THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS	Local Tuesday, June 24, 1997

Forget Ira Einhorn's impenetrable babble about left-wing politics, paranormal pscychology and ecology.

A man who knew Einhorn while he was on the lam says the fugitive killer had one goal in life: having sex with women.

``That was his occupation, to score,'' said Hank Harrison, a Grateful Dead biographer who shared women with Einhorn while the hippie guru was hiding out in Dublin, Ireland.

Harrison, who is the father of actress/grunge rocker Courtney Love, told the Daily News that Einhorn's secret to bedding women was simple: ``He tells women what they want to hear. He's totally dishonest with chicks.''

Harrison met Einhorn in 1981, when the killer was posing as an American expatriate named Ben Moore. Einhorn, Harrison and others frequently hung out in Dublin at a revolutionary bookstore operated by a man named Eugene Mallon.

When Einhorn was captured June 13 in France after 16 years as a fugitive, he was posing as Mallon and had a passport in that name. Einhorn is jailed in Bordeaux, France, as his lawyers prepare to fight extradition to Philadelphia, where he faces a life sentence for the 1977 murder of girlfriend Helen ``Holly'' Maddux.

It was years later, after author Steven Levy wrote ``The Unicorn's Secret,'' that Harrison learned Moore's true identity.

``I was embarrassed when I found out who he really was,'' Harrison said during a telephone interview from California. ``I pride myself on being so g------ hip, and this guy pulls the wool over my eyes.

``I had been to parties with him, been naked with the guy in a steam bath.''

Since that discovery, Harrison has been in contact -- as recently as last week -- with Richard DiBenedetto, who directed the Einhorn hunt as head of the district attorney's fugitive unit.

DiBenedetto credits Harrison with providing information about the Dublin revolutionary crowd that swirled around Einhorn and Mallon in the 1980s. Mallon closed his bookstore within the past year and has not resurfaced.

The irony, Harrison said, was he had actually met Einhorn in the 1960s, when Einhorn was raising money to organize Philadelphia's first Earth Day. At the time, Harrison was involved with the Grateful Dead, and Ira hit him up for a contribution.

In Ireland, Einhorn/Moore played the committed Trotskyite, attending rallies and engaging in political dissent. He claimed he could not return to the United States because of tax problems.

But Harrison said in hindsight he thought it was all an act.

Einhorn, he said, also claimed to work for the CIA.

``He was posing himself as a left-wing communist, but he had no political ambitions towards that. I got the impression he acted like a Trot just to get help from us,'' Harrison said. ``There's a huge network of dopeheads, smugglers, alternative freaks . . . and he was trying to solicit money so he could stay underground.''

But Einhorn, he said, was more interested in sex.

Harrison said he occasionally shared LSD with Einhorn, and that -- when Einhorn got lucky -- the drug fests would evolve into huge spaghetti feasts and ``two-day orgies with six naked women.''

``My daughter, Courtney, met him, too, but she probably doesn't realize it.'' he said.

(Love and Harrison have been estranged for several years, according to press reports. Love has complained that Harrison is trying to cash in on her fame by writing a book about her ex-husband, rock star Kurt Cobain, who killed himself in 1994.)

Harrison remained on friendly terms with Einhorn till the mid-1980s, sharing books and even household goods.

``I gave him my copy of `The Complete Idiot's Guide to VW Repair,' '' said Harrison. ``The guy burns out cars like cigars, a typical East-Coaster.''

Harrison said he purchased the red Toyota Einhorn used to make his getaway from Ireland. ``He drove to Belfast, took the ferry to England then took another ferry to France, I guess,'' said Harrison.

That's when Harrison lost contact with Einhorn.

Philadelphia Online -- Philadelphia Daily News -- Local News Copyright Tuesday, June 24, 1997