Soon we'll be wishing, once again, that Ira Einhorn would shut up.

But after the fugitive's 17-year silence, we're dying to hear what he has to say for himself.

Until this week, we've had to rely upon scant bits of the legendary Einhorn doubletalk as given to European reporters who, in at least one case, printed an entire interview without ever mentioning that Einhorn is accused of murdering his girlfriend.

Our next best chance to hear from the alleged peace lover will come Sunday, during Connie Chung's exclusive American TV interview with Einhorn for ABC's "20/20 Sunday." The show will air at 9 p.m.

Before agreeing to sit down with Chung for a daylong session, the former publicity hog had turned down all other American journalists seeking his story of life on the lam and his subsequent capture in the ancient southern French town of Champagne-Mouton.

Einhorn repeatedly has turned down and failed to respond to requests by the Philadelphia Daily News. Contacted again Tuesday, Einhorn said he did not want to talk, then promptly hung up. During a subsequent call, Einhorn's Swedish wife, Annika Flodin, refused to put the paunchy guru on the phone.

Chung said yesterday that her producer, Jude Dratt, scored the "20/20" interview by going through one of Einhorn's attorneys, Norris Gelman. Chung visited Einhorn in France in August, weeks before he was rearrested.

Einhorn is free, pending a second extradition hearing on Dec. 1. He must check in weekly with police.

"It's a great interview," Chung said. "He delivers in terms of answering every single question. He's combative and defiant. He denies killing Holly Maddux."

Once again, Einhorn blamed the CIA or KGB for setting him up by killing Maddux in 1977, then stuffing her body in a steamer trunk in the closet of his Powelton Village apartment.

After neighbors' complaints about a stench and brownish-red liquid seeping from the floor beneath the trunk, police searched Einhorn's home in 1979 and found Maddux's mummified body. Einhorn was arrested and charged with the murder, but he skipped bail and spent the next 16 years running from Ireland to Sweden to England and finally to his current home in France's bucolic Cognac country.

He was captured in June 1997, while living in a charming converted mill with Flodin.

"I have this exchange with the two of them regarding this whole, bizarre phenomenon of having a body sit in a locked closet for those 18 months," said Chung.

"[Flodin] said, 'He's an intelligent man. He would never leave a body in his closet. Of course he would have moved it if there was a body in his trunk.'

"It's one of those jaw-dropping exchanges."

Flodin said she was "very much guilty" of harboring and financially supporting this fugitive "and very happy for it," Chung said. Among other revelations from the Chung interview:

Einhorn says he didn't really escape, he "just left the country" because he knew he wouldn't get a fair trial. "I felt that I was being railroaded," he said.

How did he elude police for nearly two decades? "I don't know whether I'm just plain lucky or not. I think they've [American authorities] just been plain stupid."

He was convinced after first being arrested that he would be shipped back to Philadelphia "immediately." He was shocked when the French denied the U.S. extradition request.

There is no truth to a rumor in Philadelphia that Einhorn, discovered naked during both his arrests, asked Chung if he could get naked for the interview.

"He does believe that he found a safe haven in France," Chung said. "He doesn't know if he'll be able to live there the rest of his life, but he recognizes that there's a legal Catch-22."

Chungsaid Einhorn had a "made-for-television" personality during the interview.

"I don't want to call him charismatic," she said. "He was just as he was in the '60s. He was able to project and capture an audience.

"It's that indescribable personality," she said. "Even in this one-on-one, every single answer was practically made for television."

Send e-mail to conroyt@phillynews.com.