Norris E. Gelman, Einhorn's Philadelphia attorney, said his client was taken into custody yesterday in Champagne-Mouton, the small French village where he has been living. He was taken to Gradignan, a medium-security prison near the town of Bordeaux.

According to Gelman, efforts to extradite Einhorn to Philadelphia are expected to begin soon.

When the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office first tried to have him extradited after his June 1997 arrest in France, Einhorn successfully challenged the extradition in French courts.

But since then, the Pennsylvania legislature has met the central French demand for the extradition of Einhorn -- that he be granted a new trial.

"It's the same extradition, based on the new statute," Gelman said.

It was unclear yesterday when the hearing would be held.

The circumstances surrounding Einhorn's arrest were far different from his 1997 arrest, when police raided his home with guns drawn.

"He got a call to go to the police station," Gelman said.

Einhorn must report to the police on a regular basis, because his immigration status is in question, Gelman said. Einhorn did not know he would be arrested.

Gelman said bail would be sought for Einhorn.

The District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment last night.

Einhorn, a Philadelphia '70s counterculture guru, was convicted in absentia in 1993 and sentenced to life in prison for the 1977 murder of his girlfriend, Helen "Holly" Maddux. She disappeared in 1977, and her mummified body was discovered two years later in a steamer trunk locked in a closet in Einhorn's apartment.

In 1981, Einhorn jumped his $40,000 bail and fled to Europe just as he was about to go to trial.

Einhorn was captured last year while living quietly under an assumed name with his Swedish wife, Annika Flodin, in Champagne-Mouton.

The District Attorney's Office tried to extradite him, but Einhorn challenged the order in French court and won.

Einhorn's conviction in absentia has been a sticking point with French courts. A French judicial panel in December 1997 ruled that it would not send Einhorn back to the United States because Pennsylvania law had no provision for giving him a new trial or significant appellate review of his conviction.

After the French court decision, Einhorn was set free, and he returned to Champagne-Mouton. In March, a French appeals court allowed the lower court's ruling to stand.

The December decision stunned Philadelphia officials and Maddux's family.

The French let Einhorn get away with murder, said an irate Joel Rosen, the Philadelphia prosecutor who convicted Einhorn.

District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said she was "incensed, offended, outraged."

Meg Wakeman, a Seattle nurse and the eldest surviving Maddux sister, couldn't believe the turn of events.

"Just who is the victim here?" she wondered. "They were able to convince the French authorities that Ira was the victim here, and that is what I just can't understand. It's very sad."
Responding to the French court decision, the Pennsylvania legislature approved a measure in January to allow for Einhorn to be tried again.

About the same time, Abraham and Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher were urging U.S. State and Justice Department officials to help in the extradition fight.

Abraham called the effort for the return of perhaps the city's most notorious fugitive "an odyssey which has not yet reached its conclusion."

With the benefit of the new state law, Gov. Ridge signed an extradition order May 20 for Einhorn.

It is likely Einhorn's attorneys in France will challenge the enforceability of the statute.

Gelman, who defended Einhorn during his 1993 trial, said in May that his client would fight the new extradition order in French court. Gelman said then that he believed the law was unconstitutional because it interfered with a final judgment; in this case, Einhorn's conviction in absentia and life sentence.