PHILADELPHIA – Former hippie guru Ira Einhorn went on trial Monday on charges he murdered his girlfriend, with a prosecutor accusing the 1970s icon of having a “bizarre philosophy of violence” and a history of mistreating women.

The defense said Einhorn is innocent and fled the country on the eve of trial more than 20 years ago only because he was frightened.

Prosecutor Joel Rosen said he would present evidence that Einhorn, 62, killed Holly Maddux in 1977 in their west Philadelphia apartment, where her body was found two years later in a steamer trunk.

In his opening statement, Rosen read a poem from a personal journal in which Einhorn allegedly described beating and choking another ex-lover. The poem’s closing lines were, “In such violence, there may be freedom.”

“He had his own little bizarre philosophy of violence. It was OK to him,” Rosen said.

Einhorn jumped bail just before his 1981 trial and spent more than 16 years on the lam before he was captured in France. Defense attorney William T. Cannon asked jurors not to assume Einhorn was guilty just because he fled.

“Ira Einhorn in January 1981 was plain scared,” he said. “He was scared about the prospect of injustice, the kind of injustice that takes place when the prosecutor’s office is not playing with a fair deck.”

Einhorn will testify that he never physically assaulted Maddux, Cannon added.

Einhorn appeared attentive as the trial opened Monday, alternately taking notes and closely watching jurors. Maddux’s three sisters and brother were in the gallery.

One sister, Buffy Hall, was the first witness to testify Monday. She said that the last time she saw Maddux alive, she had seemed excited and happier than she had been in years. She said her sister had told her that she was about to leave Einhorn.

The jury was chosen in just a few days last week – quicker than expected. Lawyers on both sides had thought the media frenzy surrounding Einhorn would make it hard to find people without an opinion on the case.

Einhorn’s lawyers may call celebrities such as Ellen Burstyn and Peter Gabriel as character witnesses. His New Age philosophy had gained him a following among the rich and influential in the 1970s.

In Portland, Maine, Police Chief Michael Chitwood said Monday he is awaiting the call to travel to Philadelphia to testify at the trial. Chitwood, then a detective with the Philadelphia police, found the mummified remains of Holly Maddux in a steamer trunk in the apartment she and Einhorn had shared.

Chitwood said he’ll probably be the last witness for the prosecution.

“I’m kind of on call, a two- or three-day notice type of thing,” he said.

The chief said the last time he saw Einhorn was the day he arrested him in 1979. Chitwood said he looks forward to testifying and helping to bring closure in the case, both for the victim’s family and himself.