Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - "The Unicorn Killer" Ira Einhorn Pt. 1

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

If you were in Philadelphia during the 1960s and interested in the counterculture movement, you probably saw Ira Einhorn storm the stage at the city’s very first Earth Day. While peace and love were the mainstays of his belief system, Ira didn't always practice what he preached.  If you’d like to take action on the climate or learn more about the topics covered in “Dark Green: Earth Crimes and Conspiracies,” visit www.spotify.com/darkgreenresources. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, Parkast listeners. I'm Vanessa. And I'm Greg. In honor of birthday, all of Parkast is bringing you a special event called Dark Green Earth Crimes and Conspiracies. For this event, we're investigating the shadowy corners where crime and the environment meet. And telling those stories. Because climate change isn't just about science and the weather. It shows up in all parts of society and culture.

Even crime. Did you know, for example, about the strange circumstances surrounding the 1974 death of a chemical technician? Or that in the early 2000s, there was a serial killer with a very specific target. Hikers in national forests? Or did you know about the many environmental activists who go missing? Or end up dead? To hear these stories and more come along with us for a different kind of Earth Day celebration. And if you like to learn more and take action on the climate, visit

www. Spotify.com slash dark green resources. Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of domestic violence and assault. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health and domestic violence, visit Spotify.com slash resources. On a gloomy day in April 1970, over 20,000 people gathered in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park for the very first Earth Day. The crowd packed in along the banks of the Schuylkill River, in a bold call for climate action. Legions of speakers and entertainers took to the stage to demand accountability. Through passionate speeches and performances, they pushed the audience to do whatever they

could to save the planet from man-made destruction. Many were swept up by such a powerful call. As the day went on, the emotions snowballed, priming the audience to cheer, shout, laugh, and cry together. By the time a self-proclaimed hippie guru named Ira Einhorn grabbed the microphone. They were in a frenzy. Sporting long hair and a matching beard, Ira fit right in with many of the young participants. His voice was full of energy and excitement. In no time, he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Of course, those watching had no idea Ira was at the peak of a decades-long power trip.

Behind his kind facade was an egotistical, violent man. who would say anything to get people on his side. But he couldn't keep up the act forever. Just a few years after captivating the Earth Day crowd, Ira Einhorn would be exposed as a liar, a fraud, and a murderer. Hi, I'm Greg Polson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every Monday and Thursday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers.

Today, we're delving into the crimes of Ira Einhorn, The Compost Killer. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. In this episode, we'll meet Ira Einhorn,

a pugnacious, free-spirited hippie guru who was revered by thousands in Philadelphia throughout the 1960s and 70s. Today, we'll explore Ira's early life and his habit of hopping from one popular movement to the next. Eventually, he settled on spiritualism and environmentalism, a move that led him to the love of his life.

Next time, as that relationship unravels, Ira commits an unforgivable crime. We'll follow the disgraced guru as he spends the final decades of his life on the run, as well as the conspiracy theories he spouted to explain away his crime. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter, whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer. the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence

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Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Earth Day typically conjures up images of selfless people doing what they can to protect the planet.

And that's certainly how most people celebrate. Today, though, we're going to discuss someone on the other side of the coin, a man who used the event and its message for his own twisted, selfish means. Ira Einhorn was a man of many talents who spent decades riding the waves of one fad after another, but behind his gentle, peace-loving image lay a troubled man with a dark secret, one that threatened to overshadow his accomplishments and tarnish the brand he'd worked so hard to build. At the core of Ira Einhorn, was an unshakable ego. And if there's one person who always encouraged him to shoot for the stars, it was his mother, B. From a young age, she believed her son was a gifted child, so much so that

she started tutoring him before he even started school in the 1940s. Soon she had young Ira learning subjects and ideas meant for much older children. Just one look in the boy's backpack was proof of that. Ira read so much that it was rare to see him without a book in hand, and he was just as captivated by casual adventure stories as he was by stiff academic texts. B fostered this drive for knowledge and curiosity in her son and made sure he knew he was special. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout this episode. As a reminder, she's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. It's okay for children to have a bit of an ego. In fact, most kids between the ages of two and seven

display signs of egocentric thinking. As they develop, they become self-serving and self-centered. It doesn't take more than asking a child to share a new toy, or for a slice of cake, to see this in action. This phase usually doesn't last more than a few years, though. Most children grow out of their egocentrism. But for those who don't, the outcomes can be disastrous. Children with uncontrolled egos can have problems connecting with others and may experience mood swings as well. It seems Ibra may not have grown past his early self-obsession, and his supposed genius led to problems in school. When he first enrolled in 1944,

administrators tried placing Ibra in the third grade, up to the level his mother had tutored him. His father, however, refused. He didn't want his son facing ridicule for being so much younger than his peers. The plan backfired. Throughout elementary and middle school, Ira found his coursework way too easy. He aced his classes, leaving ample time for him to ask.

backed out for attention. He'd yell in class, get out of his seat, and sometimes leave the classroom altogether. The disruptions didn't make him popular with his teachers. Apparently, that was just fine with Ira, because his bad behavior followed him into high school, too. He interrupted his teachers, wrote nonsense answers on his test just because he could, and ruined school assemblies with loud outbursts. Considering his rebellious nature, it makes sense that the skinny, bookish teen felt drawn to the famous beat poets of the day, like Alan Ginsberg, Jack Carrowack, and William S. Burroughs. They embodied a defiant spirit he yearned to emulate. Of course, he wasn't alone in that. In many ways, Ira was just an ordinary teen, searching for his identity.

And like any adolescent, he wanted to belong somewhere. Surprising everyone, he even played on the school football team, eventually making it to varsity. It wasn't an illustrious career, but it wasn't anything to scoff at either. But for as well as he did athletically, he felt more comfortable on the fringes than on the field, and he really cemented his image as a precocious outsider in college. In the fall of 1957, Ira enrolled at the nearby University of Pennsylvania to study physics. While he typically did the assigned readings, he rarely attended class. He didn't feel his professors had anything to teach him. The few times he did show up, he spent the whole period arguing with his instructors. He tried to embarrass them by asking about obscure books or scientific articles,

hoping to prove he was a better reader than them. Ira made it clear that he was above these lessons. He resented the institution for trying to control him, but more than that, he just loved being confrontational. His own ego wasn't enough for him. He had to prove he was smarter by constantly debating, challenging, and criticizing others. No matter how many times his attempts backfired, Ira never changed his perspective. Instead, he simply licked his wounds and came back later with a new argument, ready for another round. Sometimes it seemed like his sole purpose for living was to dominate those around him. He didn't care about teaching or learning from others.

He wanted to win. Ira breezed through his classes over the next two years. He spent most of his time in Philadelphia hanging out with friends, sleeping with classmates, and experimenting with recreational drugs. But his time as an undergrad was winding down, and he knew he needed to figure out his next move. With the encouragement of one of his professors and mentor, Ira set his sights on a life in academia. Even though he didn't respect most of his teachers, Ira began dreaming of being in charge of his own class. Despite these aspirations, he decided to take some time off before he went on to grad school.

He wanted to find himself and discover his true purpose. After graduating in the summer of 1961, Ira traveled a lot. He went to Ohio, New York, and Chicago in what he called a period of, quote, continuous reading. He also spent some time in Vermont. That's because, despite his academic musings, Ira's attention lay elsewhere. He'd met someone, and he was smitten. Her name was Rita Resnick, a beautiful red-headed undergrad from Bennington College in Vermont. It seems they started dating over the summer, then continued seeing one of

into the fall. For a while, things seemed okay, but soon the relationship was on rocky ground. Rita saw her time with Ira as a fun fling. Ira, though, saw Rita as the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. When Rita realized this, she started pulling away, but that only made Ira cling to her more tightly. The relationship eventually turned toxic. According to a college friend, no one could simply walk out of Ira's life. Not if he wanted you in it.

He wasn't interested in true dialogue. As always, he turned to debate to beat people down and manipulate them into doing what he wanted. He used his wit to oppress others, making them second-guess their own judgment. But he couldn't keep it up forever. No matter how eloquent Ira was, he couldn't change the way Rita felt. Eventually, she caught on to Ira's game, and she knew what she wanted to do. Leave. She finally mustered up the courage to tell Ira it was over.

But Ira's ego wouldn't let him accept that Rita didn't want to be in his life. So one night, he showed up outside her dorm. She made it clear he wasn't welcome, telling him again that their relationship was over, but he didn't leave. Instead, his charming mask slipped, and he exploded with anger. He walked inside, locked the door, and slowly moved. moved toward Rita. The two struggled for a moment before he laced his fingers around her neck. Rita gasped as she tried to pry off his tight grip. She started to see spots and feared for

her life just as everything went black. Ira finally let go after Rita went unconscious. She was alive, but Ira knew when she woke up their relationship would be over. There was no coming back from that. For her own reasons, Rita never pressed charges against Ira for the assault. Maybe she feared retaliation, or she just wanted to put the traumatic episode behind her. Ira, however, wrote about abusing Rita in his diary. He was devastated, but instead of feeling guilty about what he'd done, he tried to justify his actions. He wrote, To kill what you love when you can't have it seems so natural. That's strangling Rita last night seemed so right. Ira wrote to his friends in Philadelphia about his heartbreak too. Like a sad

dog he whimpered and complained. He was lost, unsure of what to do with his life. About a year later, Ira finally returned to Philadelphia, but he still didn't seem ready to get his master's degree. He moved into a run-down apartment building, affectionately known as the rock pile. He found the place full of people he could relate to. Most of them were on the fringes of society struggling to make ends meet. He felt at home there, despite his sparse apartment. He had no furniture besides a mattress, which sat on the floor. The only decorations were huge piles of books stacked against the wall. Ira really came into his own at the rock pile.

He formed a reputation as a free thinker with a bright mind and a wild spirit. It wouldn't be long before he took that foundation and ran with it, creating a cult of personality that attracted thousands. Coming up, Ira refines his public persona while his private life falls upon. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 or 15 milligram injection.

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fresco paraizzo. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with chiqui bikini or caps your sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume misconduct. collection only at Sephora. Now back to the story. In the fall of 1963, 23, 22-year-old Ira Einhorn lived in a run-down apartment in Philadelphia. It had been two years since he graduated from UPenn, and he was finally ready to enroll in graduate school. It wasn't the triumphant return to

academia he'd hoped for, more like the path of least resistance. Even as Ira looked forward to doing research, he couldn't help but think there was more to life. After all, his heroes, those beat, poets had found meaning on their own. Then, on Christmas 1963, Ira had the life-changing experience he was looking for. He'd used drugs many times before. But that day, Ira claimed he had a philosophical breakthrough while smoking marijuana. That night, he wrote in his diary, I feel no desire to be anything but Ira, fully realized in whatever manner possible.

In 1964, perhaps because of his Christmas experience, Ira traveled to the Bay Area in California to spend the summer. The hate Ashbury community in San Francisco was just starting to develop its reputation as the epicenter of the counterculture movement. There, Ira attended lectures, drug-fueled parties, and intimate get-togethers, leaving an impression on everyone he met. Gone was the anger and self-pity he'd felt after Rita left. The new Ira was friendly and pleasant, always greeting people with a wide smile and a witty quip. He could talk for hours about philosophy, literature, science, and everything in between. Some people even started looking up to him. Nothing like the counterculture movement had reached Philadelphia. Ira was inspired to bring what he'd

learned in California back to his hometown. When he returned, he tried acting like the man with all the answers. Instead of just being another drop of water in the ocean of the counterculture movement, he was determined to be a tsunami. To do that, he first dropped out of grad school. Then, in the fall of 1964, Ira secured a teaching position at Temple University in Pennsylvania. He became a rebellious English professor who, during one lecture, made an impression on his students by having them discussed the difference between sexuality and eroticism. He clearly wasn't part of the old guard of professors. Now in a position of authority, Ira didn't have to be as confrontational as he'd been as a student. He was warm, approachable, and well-read. His students felt they could talk to

him about almost anything. As time went on, Ira honed his speaking skills in front of the chalkboard. He was determined to learn what audiences responded to and what landed flat. That was key to being the center of attention. Ira's antics earned him the trust of his students, but he still had problems with anyone who tried to tell him what to do. In this case, that meant he butted heads with school administrators. It had only been a few months since the famous free speech movement in Berkeley,

and university officials couldn't accept IRA's outside-the-box teaching style. They didn't renew his contract, and he found himself out of a job. Ira didn't seem to mind. Sure, he loved academia, but he felt a traditional career was too limiting. He decided his place was with the people. In 1966, the 26-year-old returned to California to find the hippie movement in full swing. Peace and love, free sex, and recreational drug use for enlightenment. were widely popular.

For Ira, it was like returning to Mecca, enriching his soul and further cementing his place in the movement. Later that year, he returned to Philadelphia yet again to teach at a radical new school called Free University. It was run through UPenn, but it seemed like a whole other world. Anyone was allowed to lead classes. Students could show up whenever they wanted. It essentially turned teaching into a popularity contest.

And Ira passed with flying colors. With long hair, a bushy beard, and stylish 60s clothing, he seemed to perfectly embody the hippie movement. He spoke for hours about his experiences in the Bay Area, preaching about everything from taking LSD to sleeping with multiple partners. But while he taught about peace and love, he struggled with familiar demons behind closed doors. A year earlier, he started dating a 20-year-old undergrad at UPenn.

Her name was Judy Sapo. The relationship was to be a family. passionate and intense. Just like with Rita, Ira saw Judy as a long-term lover and potentially a lifelong partner, he became controlling early on. He was insistent that she spent all her time with him and even told her to cut ties with her family. Isolating a partner as common and abusive relationships. Ira used everything in his arsenal to maintain control over Judy. He waxed intellectual by claiming the standard family model was outdated. He told Judy that if she didn't separate herself from her parents, she'd never amount to anything. Once she lost her support system, Ira

forced Judy to make him the center of her life. In these situations, isolation makes it harder for an abused partner to leave a damaging relationship, since they have no one to lean on but their abuser. Thankfully, though, Judy caught onto Ira's controlling habits. She realized she didn't want to be with him anymore. Just as Rita had done, Judy told him she was ending things. When Ira didn't seem to understand, Judy asked him to meet at a mutual friend's apartment. There, she told Ira again that she wanted to leave him. He went quiet for a moment, then left the room.

According to Judy, he reemerged with an empty glass bottle in his hands. He lunged toward her, his eyes furious. Judy tried to run, but she stumbled and fell. While she was on the ground, Ira struck her several times. Blood poured from her head. She tried to fight back, but his blows stunned her. Ira then wrapped his hands around her throat. Just like he'd done with the last woman who tried to leave him,

Ira let go just as Judy was about to pass out. She gasped for air as he looked down at her. There was no coming back from that. Ira knew it was over. After the incident, Ira wrote in his diary, Now she will leave Philadelphia for good. I'll be able, if she does not have me arrested, to go back to living a normal life.

Violence always marks the end of a relationship. It is the final barrier over or through which no communication is possible. It doesn't appear that Judy pressed charges, and Ira didn't face any consequences for his abuse. Those close to Ira would have known about his problems with anger and control, but it didn't hurt his rising star. Within a year, everyone in Philadelphia would know his name. Coming up, Ira becomes a guru.

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Ira dressed up his musings by referencing various authors in scientific studies to give his words an intellectual error. While many in the community saw the articles as nothing but gibberish, some really connected with his work, and over time they sought him out, becoming a bit like unofficial students. It proved Ira was magnetic. People were drawn to his incredible. incredible energy, knowledge, and wit. His apartment building became a touchstone of the counterculture movement in Philadelphia, and it attracted more people by the day. Swarms of college-age men and women flocked to Ira, searching for meaning. Ira was happy to welcome them.

He had a bit of an open-door policy at his home, but there was one catch. Unsuspecting visitors were likely to be shocked the first time they visited Ira, because he insisted on greeting his guests completely naked. He never gave any real reason for bearing it all in front of strangers. And in the era of free love and acceptance, most didn't complain. However, in hindsight, it appears there was a method to Ira's eccentricity. By doing something so shocking, he was often able to throw off his guests the moment they walked in. That gave Ira the opportunity to control the conversation.

According to a 2017 study, unsolicited nudity can have a disarming effect. Sure, Ira could mask his actions with hippie rationalizations, but the overall effect was likely the same back in the 60s. Appearing nude may have been his way of asserting dominance. At the very least, the move left a strong impression on plenty of people. Around this same time, Ira came into his own as a so-called guru. He talked to his students about anything from psychedelics to poetry and dispense plenty of life advice in between. Of course, Ira was always looking to leverage his position for a cell-in-lawful. selfish desires.

As his popularity soared, he largely abandoned any ideas of monogamy, reportedly sleeping with hundreds of women. It was a time of peace and love, and he was a guru who carried a certain amount of mystique and authority. Soon, Ira started embracing a new attention-grabbing identity. He often referred to himself as the unicorn. The name worked on a few different levels. Ira thought of himself as special and unique, like a unicorn, but the name also came from a German

translation of his surname, meaning one horn. It was the perfect calling card for a self-described guru. That same year, Ira looked to raise his profile even more, inspired by similar events across the nation. He decided to host what he called, quote, a be in. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't anything special, but he was able to get a few hundred young people to gather in city park and talk about peace and love together. The fact that he was able to organize such a big event in an era before the internet highlighted just how far Ira had come. Only a few years earlier, he'd been a rebellious college student without much direction. Now he'd united an entire community of people, many of whom thought he was a genius, and it only snowballed from there. Ira began hosting

famous counterculture figures like Abby Hoffman, who'd later become known as one of the Chicago Chicago 7 during the Democratic National Convention. IRA also invited artists and poets like Alan Ginsberg over to his place. They spent their nights with close friends taking drugs and talking philosophy and art. Ira was able to leach some attention from his new friends, which in turn got the local media interested in him. He became the go-to guy in Philadelphia for anyone interested in counterculture. Eventually, his name was well-known enough that almost everyone had heard of him. Throughout the back half of the 60s, Ira took regular trips to California and New York.

As time went on, he met more influential people and expanded what had become his brand. Ira was a success, but he worried about his next steps. Despite all the attention and prestige, he saw the writing on the wall for the hippie movement. In the four years since its inception in the Bay Area, little had truly changed. The so-called establishment that everyone seemed to be against didn't she? show any signs of eroding. With a war now raging in Vietnam, the powers that be were stronger than ever. And with the introduction of hard drugs like heroin into the movement, Ira wasn't convinced it had a real future. So he turned his attention to other trendy topics at the time, like

astrology and environmentalism. Sure, focusing on the environment wasn't a radical change from what he'd been preaching about for years. Many in the hippie movement were already passionate about the cause, but Ira made it his focus. For the most part, the change didn't affect his image in the media. Many still called him the unicorn and referred to him as a guru, something he did little to discourage. But Ira was always thinking one step ahead. He needed something big to make his new image stick,

something like the B-In. He just had to figure out what exactly that was. Luckily for him, he caught a break the following year. In January 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin was appalled after witnessing the effects of a devastating oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. At the time, it was the largest spill in the U.S., dumping three million gallons into the Pacific Ocean. The tragedy created a 35-mile-long oil slick, roughly the size of Chicago. The aftermath was horrific, killing large swaths of sea life, including seals, gulls, and dolphins.

Miles of previously pristine coastline were sullied and polluted before crews could even attempt to clean up the mess. Senator Nelson, like many across the country, felt it was pastime for the people of the U.S. to make environmental changes and protect the world. After reading about similar events in Berkeley, he envisioned establishing a day of reflection and a call to action for people to make their voices heard about environmental concerns. It would become known as Earth Day. In the run-up to the event, Nelson partnered with a young activist named Dennis Hayes to ensure things went off without a hitch. Instead of centralizing everything, they realized that for the event to work, they needed to cooperate with local organizers across the United States.

In Philadelphia, that included professors and students from UPenn. Organizers planned for the day to be marked by gatherings around the country and a televised broadcast that would feature the Philadelphia event. Given I was experience with the B-in and is possible, reputation in the community, it seemed like a no-brainer to ask him for help. He eagerly agreed, but the organizers quickly realized his commitment to the enterprise was a little suspect. While he'd occasionally helped by reaching out to important people like Alan Ginsberg and Dune novelist Frank Herbert, he'd also disappear for weeks without explanation. It seemed like

he may have seen himself as more of a celebrity than an actual organizer. In the spirit of the time and event, officials shrugged off Ira's non-committal attitude. They had to take whatever kind of help they could get. Thanks to their hard work, the event came together. In April 1970, organizers assembled a stage in Fairmount Park to entertain thousands in person and millions at home. The celebration would feature entertainers, philosophers, and politicians. According to journalist and author Stephen Levy in his book, The Unicorn Secret, the organizers asked Ira to be an emcee.

He was supposed to briefly talk about the story. speakers before ending his time by introducing Senator Edmund Muskie. Of course, given IRIS huge ego, things didn't go to plan. Ira seized the opportunity on stage in front of all those people to become the center of attention. Wearing a purple football jersey and sporting pigtails with an unkempt beard, he espoused some of his many esoteric beliefs. His speech sounded like a jumble of random ideas full of popular buzzwords. Then, instead of calling the senator to the stage, he introduced an unscheduled rock band and started dancing. He swirled and undulated with the beat, getting lost in the music.

For the audience, it was a bizarre, surreal performance. For the organizers, it was a disaster. They didn't want people at home to think Earth Day was something only hippies cared about. It was supposed to be about changing the hearts and minds of every American. Now Ira was in control, and the cameras were rolling. Eventually, organizers went on stage and pulled Ira aside to talk. They told him to either get back on track or to leave. To the spectators, Ira seemed like a carefree, lovable guy who got caught up in the ecstasy of the moment.

But as we know now, he had an egocentric dark side. And as his ex-lovers knew, he hated being told to leave. So at that moment, Ira let his mask slip, saying, I'm not going to leave the stage. If you want to physically remove me from the stage, you can do it. These kids are mine now. Organizers were caught between a rock and a hard place. They could either let Ira have his way, potentially ruining the event, or attempt to take him off stage, which could bring about the same result.

With the clock ticking, they made a decision. They walked out on stage with Senator Moskey and approached Ira. To their relief, Ira had apparently been bluffing. Without causing a scene, he handed the microphone over, but not before saying a few more words. He encouraged the crowd to listen to the senator. However, he also told them to boo and jeer if they felt this government man was being inauthentic.

In the end, the Philadelphia event worked out fine. CBS got their footage without Ira in it. And overall, the first Earth Day was a smashing success. Nearly 20 million people participated, and many more were exposed to its message through the news. Later that year, President Nixon signed an executive order creating the Environmental Protection Agency. But in the years that followed, Ira embellished his role in creating the holiday. According to him, he was one of the main architects of Earth Day and a central figure in its inaugural year.

It should go without saying that members of the Earth Day organization today firmly pushed back on Ira's claims. Instead, they claim Ira hijacked the proceedings when he was allowed to be on stage. Either way, it didn't matter, Ira continued telling lies to further elevate his professional image in the early 1970s. As always, he was on the hunt for ways to become more popular and influential. The more success he found, the more he felt he deserved anything he wanted. And in 1972, what he wanted was a woman named Holly Maddox. She came into Ira's life like a biblical revelation from the moment he spotted her sitting at a restaurant, He was captivated by the 25-year-old.

He knew he had to be with her. Holly was originally from Texas, but spent several years in Pennsylvania studying at Bryn-Mar. Ira wasn't her usual type. She was used to dating college guys her own age, not a 32-year-old man with a ratty beard. But after growing up in a conservative Christian home, Holly was attracted to the counterculture movement, and there was something so charming about Ira. When he gave her his number, she knew she'd call. Within days, the two were sleeping together.

By the end of the month, Holly had moved in. Sure, it was fast. No doubt some of her friends told her that. But Ira just felt right to her. Unfortunately, she would soon find out her feelings were premature. Ira was as controlling as ever. And unlike with Rita and Judy, he wouldn't let Holly out of their relationship alive.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Parcast, Earth, Crimes and Conspiracies, brought to you. by Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. For part two of Ira Einhorn, tune in next time on serial killers. And check out our other shows, like Unsolved Murders, Solved Murders and Unexplained Mysteries. You can find all episodes of Serial Killers for free on Spotify every Monday and Thursday. For more information on Ira Einhorn, amongst the many sources we used, we found Stephen Levy's book, The Unicorn Secret, extremely helpful in our research. And if you like to learn more and take action on the climate, visit spotify.com

slash dark green resources. We'll see you next time. Stay safe out there. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Our head of programming is Julian Boireau. Our supervising sound designer is Russell Nash, with Nick Johnson as our head of production and quality control by Spencer Howard. Stacey Nemick is our supervising editor and Derek Jennings is our writing lead.

This episode of serial killers was written by Robert Tyler Walker, edited by Terrell Wells and Kate Murdoch, fact-checked by Haley Milliken, researched by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood, produced by Bruce Kitovich, and sound design by Russell Nash. Our hosts are Greg Polson and me, Vanessa Richardson. Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you, and hang some string lights to give your patio. a glow-up. Spring's calling. Ross, work your magic. Spring is the season everyone refreshes everything except their blinds. People put it off because they think it's complicated. But at blinds.com, we've spent 30 years proving it's not. Right now, you can save big during the Spring Cyber Monday sale. Whether you want to DIY it or have a pro to handle everything from measure to install, we've got you. Free samples, real design experts, and zero pressure. Just

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