Einhorn's extradition case faces a final appeal. Once there is a decision by the high court in Paris, the case will reach the French premier and a governmental body known as the council of state.

At about the same time, the separate -- yet crucial -- matter of whether Einhorn will be expelled from France for using a fake passport will be decided in a city court near the killer's home in the southwest of France.

If there ever was a time to turn up the political heat, it's now.

Already doing so are Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher and Philadelphia Bar Association Chancellor Clifford E. Haines. Fisher expressed his outrage in letters Friday to President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the U.S. Ambassador to France, Felix George Rohatyn, while Haines called on high-ranking U.S. authorities to get involved in the case.

Other than issuing a statement that said it regrets the French decision to let the murderer loose without returning him to Philadelphia, the U.S. State Department declines to discuss the case, a spokeswoman said.

"It really is a law enforcement matter and a Justice Department matter," the spokeswoman said.

The U.S. Justice Department hopes Einhorn can be deported, a spokesman said.

"We are in contact with French authorities to see if that's possible," the spokesman said.

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who issued a seething statement about the French decision last week, was no less steamed yesterday.

"We have certainly not given up our efforts to get him back here," she said. She added: "Unfortunately we have a government of France that doesn't care about the government of the United States, or at least this one judge."

"So, we're going to see what other options we have." She wouldn't elaborate.

The outrage on this side of the Atlantic rose on Thursday, when an appeals court in Bordeaux refused to extradite Einhorn to Philadelphia, where he faces a life sentence for killing his girlfriend, Helen "Holly" Maddux, in 1977.

Einhorn's 1993 conviction for the crime, during a trial conducted while the old hippie was hiding from the law in Europe, did not sit well with the French courts. French law permits a captured fugitive convicted in absentia to obtain a new trial. The Philadelphia district attorney's office could not guarantee Einhorn a new trial.

Philadelphia Deputy District Attorney Ron Eisenberg, who prosecuted Einhorn, said his office would now press the case in the political arena.

"We will certainly speak to anyone who is in a position to help return a convicted murderer to Philadelphia," he said. "Whatever recourse is available will be pursued."

Philadelphia lawyer Dick Atkins, a member of the governing counsel of the International Bar Association, said Abraham should visit southern France herself to turn up the heat. And, he said, she should bring the Maddux family with her.

"The French, if they were exposed to the realities of Ira and this case, particularly from the very sympathetic, aggrieved family, when it comes to that, they may act more reasonably," he said. "The gruesome details. His life. The effect on her family. What a wonderful person Holly was. I think they they will use a different standard in deciding whether they will give him amnesty."

Mary Maddux, Holly's younger sister, said it was doubtful the family would visit France to fight for Einhorn's return to the United States. She plans to continue the fight by sending a letter to the people of Champagne-Mouton, telling them more about the man living in their village.

The closest she hopes to get to Einhorn is by granting television interviews that may be broadcast in France.

"I'd end up in jail" after a confrontation with Einhorn, Maddux said.

A judge in the small city of Angouleme, about an hour's drive from Einhorn's cottage in Champagne-Mouton, must decide whether to punish the killer for using a fake passport to enter and stay in the country. The usual punishment for illegal documents is several months in jail and possible expulsion from the country.

Einhorn pretended to be a British writer named Eugene Mallon when he registered at the Champagne-Mouton clerk's office in March 1993. He and his wife, Annika Flodin, soon bought a converted mill in the village and lived there in relative obscurity until French police arrested Einhorn in June.

After the Bordeaux court decided Thursday to deny Philadelphia's extradition request, the Angouleme court charged Einhorn with the minor offenses of using illegal documents. The judge there released Einhorn until an unscheduled hearing. He must check in twice a week with local police and is forbidden to leave the area.

Atkins said he believes that if French officials heard more information about Einhorn's crime, they would decide that they do not want him living in their country. It is possible that the court would then permit Einhorn to ask a country of his choice to admit him.

It's also possible, Atkins said, that France will send Einhorn back to the United States.
"His first problem is he doesn't have a valid passport," Atkins said.

The U.S. Embassy in France probably won't issue Einhorn a new passport -- a document he'll need if he's expelled from France -- when they find that he's a fugitive, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department's Office of Consular Affairs.

In an interview with a French newspaper, Einhorn reportedly said that he hoped to become a French citizen. Einhorn's attorney and his wife have said the couple intends to remain in Champagne-Mouton.