New documents obtained from the Bureau of Prisons are shedding some light on the final days of Jeffrey Epstein. The former financier and convicted sex offender committed suicide on August 10th while being held on charges of sex trafficking teenage girls. His death sparked various conspiracy theories, most implying that some of his more high-profile friends might have ordered a hit on him in order to keep their own wrong-doings under wraps. Epstein’s known associates included powerful figures like Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, among others, but according to these new documents, it seems likely that Epstein’s death was the result of incompetence, perhaps even negligence, on the part of the Bureau.
The New York Times published a report based on over 2,000 documents it obtained after threatening legal action under the Freedom of Information act. The documents include notes from inmates specially assigned to watch Epstein, as well as official psychological evaluations by prison psychologists. A lot of information has been redacted, but from what the Times could put together, Epstein somehow convinced the professionals monitoring him that he was not suicidal, despite having already attempted suicide once before. That incident happened in July when Epstein was first brought to the prison. He was found unconscious on his cell floor with a bedsheet tied around his neck, but records of that event have been heavily redacted for some reason. What we do know is that there were plenty of red flags missed by prison officials.
An intake form identified Epstein as Black, despite him being a white male. It also indicated he had no prior sex offense convictions when, in reality, he was a registered sex offender in Florida. Some of his “social” phone calls were not logged, including a call he made to his girlfriend the night he killed himself. Epstein reportedly told guards he was “calling his mother” but his mother had been long dead. Official psychological evaluations described Epstein as “future-oriented” and “psychologically stable” saying he denied suicidal ideation and describing him as “smirking” and “cracking jokes” while saying his Jewish faith prevented him from committing suicide. Those reports contrast notes from inmates assigned to watch Epstein, however, with logs indicating he was having trouble sleeping, worried for his safety, constipated, and increasingly disturbed by the running toilet in his cell and other loud noises in the jail.
“He said he sat in the corner and held his ears,” a psychologist wrote about Epstein’s toilet complaint, noting he suggested he might have autism because “Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character in Rain Man had an aversion to noise.”
The report stated Epstein was given novels to read and confirmed that the prison pharmacy should continue to prescribe his constipation meds, which he hadn’t been taking since being incarcerated.
Epstein also faced multiple bail denials and other blows to his legal defense, hearings that were noted in his psych reports as being potential catalysts for more suicide attempts. He was often put on psych watch, though the prison seems to have failed at properly evaluating him after his scheduled court dates. He had no familial connections, and the only visitors he received were his lawyers — both were identified as potential risk factors for future suicide attempts. But, the final blow for Epstein may have been when a federal appeals court unsealed 2,000 pages of previously confidential documents in a defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents were damning for Epstein, detailing events that happened in his Manhattan mansion, his Florida residence, and his infamous private island.
That same day, after calling his girlfriend, Epstein returned to his cell alone — the prison hadn’t assigned him a new cellmate despite strict orders he was not to be left alone. Though he was on psych watch, he was left unmonitored by the two guards on duty who reportedly spent their time “surfing the internet and appearing to be asleep.” The next morning, Epstein was found with a bedsheet tied around his neck and pronounced dead an hour later. Though plenty of conspiracy theories have been tossed around, none have been supported by facts and in these new documents, inmates in charge of watching Epstein make it clear that the man had a talent for manipulating others.
“Jeffrey Epstein definitely killed himself. Any conspiracy theories to the contrary are ridiculous,” one inmate whose cell was next to Epstein’s reportedly told the psychologist after his death, saying he could hear the disgraced businessman “tearing up his sheet before committing suicide.”
It’s likely his death can be blamed on poor supervision and his own ability to deceive people.
(Via The New York Times)