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The Unicorn's Secret
Offers a portrait of Ira Einhorn, who preached alternative living in the sixties, ushered in the New Age in the early seventies, and who disappeared while awaiting trial for the murder of his girlfriend
392 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published January 2, 1990
53 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Steven Levy
30 books702 followersSteven Levy is editor at large at Wired, and author of eight books, including the new Facebook: the Inside Story, the definitive history of that controversial company. His previous works include the legendary computer history Hackers, Artificial Life, the Unicorn 's Secret, In the Plex (the story of Google, chose as Amazon and Audible's best business book of 2011), and Crypto, which won the Frankfurt E-book Award for the best non-fiction book of 2001. He was previously the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek. He lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 20, 2018
Fascinating biography/true-crime book about a self-centered New Age 'guru' who manages to ingratiate himself with various mainstream movers-and-shakers, only to blow it all when he kills his girlfriend. When her mummified body is found hidden in his apartment, he actually suggests that it's a CIA-engineered frame-up. The lives chronicled here are loaded with post-Watergate paranoia and 1970s gobbledygook.
July 3, 2016
I was born in 1970, so was never really cognizant of the murder of Holly Maddux as a new story, but I certainly noticed in the 2001 coverage of his extradition from France after being on the lam for over 20 years. I wanted to read this book to see what was known before he disappeared, as this book was published while Einhorn's whereabouts were unknown.
His activity in ecological groups and the counterculture, anti-establishment and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s and participation in the first Earth Day event in Philadelphia in 1970 while maintaining lunches with corporate execs and an international correspondence around Tesla technology and "psychotronic" mind military tech (remote viewing, etc.) connect this to The Men Who Stare At Goats. It was a period when anything seemed possible and connected nd conspiratorial and Einhorn navigated that landscape with aplomb.
Even when this book was written, it seemed undeniable he murdered his former girlfriend as a culmination of generally misogynistic behavior and let her corpse mummify in his apartment closet for years. Fortunately, he is now incarcerate with a mandatory life term without the possibility of parole: Pennsylvania inmate number ES6859.
His activity in ecological groups and the counterculture, anti-establishment and anti-war movements of the 1960s and 1970s and participation in the first Earth Day event in Philadelphia in 1970 while maintaining lunches with corporate execs and an international correspondence around Tesla technology and "psychotronic" mind military tech (remote viewing, etc.) connect this to The Men Who Stare At Goats. It was a period when anything seemed possible and connected nd conspiratorial and Einhorn navigated that landscape with aplomb.
Even when this book was written, it seemed undeniable he murdered his former girlfriend as a culmination of generally misogynistic behavior and let her corpse mummify in his apartment closet for years. Fortunately, he is now incarcerate with a mandatory life term without the possibility of parole: Pennsylvania inmate number ES6859.
November 16, 2015
I like true crime I hate hippies especially environmentalists and vegetarians so I liked the book. Almost forgot the founder of Earth day was still doing laundry at mothers house ,he was pushing forty.
July 13, 2021
Ira Einhorn was the apex hippie creep - he embodied the manipulative, predatory, misogynistic dark side of the Aquarians. Very well-written, this book is, at bottom, deeply sad. It is impossible not to feel affected about a quiet, shy, thoughtful, and highly intelligent woman like Holly Maddux, who stepped away from the domineering figure of her father (several hair-raising details about him include the fact that his personal license plate read "Fuhrer" and he hung a Nazi flag in the den), struggled with her self-worth, and ended up with the abusive Einhorn, who lived up to all the worst cliches about the hippie men who ensconced themselves at the vanguard of the movement.
The sort of guy who belittled every woman he was with, nearly murdering two women who rejected him before "succeeding" with the third. The kind of man who reeks of body odor and seems to enjoy the fact that he made people put up with it - either as a mark of dominance or because others were never quite real to him. He used his intense personal charisma and near-incoherent rap about sciene and consciousness and later the paranormal to connect himself to the Yippies as well as influential corporate figures, and attract wealthy benefactors (including the Bronfmans, whose descendants would bankroll the misogynist abuser Keith Raniere's NXIVM cult three decades later), some of whom supported him after he fled justice, when Maddux's mummified body was found in a trunk in his closet.
The book is an interesting time capsule (written in the late '80s, about events in the '60s and '70s) but there's nothing here that makes it particularly dated, just the fact that many of the marked details and personalities here have faded with time, if not outright disappeared. This only adds to the poignancy of the tale, which after is about an era where talk of a love revolution masked the darker impulses of bullies and predators like Einhorn.
The sort of guy who belittled every woman he was with, nearly murdering two women who rejected him before "succeeding" with the third. The kind of man who reeks of body odor and seems to enjoy the fact that he made people put up with it - either as a mark of dominance or because others were never quite real to him. He used his intense personal charisma and near-incoherent rap about sciene and consciousness and later the paranormal to connect himself to the Yippies as well as influential corporate figures, and attract wealthy benefactors (including the Bronfmans, whose descendants would bankroll the misogynist abuser Keith Raniere's NXIVM cult three decades later), some of whom supported him after he fled justice, when Maddux's mummified body was found in a trunk in his closet.
The book is an interesting time capsule (written in the late '80s, about events in the '60s and '70s) but there's nothing here that makes it particularly dated, just the fact that many of the marked details and personalities here have faded with time, if not outright disappeared. This only adds to the poignancy of the tale, which after is about an era where talk of a love revolution masked the darker impulses of bullies and predators like Einhorn.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2009
my favorite true crime book. levy demonstrates in everything he writes the Correct way to write
April 9, 2009
Even hippies from the 60's and 70's can be psychopaths.
July 10, 2023
[This review is of the 1st edition (not updated):]
Before he ended up on the lam and ultimately in prison (where he died in 2020), Ira Einhorn lived “above the spheres” in which ordinary people move, “a world of scientists, educators, renegade intellectuals, and wacky occultists. Not to mention some hideously rich people.” (p. 331) Many of us I suspect have flirted with such a desire to live in this rarified world. This is perhaps the world we imagine that all famous, influential, or ‘successful’ people in modern society must inhabit. For this reason alone, I suppose this book carries a lot of synchronous weight, in the Jungian or emotional sense. I also lived for awhile in Philadelphia (some time after Einhorn had fled the scene), but that’s not my only connection to this material. In fact my one published article is about Charles Manson, and included some research into the idea of Manson as an “abject hero”, tangentially linked to Einhorn also as such a grotesque figure, a carnivalesque fool embracing the saturnalia of our times. After writing this article on Manson (which included material touching on Einhorn’s crime even if it went unmentioned in my final published article), I’ve been somewhat adrift as to my next subject for serious research. Foolishly perhaps, I began researching UFOs and folklore as related to social systems theory, and I did find some interesting connections between UFOs and dissociation (a type of modern trauma often tied to serial killers, multiple personalities and conspiracy theories about CIA mind control and counterintelligence). This course of reading delved into the study of folklore, which also connects to UFOs and serial killers, both ideas folkloric in their own right, but related also in the form of alien abduction narratives, urban legends and horror films (a variant one could say of ‘modern folklore’). Dipping my toe into folklore brought me to a kind of dead end in the avenue of ‘linear’ progression, in that I realized folklore is a deep subject, and also trying to relate folklore to Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory is a complex endeavor. How much folklore would I have to study to write the paper with any real chance of effectiveness? So now finally deciding to take a break from this ‘serious’ research into the esoteric dissociative disorders of modern society I thought this true crime book about the Unicorn killer would be an easy read without any scholarly responsibility. Lo and behold I have realized that all these roads brought me back (in ‘circular’ rather than ‘linear’ fashion) to my starting place with Manson, modern terror and (inferentially) modern dissociation. For those interested in a history of ‘the sixties’, the ‘New Age’, the original Earth Day and environmental movement and other such topics, this book about Ira Einhorn provides a great window into that historical period, but here I propose the connections to modern society can become more interesting even if also more theoretical, in the form of the idea of social system ‘differentiation’ as proposed by Niklas Luhmann. Through the communicative operations of various differentiated social subsystems that comprise modern society (such as law, politics, economy, and art to name a few), is modern society in a sense itself not merely differentiated as Luhmann would call it, but actually *dissociated*? Is this dissociation/differentiation the type of social environment in which operators such as Charles Manson and Ira Einhorn can operate more freely? Is modern society in circular fashion repeating these same mistakes over and over again through its autopoiesis (self-generation)? From a folkloric perspective, how did characters such as Ira Einhorn manipulate their way into this lofty space “above the spheres” where the common folk dare not tread? If Einhorn is the emperor, he certainly was widely known to answer his front door in the nude. So why did no one else operating at this social level, “above the spheres” with the likes of the Harvard Business School, other executives in “the corporate world”, and such luminaries as the famous UFO researcher Jacque Vallee (whose Infomedia company hired Ira Einhorn as a consultant) *not* notice the sinister character with whom they happened to be, in a certain sense, conspiring? Does modern society with its unstable and oft invisible hierarchies have an inherent blind spot about operators like Ira Einhorn?
Before he ended up on the lam and ultimately in prison (where he died in 2020), Ira Einhorn lived “above the spheres” in which ordinary people move, “a world of scientists, educators, renegade intellectuals, and wacky occultists. Not to mention some hideously rich people.” (p. 331) Many of us I suspect have flirted with such a desire to live in this rarified world. This is perhaps the world we imagine that all famous, influential, or ‘successful’ people in modern society must inhabit. For this reason alone, I suppose this book carries a lot of synchronous weight, in the Jungian or emotional sense. I also lived for awhile in Philadelphia (some time after Einhorn had fled the scene), but that’s not my only connection to this material. In fact my one published article is about Charles Manson, and included some research into the idea of Manson as an “abject hero”, tangentially linked to Einhorn also as such a grotesque figure, a carnivalesque fool embracing the saturnalia of our times. After writing this article on Manson (which included material touching on Einhorn’s crime even if it went unmentioned in my final published article), I’ve been somewhat adrift as to my next subject for serious research. Foolishly perhaps, I began researching UFOs and folklore as related to social systems theory, and I did find some interesting connections between UFOs and dissociation (a type of modern trauma often tied to serial killers, multiple personalities and conspiracy theories about CIA mind control and counterintelligence). This course of reading delved into the study of folklore, which also connects to UFOs and serial killers, both ideas folkloric in their own right, but related also in the form of alien abduction narratives, urban legends and horror films (a variant one could say of ‘modern folklore’). Dipping my toe into folklore brought me to a kind of dead end in the avenue of ‘linear’ progression, in that I realized folklore is a deep subject, and also trying to relate folklore to Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory is a complex endeavor. How much folklore would I have to study to write the paper with any real chance of effectiveness? So now finally deciding to take a break from this ‘serious’ research into the esoteric dissociative disorders of modern society I thought this true crime book about the Unicorn killer would be an easy read without any scholarly responsibility. Lo and behold I have realized that all these roads brought me back (in ‘circular’ rather than ‘linear’ fashion) to my starting place with Manson, modern terror and (inferentially) modern dissociation. For those interested in a history of ‘the sixties’, the ‘New Age’, the original Earth Day and environmental movement and other such topics, this book about Ira Einhorn provides a great window into that historical period, but here I propose the connections to modern society can become more interesting even if also more theoretical, in the form of the idea of social system ‘differentiation’ as proposed by Niklas Luhmann. Through the communicative operations of various differentiated social subsystems that comprise modern society (such as law, politics, economy, and art to name a few), is modern society in a sense itself not merely differentiated as Luhmann would call it, but actually *dissociated*? Is this dissociation/differentiation the type of social environment in which operators such as Charles Manson and Ira Einhorn can operate more freely? Is modern society in circular fashion repeating these same mistakes over and over again through its autopoiesis (self-generation)? From a folkloric perspective, how did characters such as Ira Einhorn manipulate their way into this lofty space “above the spheres” where the common folk dare not tread? If Einhorn is the emperor, he certainly was widely known to answer his front door in the nude. So why did no one else operating at this social level, “above the spheres” with the likes of the Harvard Business School, other executives in “the corporate world”, and such luminaries as the famous UFO researcher Jacque Vallee (whose Infomedia company hired Ira Einhorn as a consultant) *not* notice the sinister character with whom they happened to be, in a certain sense, conspiring? Does modern society with its unstable and oft invisible hierarchies have an inherent blind spot about operators like Ira Einhorn?
January 29, 2018
If I had realised this book was from 1988, I might have given it a pass, particularly since events in the central case have moved on significantly since then. However, I would have missed out on this startling portrayal of a deeply - malignantly - narcissistic man.
Ira Einhorn is a fascinating person, who led a life in the 60s and 70s that on the surface sounds exciting, intellectually stimulating, and full of personal growth. However, as with many narcissists, scratch the social facade and a deeply disturbed individual lurks. Einhorn was able to function in society for as long as he did partly due to the times - he was charismatic, knew how to pitch to an audience and was fixated on culturally popular tropes that brought him acolytes to feed his all-consuming ego.
Levy - unusually - spends a good deal of time discussing the victim, Holly Maddux, which was very heartening to read. He makes her human and memorable. Someone who was loved and missed, even if her killer wanted nothing but to negate her.
The problem with the book is that it feels like only a partial story. It is only very late on that we learn of Einhorn's full, chilling history. I suspect with the benefit of hindsight from 1988, this history is even more disturbing to a modern audience given what we now accept about abusers, the relevance of their past actions, and the subtle ways they work their awful damage. It gives an implicit commentary about how violence and abuse was treated in the 1970s, but also in the time that the book was written because of how little it was covered by the author.
Overall, 3 stars because it feels like Levy was also dazzled by the 'brilliance' of Einhorn and could have made more apparent his long history of serious violent behaviour towards women, and the ways that a deeply misogynistic culture enabled him to continue and repeat his abusive behaviour.
Ira Einhorn is a fascinating person, who led a life in the 60s and 70s that on the surface sounds exciting, intellectually stimulating, and full of personal growth. However, as with many narcissists, scratch the social facade and a deeply disturbed individual lurks. Einhorn was able to function in society for as long as he did partly due to the times - he was charismatic, knew how to pitch to an audience and was fixated on culturally popular tropes that brought him acolytes to feed his all-consuming ego.
Levy - unusually - spends a good deal of time discussing the victim, Holly Maddux, which was very heartening to read. He makes her human and memorable. Someone who was loved and missed, even if her killer wanted nothing but to negate her.
The problem with the book is that it feels like only a partial story. It is only very late on that we learn of Einhorn's full, chilling history. I suspect with the benefit of hindsight from 1988, this history is even more disturbing to a modern audience given what we now accept about abusers, the relevance of their past actions, and the subtle ways they work their awful damage. It gives an implicit commentary about how violence and abuse was treated in the 1970s, but also in the time that the book was written because of how little it was covered by the author.
Overall, 3 stars because it feels like Levy was also dazzled by the 'brilliance' of Einhorn and could have made more apparent his long history of serious violent behaviour towards women, and the ways that a deeply misogynistic culture enabled him to continue and repeat his abusive behaviour.
April 1, 2020
Published in 1988, The Unicorn’s Secret by Steven Levy gets off to a powerful start with the discovery of Holly’s body and the days immediately before and the events after, including Einhorn’s bond hearing.
After the dramatic beginning, the story goes back into Einhorn’s and Maddux’s histories leading up to their meeting. While some history is important to understanding how these people ended up together, this part really dragged on for me. The chapters alternated between Einhorn and Holly, and the beginning of their relationship did not come up until 135 pages in. Although I appreciated some of their backstories, there was too much time invested in the mundane personal histories that ultimately did not have much bearing on the couple.
Once the histories were extensively covered, the stormy relationship between the two finally emerged. From this point forward, I did not want to put this book down, it was engaging and interesting. Though times have changed quite a bit relating to domestic issues, it was interesting to read how little they were considered during the time of the relationship, up until the late 80s when this book was published. Once you wade through the lengthy histories, this book was on cue with what you would expect and enjoy from a true crime novel.
I found Ira Einhorn to be a particularly detestable character. He is egotistical, pretentious, and chauvinistic to an extreme degree. The author critiques Einhorn’s characteristics late in the book, while seeming to be a little enchanted by him early on.
Overall, a pretty good true crime novel with a few issues.
After the dramatic beginning, the story goes back into Einhorn’s and Maddux’s histories leading up to their meeting. While some history is important to understanding how these people ended up together, this part really dragged on for me. The chapters alternated between Einhorn and Holly, and the beginning of their relationship did not come up until 135 pages in. Although I appreciated some of their backstories, there was too much time invested in the mundane personal histories that ultimately did not have much bearing on the couple.
Once the histories were extensively covered, the stormy relationship between the two finally emerged. From this point forward, I did not want to put this book down, it was engaging and interesting. Though times have changed quite a bit relating to domestic issues, it was interesting to read how little they were considered during the time of the relationship, up until the late 80s when this book was published. Once you wade through the lengthy histories, this book was on cue with what you would expect and enjoy from a true crime novel.
I found Ira Einhorn to be a particularly detestable character. He is egotistical, pretentious, and chauvinistic to an extreme degree. The author critiques Einhorn’s characteristics late in the book, while seeming to be a little enchanted by him early on.
Overall, a pretty good true crime novel with a few issues.
May 13, 2020
because "the unicorn" is local to me, and this "unicorn" (aka despicable person) died in prison a few weeks ago, i was reminded of what took place many years ago. and plus our local paper published a giant full page photo of him with the massive headline, "bye, ira". i looked up any books on the topic, and found this one, from 1988. i read it on kindle.
we all knew ira einhorn, all of us of a certain age, in our home town. he was our hippie in the know, local hippie bigwig, writer of articles for our local hippie paper, we heard him speak at the first be-in, which he brought here. and earth day, here. so it was quite a shock to hear what he had done with his lovely girlfriend, holly maddux. he killed her and left her (mummified) body in a trunk a few feet from where he slept. although for years he denied it.
this lovely girl would have been my age today. and she never got to live a full life. it was beyond sad. this book really told the inside story. and it came replete with all the characters and officials of my youth here. i remembered them all, including, most famously, ira's initial lawyer, arlen spector.
a fascinating read, in immense detail. for locals of a certain age, a must read. a true crime classic. with a few really totally stunning "secrets" that i, who followed the case closely, did not know. highly recommended. if you read true crime, this is the next read for you.
we all knew ira einhorn, all of us of a certain age, in our home town. he was our hippie in the know, local hippie bigwig, writer of articles for our local hippie paper, we heard him speak at the first be-in, which he brought here. and earth day, here. so it was quite a shock to hear what he had done with his lovely girlfriend, holly maddux. he killed her and left her (mummified) body in a trunk a few feet from where he slept. although for years he denied it.
this lovely girl would have been my age today. and she never got to live a full life. it was beyond sad. this book really told the inside story. and it came replete with all the characters and officials of my youth here. i remembered them all, including, most famously, ira's initial lawyer, arlen spector.
a fascinating read, in immense detail. for locals of a certain age, a must read. a true crime classic. with a few really totally stunning "secrets" that i, who followed the case closely, did not know. highly recommended. if you read true crime, this is the next read for you.
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February 20, 2023I recently re-watched the Unsolved Mysteries episode about Einhorn and decided to read this book. Unfortunately, our library system only had the first edition without the update but I knew I could find enough update info on the internet. This book starts out a little slow and has a bunch of historical stuff about the 60's in it, if that sort of thing interests you. This is an interesting portrait of a narcissistic man who was able to hide his violent tendencies from a lot of people who thought they knew him and the sad story of a woman in an abusive relationship that eventually ended in murder.
March 10, 2024
An excellent read about a sadly-familiar story.
There are some unusual factors in play, including the criminal's fame and the long, frustrating search for the guy. There was just a whiff of the paranormal in here, enough to make me feel Holly might have been making herself heard from beyond the grave. That's the least she deserves.
There are some unusual factors in play, including the criminal's fame and the long, frustrating search for the guy. There was just a whiff of the paranormal in here, enough to make me feel Holly might have been making herself heard from beyond the grave. That's the least she deserves.
December 20, 2017
3 1/2 stars.
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July 25, 2023Got this at a thrift store in Ohio while shopping for wedding decorations in 2019.
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April 10, 2008364.15
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