Summary: In the 20th century, mystery novels described mysterious deaths that were convenient for the rich and powerful. In 21st Century America, the newspapers report them. Then and now, we can only guess about the guilty – or if there was even a crime. I’ll bet that we will never know for sure – any more than we know who killed JFK. Here is what we know, cutting through the misinformation.
For three decades, many people have accused Jeffrey Epstein of crimes. But although prosecutors and victims tried to hold Jeffrey Epstein to account, at every turn, he slipped away. In a 2008 plea deal, he admitted to state charges of solicitation of prostitution from a minor. The deal was negotiated with then-U.S. attorney and former Trump Cabinet member Alexander Acosta. Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail but was allowed to leave the jail for 12 hours a day, six days a week, to work at his office in Florida. Epstein’s case was reopened after a Miami Herald investigation last year brought this into the light.
Epstein himself is a mystery, especially about his money. None of the stories make much sense. The NYT: “Mystery Around Jeffrey Epstein’s Fortune and How He Made It.” Bloomberg: “Mystery Around Jeffrey Epstein’s Fortune and How He Made It.” For speculation, see “How Jeffrey Epstein Made His Money: Four Wild Theories” at NY Magazine
Now Epstein is dead …
Epstein died before he could tell police about the involvement of rich and powerful people in his festivities. There are probably lots of corks popping today! See the details in this NBC News summary. Note that neither of Epstein’s “suicide” attempts has been definitively classified as a suicide.
“Epstein, 66, was placed on suicide watch after he was found passed out in his jail cell with marks on his neck inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center on July 23 ….
“Even before his first suspected suicide try last month, Jeffrey Epstein was perhaps the most vulnerable man in the federal jail system: a wealthy and well-known financier accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. He was, by all accounts, the kind of inmate that should have been under the closest possible supervision.
“Instead, Epstein was taken off suicide watch {on July 29} before he apparently took his own life, officials told NBC News, a decision that baffled former wardens and veterans of the federal prison system.
“‘For them to pull him off suicide watch is shocking,’ Cameron Lindsay, a former warden who worked at three federal facilities, told NBC News. ‘For someone this high-profile, with these allegations and this many victims, who has had a suicide attempt in the last few weeks, you can take absolutely no chances. You leave him on suicide watch until he’s out of there.’ …
“One federal prison official with knowledge of the incident confirmed Mr. Epstein …was being held alone in a cell in a special housing unit. The official …said guards found Mr. Epstein in an otherwise empty cell during morning rounds. …Inmates on suicide watch are generally placed in a special observation cell, surrounded with windows, with a bolted down bed and no bedclothes, the official said. A correction officer – or sometimes a fellow inmate trained to be a ‘suicide companion’ – is typically assigned to sit in an adjacent office and monitor the inmate constantly.
“Robert Gangi, an expert on prisons and the former executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, said guards also generally take shoelaces and belts away from people on suicide watch. ‘It’s virtually impossible to kill yourself,’ Mr. Gangi said.
“Inmates can only be removed from the watch when the program coordinator, who is generally the chief psychologist at the facility, deems they are no longer at imminent risk for suicide, according to a 2007 Bureau of Prison document outlining suicide prevention policies. The inmates cannot be removed from the watch without a face-to-face psychological evaluation.
“To take an inmate off suicide watch, a ‘post-watch report’ needs to be completed, which includes an analysis of how the inmate’s circumstances have changed and why that merits removal from the watch, the document said.”
Immediately afterward, there were edits cleaning up Epstein’s Wikipedia page. Despite rumors, Google did not suppress photos of Epstein and Bill Clinton.
An exposé in The Daily Mail.
Of course, that The Daily Mail prints something does not mean it is true. Just plausible.
“Jeffrey Epstein told prison guards and fellow inmates that he believed someone had tried to kill him in the weeks before his death, a source has revealed to DailyMail. The insider, who had seen the disgraced financier on several occasions during his incarceration at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, also claims that the normally reserved Epstein seemed to be in good spirits. ‘There was no indication that he might try to take his own life,’ the source told DailyMail.”
The sex-ring investigation continues.
See the press release by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. The last sentence reminds us that the indictment of Epstein implies a conspiracy, and so there are co-conspirators yet to be indicted.
“To those brave young women who have already come forward and to the many others who have yet to do so, let me reiterate that we remain committed to standing for you, and our investigation of the conduct charged in the Indictment – which included a conspiracy count – remains ongoing.”
Updates
The NYT reports that Bureau of Prisons procedures required that Epstein have a cellmate and be checked by guards every 30 minutes. The BoP assured the Justice Department that these procedures would be followed. But Epstein’s cellmate was transferred out of the unit, living him alone. Guards did not check him regularly. Also, they are not releasing the autopsy results at this time.
NBC News reports that “New York City’s chief medical examiner released a statement Sunday evening saying an autopsy has been performed on Epstein, but that more information is needed before a cause of death determination is made.” Also, “Guards on Jeffrey Epstein’s unit were working extreme overtime shifts to make up for staffing shortages the morning of his apparent suicide.”
Some harsh comments about Epstein’s “suicide.”
if you’re surprised that jeffrey epstein killed himself last night, imagine how surprised he must have been
— hell (@swearsayer) August 10, 2019
If the Epstein thing occurred in Russia — “oligarch” with connections to the ruling political elite found dead under suspicious circumstances — it would automatically get cast by US media as evidence of how fundamentally corrupt Russian society is
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 10, 2019
How would we perceive the Epstein story if it happened in China, Russia or even Mexico?
Well that’s how it looks to the rest of the world right now. We should let that sink in
— mark safranski (@zenpundit) August 10, 2019
If we were living in a paranoid fantasy universe, I would be very suspicious about the Epstein suicide, even about whether it was really suicide. And you know what? The Epstein case itself shows that we *are* kind of living in a paranoid fantasy universe
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) August 10, 2019
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I said to a friend of mine that either they were hopelessly incompetent or hopelessly corrupt, and it really doesn’t matter. This is banana republic type stuff, and it’s who we’ve become. And no one is going to believe anything that the investigation turns up if it even turns up anything.
This is the kind thing that has people swallowing the Black Pill about the regime. The FBI has apparently concluded, in its wisdom, that conspiracy theories are a threat to the State. Maybe they have a point. If people are reduced to spinning conspiracy theories because they flat out KNOW they’re being lied to, like they do in the former Soviet Republic of Lower Slobbovia, well…that’s not really a healthy state of affairs.
Not to worry, though, the people who proved that Russia hacked the DNC server are on the case. I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of it.
For the record, I wasn’t in Manhattan yesterday, and I can prove it.
The Man,
Sad but true.
There is another element in this. How will the FBI rank and file react to all this? Many of them are conservatives; most are proud of the FBI. Their agency’s reputation has been soiled in the minds of many by the RussiaGate fiasco, and the highly political actions of its senior officials. Now they see the strange doings of the DoJ and Bureau of Prisons in the Epstein case.
The Man,
A follow-up to the serious point you made about the FBI.
See this by Victor Davis Hansen at National Review – “The FBI Tragedy: Elites above the Law.“
I believe the majority of people know that he was assassinated. The camera just happened to malfunction on that day.
info,
“I believe the majority of people know that he was assassinated.”
They know nothing.
“The camera just happened to malfunction on that day.”
What camera?
There was a camera pointing at his cell. Where it could be recorded how he did it. But if he did it where is the footage?
I looked deeper into the camera malfunction and perhaps it is an unsubstantiated rumor.
From a former inmate:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7346373/Inmate-spent-months-Epsteins-prison-block-says-no-way-kill-himself.html
info,
That is by either an incompetent reporter or a confused inmate. It confuses the suicide watch quarters with the special unit. They are very different places.
Probably the latter as there are several outlets sourcing the same inmate.
I cant believe a man who can afford the best defense in the world as well as possibly cutting a deal to testify for the state would kill himself by a very painful method before any legal things started.
Maybe after the guilty verdict and sentencing but now?
Sven,
That’s a logical point. But people’s behavior is often logical by their values if not our values.. Perhaps he realized that there was no longer any way to escape, and he wished to avoid trial and punishment. Under such circumstances, Romans often chose suicide.
The only person who did not expect Jeffery Epstein to kill himself was … Jeffery Epstein.
Now the way is cleared for Hillary to run again.
If you think Hilary is not running again, put it down now for the archives, so 2 years from now you can brag about being right beforehand.
Rum,
The most common way people predict the future is as a repeat of the past.it avoids the need to look out the window rapt the world.
The Democratic Party has decisively moved on from the Bill Clinton – Obama – Hillary program.
In the case of J. Biden, dementia does not get better as a person closes in on being 80 years old. Especially when most of their bi-frontal cortex was suctioned out post an aneurysmal bleed years ago. ( I know MDs who have seen his brain CT scans.) It is a marvel that he can speak at all.
Who, exactly, is left among the existing declared candidates? I mean, who can hold off Hillary when she makes her move?
Rum,
You’re dreaming.
“I know MDs who have seen his brain CT scans.”
I doubt that you know anyone who has seen Biden’s brain scans, let alone multiple doctors willing to violate HIPAA Privacy Rules to chat with you about such hot info.
Far less parody than it appears to be (in light of this event):
“CDC: People With Dirt On Clintons Have 843% Greater Risk Of Suicide”
History just keeps on repeating itself.
dadodeaf,
Total malarky. The “mysterious Clinton-related deaths” is yet another example of the propaganda that fills the minds of Americans. We might not be the most gullible people to ever walk the face of the Earth, we are working hard to be contenders for the title.
It is zombie fake news, endlessly debunked but too politically useful to die. Here is one discussion of it. It traces the lie back to its source, and explains how you too can manufacture such a list about your foes. It’s easy!
As for what happened in the MCC, the ambulance, and the hospital, I will wait for the facts to roll in. Nonetheless, one can have an opinion on what is known.
The entire Epstein affair has left me feeling soiled and defeated. Once again, the moral rot at the top of our social hierarchy has been revealed, this coming on the heels of the college admission scandal. Our elites seem to think that there is nothing money can’t buy–politicians, admission to top-tier schools, young girls, or legal decisions. They seem to think that everything and everyone has a price. In their aeries, that may be true. But there’s still decency in the common folk, in my opinion.
It is sickening how this sex traffic ring operated with the silent assent of very wealthy, the socially connected, and the politically powerful. That shows the contempt those at the top have for the rest of us. And yet many of those alleged to have been involved (or at the least “in the know”) would presume to govern us, nay, even scold us and lecture us on how to live! But I suppose that if you have a private island and your own jet planes, the outrage and scorn of us commoners would barely register.
What other institutions are left to fail us?
I find it hard to believe what happened in this case. Generally I believe in the foul-up rather than conspiracy theory of history but being in custody in the US judicial system does seem to have its risks.
Jon,
What do you find “hard to believe”? Prisoners do kill themselves, most often by hanging themselves.
“being in custody in the US judicial system does seem to have its risks.”
What does that mean? Driving to the grocery store and shaving in the bathroom have risks. How much are Americans willing to pay to reduce the tiny percent of suicides in Federal prisons?
Hi Larry,
I find it hard to believe that someone took the decision to take him off suicide watch 6 days after a suicide attempt. Maybe that wasn’t the best decision they ever made. We have a psychiatric intensive care unit close to us, and they go to extreme lengths to avoid risk to those who are vulnerable. I accept your point that it does cost.
On the US risks, I appreciate this death was in NY but comparing places where 2018 data is available, such as in Mississippi (population circa 3 million) there were 76 inmate deaths in 2018 compared to 32 prison deaths in Scotland in the UK (population circa 5.4 million). Most of these deaths are health related but my point is that being in a US jail appears riskier for prisoners.
On a superficial level I struggle to forget the Oswald shooting whilst in police custody (rather than jail), probably as it periodically resurfaces!
Jon,
I’ve never been to Scotland, but I have traveled a lot in the US. My guess – guess! – is that our criminals are more violent and dysfunctional (i.e., retarded, substance abuse, mental illness) than those in Scottland. I doubt that a simple comparison reveals much.
Our prisons are dumping grounds for all these people.
Broken bones around Epsteins neck area:
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/Autopsy-finds-broken-bones-in-Epstein-s-neck-14305473.php
Strangulation or hanging.
WaPo: “Autopsy finds broken bones in Jeffrey Epstein’s neck, deepening questions around his death.“
info,
Read the article. It’s a clickbait headline. It gives no “deepening questions”, whatever that means. The little leaks from the autopsy, even if correct, tell us nothing.