The phone rang early, before John Maddux had had his first cup of coffee. The sound of his sister Elizabeth's voice on the other end of the line said it all.

"It put me in shock for a few minutes," John Maddux said. "It took a couple cups of coffee to bring me around . . . Sure, we knew it could happen, but we didn't even like to think about it.

"Ever since they found him, we approached this with cautious optimism. We had to."

John Maddux and his sisters, Elizabeth, Meg and Mary, didn't just want to believe that a French court would return Ira Einhorn to Philadelphia to stand trial for the bludgeon murder of their sister, Holly. They had to.

"Yes, it does kind of look like it may be the end of the line," he admitted later. "But we don't accept that. This isn't over yet. I don't believe the last 20 years have come down to this.

"My sisters and I are going to go to dinner tonight and make some decisions. We've heard from 'Dateline NBC,' 'American Journal' and '20/20.' We've got to zero in on which one we should talk to.

"I believe if we can get to talk to enough people, something can happen. I think we can get an international audience. If we can appeal to the French people, maybe they can put some pressure on their own legal system.

"I just refuse to believe that the good folks, the down-to-earth honest people, will let this stand. If I was a Frenchman, I'd be pretty cotton-pickin' embarrassed."

He's more determined than bitter. The only person outside of Einhorn that he harbors any resentment toward is U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, who represented Einhorn at his bail hearing.

"Arlen Specter was the one who got him off with $4,000 bail," John Maddux said. "$4,000 for a murderer. Put that in your story."

I didn't bother to remind him that Einhorn hadn't been convicted at that point or that Specter was just doing his job.

You don't offer a man a lesson in fundamental justice on the day when he learns that the man who bashed his sister's skull in is probably going to get away with it.
It's been 21 years since John Maddux's only meeting with his sister's killer. But the memory is as raw as a fresh wound. "They came down to Tyler [ Texas ] to spend a weekend with my mother in 1976," John said. "The family got together. I hadn't seen her in a long time.

"We didn't write much and I hadn't talked to her for awhile. But we got along fine. We didn't always. She was a year older than me and we went through the usual sibling rivalries.

"We got along a lot better when we were both out of the house, to the immense relief of our folks . . . I was really looking forward to seeing her.

". . . he didn't impress us. He was totally selfish -- that was the whole basis of his personality. He was phony, selfish, inconsiderate and physically repulsive.

"But he was a visitor at our home and we treated him like one. You could tell he was trying to get a rise out of us. It wasn't anything he said or did as much as what he didn't do.

"My mother weighing about 98 pounds was struggling up the steps with sacks of groceries. He never moved. He just expected people to wait on him.

". . . It's amazing to me, astonishing how somebody like that could have the charisma to have people just sitting at his feet like he did."

It is astonishing. Somewhere a group of his brain-dead disciples is forming a circle for a group devotion, recalling the first Earth Day or Be-In or whatever it was that drew them to worship at their greasy guru's crusted feet.

It is astonishing that even after his flight from justice there were people rich enough and stupid enough to help finance him. I was amazed to read just last week in the Inquirer how Judy Wicks, owner of the White Dog Cafe in University City, is still able to rationalize her support for Einhorn -- a man she testified for even after she believed he was guilty of murder because he was an "important" member of the community.

Not that that makes her much different from the corporate executives, big-time lawyers and other VIPs who lined up at his bail hearing to attest to his good character even after his girlfriend's rotting remains were found in his apartment.

To me, his followers were like the townsfolk along the parade route who pretended to see regal robes on their naked emperor.

But I missed all that. I never saw his yellow-toothed grin until he started visiting the City Hall press room to schmooze with reporters in the breaks between his pre-trial hearings.

John Maddux and his sisters believe a day will come when his sneer finally fades. They have to.

I wish I could.