THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS	Local Monday, June 23, 1997

But the guru's comfortable life on the lam begs a question of finances put most succinctly by Joseph Murray, who was the prosecutor when Einhorn skipped bail on murder charges in 1981:

``Even if you're a sack of s--- who's a planetary enzyme, you've got to eat something,'' Murray said.

Einhorn, who wrote and lectured about paranormal psychology, futurism and mind control, referred to himself as a ``planetary enzyme.'' Before vanishing, he had a reputation in Philadelphia for coaxing money from friends, admirers, even corporations, although he never seemed to hold a job.

In southwestern France, Einhorn followed habits of a lifetime, apparently living off family money from his Swedish-born wife, Annika Flodin. His support has depended on a mix of adoring women and shadowy benefactors fascinated by his theories.

In Ireland in the early days of flight, it was fat checks from Canadian Barbara Bronfman, who married into the wealth of the Seagram liquor dynasty.

Hank Harrison, a California counterculture author who hung out with Einhorn in Dublin, said last week he was ``1 million percent certain'' that Bronfman regularly sent Einhorn money.

``She was known as a supporter of those causes,'' said Harrison, who did not know at the time that the man who called himself Ben Moore was running from a murder charge.

``I saw the bank statements,'' Harrison said. ``He was getting funds wired to him every month from the Cayman Islands, and it was a lot of money. He was getting in Irish money about 1,000 pounds, which was about $1,500 a month. You could live on that fairly comfortably in 1981.''

Investigators learned of the Bronfman connection a few years later, and they say it stopped a decade ago.

But there are many missing pieces in a puzzle that has perplexed those who tracked Einhorn as a fugitive from the 1977 bludgeon murder of his girlfriend, Helen ``Holly'' Maddux.

Einhorn was convicted in absentia in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison. His lawyers say he will fight extradition from Bordeaux.

He had to have benefactors, said Richard DiBenedetto of the Philadelphia district attorney's office, who directed the hunt. ``How else could he have survived?''

At his capture, Einhorn and Flodin were living comfortably yet simply, growing vegetables and baking bread. They had hardly enough money to repair their car after paying 500,000 francs, or $90,900, for a converted mill in Champagne-Mouton.

Neither Einhorn nor Flodin had a job. Einhorn, posing as Eugene Mallon, an English writer, claimed to be writing books, but there's no proof he ever published.

DiBenedetto said his suspicion was that the money was coming from Annika.

``Probably her family has money,'' DiBenedetto said.

But he and Interpol probers in Stockholm steered clear of the Flodins for fear they would tip off their daughter.

At the time of his arrest for murder in 1979, according to ``The Unicorn's Secret'' by Steven Levy, Einhorn told colleagues that he had enough money to live on for three or four years.

Einhorn spent almost two years in Philadelphia free on $40,000 bail, guaranteed by his parents. An impressive list of academics, corporate execs, ministers and professionals testified to his good character and organized legal defense funds, but it's unclear how much was raised or where it went.

The Levy book documents how Bronfman supported Einhorn from 1981, when he fled to Ireland, through 1988, when he was nearly captured at Flodin's house in Stockholm.

DiBenedetto called Bronfman the ``main benefactor'' for those seven years, although he did not have details. At one point, he said, Einhorn shared a $550-a-month apartment near the U.S. Embassy in Dublin.

Bronfman, he said, flew to Dublin and met with Einhorn and then-girlfriend Jeanne Morrison at least once. DiBenedetto said he thought Einhorn had a powerful influence over Bronfman, but it was a brother-sister- type connection, not a sexual one.

As for Morrison, Einhorn ``had her working in a massage parlor'' for houshold expenses, DiBenedetto said.

The Daily News was unable to contact Bronfman, who lives in Montreal, and was unable to trace Morrison, who has returned to the United States and has married.

In Sweden, Einhorn lived with Flodin, who later described him as a boarder to investigators but then disappeared herself a few months later, moving to Denmark.

One intriguing story has Einhorn seeking support from British rock star Peter Gabriel, a founder of Genesis. But although Gabriel admits meeting Einhorn in the '70s, and DiBenedetto says they met in London within the past decade, there's no proof of any financial aid.

Since late 1992, Einhorn has been hiding in plain sight in wine country.

Einhorn was required by French law to provide proof of his citizenship and financial stability. He used a fake passport in the name of Eugene Mallon, a Dublin bookseller involved in left-wing causes who had befriended Einhorn years earlier, to pass himself off as a citizen of England.

According to records in the Champagne-Mouton mayor's office, Einhorn and Flodin did show they had enough money to live there and to buy their converted mill.
But the process appears to be informal. Approval was handwritten in a village ledger book, and the mayor says no record was kept of the proof provided.

The ``Mallons'' had lived in cottages in two English villages for more than a year before arriving in wine country. They told acquaintances they had been married in England in 1992.

The couple did run into money problems at least once, said Maria Das, a friend. When their red Fiat -- the one with an anti-nuke bumper sticker -- broke down, Einhorn was upset about the cost of repairs. After it was fixed, she said, they lived on a tight budget for a while.

Flodin's home in Stockholm actually belonged to her parents, who ``made a good living in the fashion business,'' Das said. Flodin told friends she had been a shop clerk in Sweden.

Einhorn's only hint of work was writing a book, which he would not show to anyone, friends said. He claimed to lecture occasionally at European universities about medical subjects.

It did not take much for the couple to survive in Champagne-Mouton. Prices are modest, distractions are few.

Einhorn satisfied a voracious appetite for reading by borrowing books at a local library. He claimed he could read better in French than his English-speaking acquaintances, although they doubted it because he spoke almost no French.

Benefactors have been a way of life for Einhorn.

In ``The Unicorn's Secret,'' Levy reported that Einhorn was trying to raise money on several fronts as he prepared to flee.

Soon after Maddux's mummified body was discovered in a trunk in Einhorn's apartment, the guru sent out a letter for the ``Ira Einhorn Legal Defense Fund.''

Because of the legal proceedings, Einhorn wrote, ``I am not able to talk about the facts of the case.'' Without mentioning the murder, he lamented that his arrest was interrupting his work.

Under the city's bail program, an accused defendant had to put up only 10 percent of the bail amount as cash -- allowing Einhorn's release with a payment of $4,000.

That amount was immediately posted by Bronfman, then the wife of Seagram's liquor heir Charles Bronfman, by reputation the richest man in Canada.

Einhorn may have had multiple fund-raising efforts under way.

Levy identifed the treasurer of one fund-raising committee as Terry Harmelin, the wife of attorney Steven Harmelin, an Einhorn crony since high school.

W. Russell G. Byers, now a Daily News columnist but in 1980 the owner of an energy-consulting business, also headed an Einhorn fund-raising effort in which Terry Harmelin had no role, Byers said.

Byers said he could not remember who had asked him to organize the fund but was positive that it had not raised any money. ``I never really set up anything,'' Byers said last week. ``I ordered stationery, that was about it.''

Still, Einhorn seemed to get money from somewhere, and quietly, he began plotting his life on the lam.

In June 1979, on the back of a fund-raising letter, he asked a London friend, Craig Samms, to discreetly look for ``a place where I could disappear for a few years. . . . I prefer Northern Europe and I'm open to anything. I should have enough money to live quietly for two to four years, and friends will add to that.''

It was Samms who, according to DiBenedetto, introduced Einhorn and Flodin in London a decade later.

As his murder trial approached in January 1981, Einhorn began converting assets to cash. On Jan. 6, he sold his Toyota for $4,400 and withdrew $500 from his bank account, leaving $9.94, according to Levy's book. Morrison made arrangments to sell a Persian rug and join Einhorn in England.

Ex-prosecutor Murray said he noticed how successful Einhorn was in getting people to help him.

At first, it was defense lawyer Arlen Specter's secretary who signed for the $40,000 bail. Later Einhorn's parents put up their home as collateral.

Einhorn attorney Norris Gelman said the murderer's parents lost neither money nor property. It's not known if Bronfman or others paid the rest of the forfeited bail.

(The father died soon after Einhorn became a fugitive. The mother, who lives in Wyncote, Montgomery County, with her other son, Steve, has declined comment).

Prosecutor Murray, for one, remains stumped.

``How does a guy go from never working to paying for a chalet in France? How does the guy live?''

``Someone was paying his freight. I've heard rumors, everything to him being a paid agent of the CIA. . . .

``Maybe he was scamming other people. It's hard for me to believe that even after how they heard about how the body was found, that they could funnel money to him. Not only that, but knowingly commit a crime by aiding him as a fugitive.''

Philadelphia Online -- Philadelphia Daily News -- Local News Copyright Monday, June 23, 1997