University of Pennsylvania. He also claimed to have helped found Earth Day.

But the charismatic spokesman who helped bring awareness to environmental issues and preached against the Vietnam War — and any violence — had a secret dark side. When his girlfriend of five years, Helen “Holly” Maddux, moved to New York and broke up with him, Einhorn threatened that he would throw her left-behind personal belongings onto the street if she didn’t come back to pick them up.

And so on Sept. 9, 1977, Maddux went back to the apartment that she and Einhorn had shared in Philadelphia to collect her things, and was never seen again.

Read the rest at NBC News.

Learn more about Ira Einhorn (aka the Unicorn) in the book,  The Unicorn’s Secret (Onyx)

12 Responses to Earth Day co-founder killed, composted girlfriend

  1. Rob N. Hood April 22, 2013 at 10:42 am #

    Wow. Scrapping the bottom of the barrel here dudes. You’ve won already. But ever vigilant, for… what? Old news that doesn’t relate to or have any bearing on AGW. I know I have diverged, but it is not my job to maintain the integrity of this site. You guys are now officially pathetic.

    • Dan McGrath April 22, 2013 at 10:47 am #

      Today is “Earth Day.” It seemed appropriate to talk about where it came from. NBC (of all places) thought so, anyway and I agreed.

    • Neilio April 22, 2013 at 12:01 pm #

      Shure, you have entire lists of things embarrassing to the Right, and post them liberally, at will. But when it comes to pointing out something embarrassing to the Left, it’s somehow off limits? This is entirely relevant to this day, Earth Day, because this is one of the people who was intricately involved in it’s origin. It speaks to the state of mind of this person who killed his girlfriend and stuffed her in a suitcase, and kept the suitcase in his closet. This person was obviously nutty. Are you excusing his behavior because he founded a sacred holiday to the Left? Are you intent on downplaying, and minimizing his crime? This man killed another human being named Helen Maddux. Should we just forget about her because he co-founded Earth Day? I don’t think so.
      Oh, and BTW, do think you are one to chastise us for talking about things that don’t relate to or have any bearing on AGW? Hah!

  2. Al Bore April 24, 2013 at 5:57 am #

    Not that any believers read this site:
    You spineless climate cowards condemn my kids to your exaggerated greenhouse gas ovens? How dare you! Bush admires your fear mongering.
    Science only agrees it “COULD” be a crisis and has never said it “WILL” be a crisis or is imminent, eventual, unavoidable, certain, inescapable or unavoidable. Not one single IPCC warning is not swimming in “maybes” and “could bes” and “likelys” and “potentiallys”. Science agrees asteroid hits are real but climate change is not as real as an eventual asteroid hit. That is not consensus. That is not a crisis.
    So how close to the point of no return from unstoppable warming will the world of science take us before they say it “WILL” happen, not just “might” happen.
    Help my house could be on fire maybe?

    • Neilio April 29, 2013 at 3:58 pm #

      I think I speak for everyone here when I say:
      What?
      You sound angry, and as a result your post is not very clear. I can’t tell if you are yelling at us skeptics, or proponents of AGW theory. Please take a breath, relax a little bit, and then post something coherent. Thanks!

  3. Rob N. Hood April 24, 2013 at 11:28 am #

    Ah yes, connecting the dots based on a pure heart and mind is a wonderful and magical thing. Let’s s–t on Earth Day, just cuz we think we can. It warms one’s heart, those that have them of course. Nevertheless, that all notwithstanding, it is a stretch on normal decorum, and a good example of professional trolling. Well done Dan, well done. You caught one troll victim. As always- me.

    *as to my “entire lists of things embarrassing to the Right”: it replenishes itself daily without any assistance. Thus, I don’t keep nor have such a list as it is unnecessary and redundant and self-generating. A gift that keeps on giving.

    • NEILIO April 24, 2013 at 11:57 am #

      We’re not Shi**ing on erf day. Just one of the co-founders. I personally don’t give a rip about erf day. It has no meaning and it’s completely useless IMO.
      And most of the things you post that you think are embarrassing to the Right, would only be embarrassing if they were true.

  4. Rob N. Hood April 25, 2013 at 8:00 am #

    So, if the story had nothing to do with earth day…, per Dan above, oh never-mind.

    *I know why you don’t care about Earth Day- you aren’t really occupying this planet- you are on some other dimension and alternative reality- at least based upon your inability to perceive truths and fact on this planet/dimension.

    • NEILIO April 25, 2013 at 4:05 pm #

      Wow, really? I don’t care about erf day because it’s BS. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about the Earth. I actually do love nature, believe it or not. But I also believe it is there for us to utilize. We are part of nature. We just happened to develop intelligence, and imagination which facilitated survival. But we are as much as part of the Earth as all the other animals and I don’t believe for one second that God created us to destroy the rest of creation. I have faith that whatever we can screw up, we can fix. As far as AGW goes, I don’t think that we are capable of changing the climate if we tried to do it. I mean really, if we did screw it up it would be hotter, and New York would be underwater according to those that have advanced the AGW theory. But what are we seeing now? No warming, no canoeing down Broadway, and not a single prediction that has come to pass. AGW is a bogus as erf day.

  5. Rob N. Hood April 30, 2013 at 12:28 pm #

    So “erf” day is “BS”, just cuz? Even though you “love nature”… So out of some sort of spite and/or allegiance to your rightward brothers you take that hard-nosed stand. Good for you bub! Earth schmurf, bah! But I loooove nature, so I’m not that much of a humbug, see?

    • Neilio May 5, 2013 at 10:22 am #

      No, because it has no meaning. You tell me what the meaning of erf day is. Ok, I take that back, there is meaning to it. But the meaning has nothing to do with nature, and everything to do with the environmentalist left’s agenda. And that agenda has nothing to do with nature, and has everything to do with the advancement of socialism.

  6. Rob N. Hood May 8, 2013 at 1:42 pm #

    Oh…. of course. The vague and yet dire threat of “socialism”; that is the final doom of anything leftist regardless of any real benefit to the majority of populations in such countries that are based upon varying levels of socialism, the USA of which is one. And of which those socialist programs helped create the largest middle class in the history of humanity. THAT socialism is anything but dire or damning. As many people know and realize based upon real life experience and observation of other countries, on both ends of the spectrum that fail their people due to totalitarianism and the complete lack of socialistic governing.

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