Ex-hippie radical Ira Einhorn – convicted in absentia of the 1977 murder of his girlfriend – yesterday tried to slit his throat just hours after losing his bid in France to avoid extradition.
France quickly agreed to a one-week postponement of the extradition at the request of the European Court of Human Rights, to which Einhorn – a former anti-war activist known as “the Unicorn” – has appealed.
One of Einhorn’s lawyers, Dominique Delthil, insisted the suicide bid was not a ploy to stave off extradition.
“I think he had really decided to end his life, but at the last minute, he changed his mind. It wasn’t just an act,” he said.
Einhorn was filmed by a French TV crew sitting in the kitchen of his home in southwestern France, blood soaking his shirt, an open wound at the base of his neck. A doctor bandaged the wound only after Einhorn had given an interview, in which he railed against Prime Minister Lionel Jospin for his predicament.
“He created this. He is responsible,” Einhorn said, pointing to his wound. “He is sending me back to America, where I will stay for the rest of my life in prison, without mercy.”
About two hours earlier, authorities in Paris announced Einhorn had lost his last appeal under French law of the extradition order that would return him to Philadelphia, where he was set to stand trial before he fled in 1981.
Einhorn was charged with bludgeoning his girlfriend, Holly Maddux, to death and stuffing her body in a trunk inside the closet of the Philadelphia apartment they shared.
In 1993, he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison. The United States made its initial request for extradition in 1997, after police tracked him to the town of Champagne-Mouton.
Because France won’t hand suspects over to a country where they’ve been convicted in absentia, Pennsylvania has agreed to give Einhorn a new trial – smoothing the way for his extradition.With Post Wire Services