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Chester GOP Candidates Help Clean Up for Earth Day

Candidates and Republican Committee of Chester County members participated in various Earth Day activities throughout the area on Saturday, April 22.

“Each one of us has a responsibility to do our part to keep Chester County pristine and beautiful for the next generation,” said David Sommers, Republican candidate for Chester County commissioner.

Members cleaned roadways, parks, and waterways, removing truckloads of litter and garbage. The Republican Party has a history of supporting the environment dating back to President Theodore Roosevelt, said Sommers.

He quoted Roosevelt: “Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”

Michael Taylor, the GOP candidate for prothonotary said, “We are all stewards of bucolic Chester County and on Earth Day I was pleased to be able to lend a hand in cleaning up the Brandywine Creek. It is amazing what can be found polluting our waterways. I pulled from a small island a child’s scooter. I also cleaned up a bunch of strewn beer cans and bottles that were literally there for over 40 years. The cans had pull tabs, which haven’t been used in decades, and the bottles were ornamental which reminded me of sitting with my grandfather when I was young. It is important for everyone to do their part and keep our waterways clean.”

The first Earth Day in April of 1970 was celebrated by some 30,000 people on Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. It featured a reading by poet Allen Ginsberg, a speech by activist Ralph Nader, and music by the cast of the Broadway musical “Hair.”

 

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Ira Einhorn: Philly Counterculture Icon, Earth Day Organizer, and Killer

It was 43 years ago when Mike Chitwood arrested Ira Einhorn for murder in the death of his girlfriend, Helen “Holly” Maddux. But he remembers it vividly.

Chitwood, then a Philadelphia homicide detective, had obtained an extensive search warrant for Einhorn’s second-floor apartment in 1979, to look for physical evidence that would show Einhorn killed Maddux, Chitwood told the Delaware Valley Journal.

Einhorn, known as the “The Unicorn Killer” because of the English translation of his last name, was a 1960s counterculture guru who dabbled in LSD and taught at the University of Pennsylvania. An environmental activist, he also claimed to have come up with the idea for Earth Day. Most historians give that credit to the late Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisc.).

After Philadelphia Police failed to arrest anyone in Maddux’s 1977 disappearance, her family hired a retired FBI agent, who teamed up with another retired agent. Their investigation led to Einhorn, but they needed to work with the police to make an arrest.

That was when Chitwood got involved.

Ira Einhorn mugshots 1979 and 2002 (Wikipedia)

“I took the (agents’ murder) booklet and I read it that night and I thought to myself, ‘I know who killed her.’”

“I reinterviewed everybody in the booklet and eventually interviewed a guy named Saul Lapidius, who was apparently a wealthy guy. He had a boat out on Fire Island (N.Y.) and Holly was staying there. She had left Einhorn after five years.”

But Einhorn called Maddux and told her if she did not return for her clothing and other belongings he would burn them. So she came back to Philadelphia. While she was there, Maddux and Einhorn went to a movie with another couple. When they got back to his apartment they argued and “he killed her.”

“He beats her to death, crushes her skull…He doesn’t know what to do. So he eventually puts the body in a steamer trunk and puts the trunk in a closet that’s on an outdoor porch.”

“At one time he tried to take the trunk out but he was so paranoid of the federal government, he just couldn’t do it,” said Chitwood. Einhorn believed he was under investigation because of his friendship with 60s radical activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.

Maddux, who grew up in Texas, had graduated from Bryn Mawr. She was only 30 when she died and by all accounts a beautiful woman, said Chitwood.

Holly Maddux

The downstairs neighbors had heard a loud noise the night Maddux disappeared and later they complained to the landlord of a bad smell and fluids leaking through their wall, Chitwood said.

But Einhorn, who told police that Maddux had left to get groceries and never returned, was not arrested until Chitwood found Maddux’s body in that trunk.

When Chitwood and other cops got there, Einhorn’s apartment was dirty and in disarray. He was bearded and wearing only a robe when detectives arrived. The balcony closet was stuffed full of boxes, some with Maddux’s clothing. And when Chitwood saw her ID cards, he became even more suspicious because “no women I’ve ever investigated or been involved with ever left everything behind.”

At the very bottom of the closet was a locked steamer trunk.

Chitwood broke into the trunk with a crowbar, preserving the lock, and there were plastic bags and copies of the Evening Bulletin from 1977.

“You could smell the body,” he said. “I didn’t know the body was still in the trunk. I figured it was at one point in time. I came across a layer of foam and then I gingerly, slowly but surely, started removing the foam.”

“And there was a hand, a mummified hand,” said Chitwood. At that point, he stopped and called for the medical examiner.

Chitwood said to Einhorn, who had been watching, “It looks like we found Holly.”

“You found what you found,” Einhorn said to him and walked back into the apartment and was subsequently arrested.

Mike Chitwood

The late Arlen Specter, who had been district attorney and would go on to become a U.S. senator, was working as a defense lawyer at that time and represented Einhorn. Although Einhorn was charged with first-degree murder, Judge Armand Della Porta set bail at only 10 percent of $40,000 and Einhorn easily paid the $4,000 and walked out of jail. Many rich and influential people wrote letters to the judge on his behalf, said Chitwood. Several accounts describe Einhorn as charming and charismatic.

Asked about Einhorn’s purported charisma, Chitwood said, “He certainly had something. He got out with accolades from different people in the business community who talked about what a wonderful person he was…the letters people wrote. It was not an array of misfits. It was affluent people.”

Once free on bail, Einhorn disappeared.

There were sightings all over, from Thailand to Europe. Finally, 20 years later, Einhorn was found in France, married to a wealthy Swedish heiress and living in a converted windmill. He was extradited to face trial in Philadelphia. Lynn Abraham was the judge who signed the original search warrant, said Chitwood. When Einhorn was brought back, she was the district attorney.

Einhorn was tried in absentia and convicted in 1993. Pennsylvania’s legislature passed a law that he would not face the death penalty and to allow him to be tried again since the French courts did not recognize trials in absentia.

“In no time at all he was convicted,” said Chitwood, who had testified in both trials. Two women testified about previous instances where Einhorn engaged in domestic violence, said Chitwood. One Einhorn hit with a bottle, the other he nearly choked to death. “So he had a history of domestic violence,” said Chitwood.

People believe Einhorn founded Earth Day, said Chitwood, though records only show he was the master of ceremonies at the first Earth Day event.

“I’m not saying anything good about him,” said Chitwood. “To me, he was a conman. But people believed everything he said was the gospel truth. But he was a conman and a murderer.

“All these people protected him and wanted him to be the good guy. He wasn’t that guy. What I’m saying is he was a creep and a bull-s—-er,” Chitwood said.

Chitwood was sorry Maddux’s parents never saw justice. Her father had committed suicide and her mother died of an illness during the time Einhorn was on the lam. But the family did win a $907 million wrongful death suit against Einhorn.

Einhorn was convicted the second time in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. He died behind bars at age 79 in 2020. Joel Rosen prosecuted Einhorn both times. Ironically, if he had reported Maddox’s death to authorities and pleaded guilty in 1979, Einhorn would probably have been sentenced to only five or six years for the crime of passion, said Chitwood.

It was the most famous case in Chitwood’s long career in law enforcement.

“I mean here you are, still writing something on it,” he said. “It’s been a part of my life forever and a day.”

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Ribbon Cutting for New Section of Schuylkill River Trail Set for Friday

On Friday, Earth Day, Chester County officials plan to cut the ribbon on a new section of trail running along the Schuylkill River.

The public is invited to the event, hosted by the Chester County Commissioners and Chester County Parks and Preservation staff, which begins at 2 p.m. at 500 Fricks Lock Road in Pottstown.

This is part of Chester County’s final phase of trail development – a $6 million, four-mile paved extension that takes the Schuylkill River Trail from Linfield Road at Parker Ford to the new Route 422 Bridge crossing of the Schuylkill River at the Montgomery County border, officials said.  The four-mile extension will complete one of the priority “puzzle pieces”, helping fill a gap in the nearly 60 miles of trail connecting Reading to Philadelphia.

With the completion of this phase, the Chester County Section of the Schuylkill River Trail will parallel the Schuylkill River from the Route 422 Bridge at Pottstown, south to the Route 29 Bridge into Mont Clare, a distance of approximately 12 miles.

Chester County Commissioners Josh Maxwell and Michelle Kichline, along with state DCNR Deputy Secretary Mike Walsh, PennDOT District 6-0 Acting Executive Lou Belmonte, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia Executive Director Sarah Clark Stuart, and East Coventry Township Supervisor Chair Ray Kolb are expected to comment.

According to the Schuylkill Greenways group, there are about 75 miles of the trail, which starts in Philadelphia and will run to Schuylkill County, completed.

Following the program and ribbon cutting, you can cycle or walk a portion of the trail south of Fricks Lock Village, or complete a guided tour of Fricks Lock Village hosted by the East Coventry Township Historical Commission.

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