By Dick LaFontaine
It probably is not a secret – for at least it won’t be a secret for long that a Los Angeles producer asked Frank Parlato to investigate, arrange access, and interview on the subject of Jeffrey Epstien. I, along with others, will assist in this investigation.
So consider this scenario: You are being paid to produce a ground-breaking documentary on the August 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein while in custody at a U.S. Government lock-up in Lower Manhattan. You have a producer and a wealthy patron who is not only willing, but is terribly interested in funding the entire project. You have access to an array of witnesses, evidence and some “deep throats” who have contacted Frank, with some, shall we say, disturbing or at least heretofore unknown information.
And you can chase down every lead and shake every tree in pursuit of the truth.
What is the first question you must ask yourself in such a scenario? For many, it will be: How long until I end up dead?
Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?
“Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein?” has been done before.
But a deep dive into the facts and evidence may well be one of the most compelling stories of our time – if not one of the deadliest.
What do we need to know if we were to produce the definitive investigative documentary on Epstein’s death?
Who is Jeffrey Epstein?
Epstein is often referred to as a “billionaire financier” with a client list and social circle that was a who’s who of high society, politics, and science.
Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Clinton were known to spend time together.
Famous friends included Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Gates.
In July 2019, the FBI and the NYPD Crimes Against Children unit arrested Epstein for sex trafficking shortly after the SDNY’s Public Corruption Unit unsealed an indictment.
His charges came with a presumption of detention, and despite his wealth, he could not get bail.
One month later, on August 10, 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan.
The medical examiner’s office ruled his death suicide by hanging. He was 66 years old.
Epstein had a mysterious rise to success
His first position was in 1974, when former U.S. Attorney William Barr’s father, Donald Barr, hired him as a math and physics teacher at Dalton, an exclusive prep school in Manhattan.
Donald Barr Sr., who died in 2004, was then headmaster of the school. Epstein was 21 and had no college degree. After teaching at Dalton for two years, he was noticed by a parent of one of the students, Alan Greenberg, then head of Bear Stearns.
Greenberg gave Epstein an entry-level position at Bear Stearns, and in four years, Epstein was a limited partner.
A young Epstein made a limited partner at Bear Stearns after four years.
A year later, he left to start his own company. From then (1981) until the present, the source of Epstein’s wealth is not definitively known. What is known is that within ten years, he visited and advised Bill Clinton and his administration at the White House. while socializing in Manhattan with Donald Trump.
Less publicized is the “little black book” recovered by the Feds, supplied by a former butler of Epstein’s in 2015. Juxtaposed with the passenger list of Epstein’s private jet logs, the breadth of his social circle and influence is impressive.
Epstein’s High Society Contacts
The only known client of Epstein is Lex Wexner, founder of L Brands in Ohio, which owned Bath and Body Works, The Limited and Express, and Victoria’s Secret. Wexner became his client in the 1980s and was with Epstein until 2007 (at least that’s what he said). Wexner transferred a property he owned valued at $77 million in Manhattan, where Epstein lived for over a decade, to Epstein in 2011 for $0.
The home was the largest private residence in Manhattan, and was the location where alleged sex trafficking took place that Epstein was indicted for.
Wexner bought the property for $13.2 million in the ’90s.
Epstein’s known client, American billionaire Lex Wexner.
After Epstein’s death, the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands – where Epstein owned a private island and his corporations were founded – pegged Epstein’s (known) estate as worth $640 million.
Wexner’s net worth was around $6.6 billion at the time. Epstein’s was 10% of Wexner’s. It is unknown how much Wexner paid, but it seems unlikely it all came from Wexner.
Where did the entirety of Epstein’s wealth come from?
In the 1980s, Epstein had a close relationship with a British arms dealer and possessed a fake Austrian passport, listing a residence in Saudi Arabia, later retrieved by the government. He operated a “currency trading hedge fund” and “managed the finances of individuals worth a minimum of $1 billion”.
Yet many industry professionals publicly said they never encountered anyone who was his client or any of his trades within markets. If his operation were that large, there would have been a footprint.
Furthermore, he was in prison (albeit with work release) for a year during the most volatile period in financial markets in 80 years, and it appeared to have no effect on his business.
For decades, he had seemingly endless time for leisure activities, which seems somewhat different from the efforts required of a high-end financial consultant or currency trader.
They work a lot.
Epstein got a sweetheart deal earlier
Why?
In 2008, Epstein pled guilty to “Procuring a girl under the age of 18 for prostitution” in Palm Beach County. He was sentenced to 13 months, but was allowed to leave the lockup for 12 hours a day for work.
In 2018, the Miami Herald broke the story that Epstein faced a 53-count federal indictment in 2008 and had more than 50 alleged underage victims of similar offenses.
Former Trump Secretary of Labor, Alex Acosta, gave Epstein a sweetheart deal when he was U.S. Attorney.
Then U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta agreed to enter into a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein dropping the federal charges against Epstein and any unknown “potential co-conspirators” in exchange for Epstein’s plea to the state charge.
Acosta became Trump’s Labor Secretary, and it is alleged that when asked about this in his vetting by the Trump transition team, Acosta said he was told “Epstein was part of intelligence” and to back off.
Why do many people believe Epstein was murdered?
After Epstein was found dead in his cell, although ruled a suicide, some curious irregularities emerged.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan, New York.
He had been taken off suicide watch only that day, after nine days, before being found with neck injuries purportedly evidencing a suicide attempt.
Although his attorneys stated he did not attempt suicide. He claimed Epstien’s cellmate, a convicted murderer, attacked him.
So on the day Epstien died:
His cellmate was suddenly transferred out of Epstien’s cell and without replacement. Epstein was alone.
The cameras outside his cell suddenly malfunctioned.
The two guards tasked with checking on Epstein every 30 minutes did not check on him for 8 hours. They allegedly “fell asleep” or were “surfing the internet” in the common area.
Epstein was found with three fractures to his hyoid bone, which medical experts claim is more typical of homicide by strangulation than death by hanging.
In court documents filed by SDNY prosecutors in connection with Epstein’s pending bail hearing and other matters, it was revealed that among things recovered at Epstein’s Manhattan residence – held within a safe – were numerous labeled CDs and pictures of young women together with men. Two pinhole cameras for making secret recordings were found in the residence.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, said publicly that based on her interviews with the FBI, she is certain the government had videotapes of her having sex with Epstein’s powerful friends within their possession.
Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre claims the FBI has tapes of Epstein’s high-profile friends having sex with her.
Was the source of Epstein’s wealth a blackmail scheme? For personal profit or an intelligence service, or both?
Did the Government cover up Epstein’s suicide?
The circumstances surrounding Epstein’s “suicide” are unusual. In 40 years, there had only been one suicide and three attempted suicides in the Metropolitan Correction Center. The one suicide was a mobster, so perhaps it wasn’t a suicide either.
But there was a serious attempt to make those responsible pay in the Epstien matter.
The two guards responsible for overseeing Epstein’s well-being in his cell were indicted for falsifying their accounts of that night. However, the charges were dropped in a deferred prosecution agreement, and they only got sentences of 100 hours of community service.
The confluence of events resulting in Epstein’s death.
Checks and balances need to ensure inmates safety (self-inflicted or otherwise)
If Epstein was murdered, it seems there was some coordination and highly unlikely that one person did it.
He is taken off suicide watch, his cellmate is moved, the cameras go out, the guards fall asleep. He hangs himself.
A man with a high net worth, with no visible source, who had relationships with powerful men and underage girls, and devices for spying, could have been on a path to expose someone with enormous influence and power, and winds up dead in a prison not known for suicides.
If someone murdered him, who paid for it? Who had a motive? How much would it cost to get to him? This would require access at the highest level of intelligence or government.
If someone killed Epstein, this was a person with authority, money
Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?
If Epstein was murdered, who would be interested in doing so? And who would be interested in “permanently silencing” our reporting?
The answer to these questions requires an investigation of related questions:
Was it one of the people in his little black book, other than associates of Adnan Khashoggi?
Epstein associate Adnan Khashoggi was a Saudi businessman and arms dealer known for his lavish business deals and lifestyle.
Is the murderer disconnected from the Intelligence Community? The claim is that Epstein was a CIA Operative. That might explain how he supported a staggering and steady access to some of the most influential people on the planet.
Eric Weinstein, Ph.D. mathematician and Managing Director of Thiel Capital, met Epstein and said he thought Epstein was part of an intelligence operation for 20 years. Former business associates, confidantes, and financiers have made similar claims of CIA involvement.
Why was Ghislaine Maxwell charged?
Ghislaine Maxwell was not indicted and arrested until a year after Epstein’s arrest, 11 months after his death. It appears the government had no interest in charging her at the time of Epstein’s indictment.
What changed?
Consider other cases where a single (deranged) person seems to take the fall for murder or assassination: Whitey Bulger, MLK, JFK, RFK, and others where the government fumbles a prosecution and goes after low-hanging fruit as a face-saving distraction.
Who is at risk?
If a key witness is murdered because the government fails to protect them, then a lower-level criminal gets prosecuted down the road if the killer is discovered.
Who would FR need access to for proof of involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein murder? Who could become “permanently unavailable” if journalists and investigators commenced targeted newsgathering activities?
Epstien’s brother, Mark Epstein, claims Jeffrey Epstein was murdered.
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein.
Mark Epstein hired former New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden to do an independent autopsy. Based on the evidence available shortly after Epstein’s death, Dr. Baden has been firm in his medical conclusion: “I think that the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide,” noting that Epstein’s wounds were “more consistent with ligature homicidal strangulation” rather than a suicidal hanging.
Other medical experts agree with Dr. Baden.
Fox News Medical consultant Dr. Marc Spiegel who stated the death was “unusual” in the days following, upon examining the evidence, concluded that it was a homicide and likely murder. The neck injuries indicated a high likelihood of “homicidal strangulation.”
What about Lex Wexner? Wexner is in his late eighties. Who is younger and was within Wexner’s inner circle pre-2007?
Someone who may know something is former Epstein attorney Alan Dershowitz. Is there any way around this lawyer’s privilege?
What was the Clintons’ involvement?
See: Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein were “Thick as Thieves.”
The main point of contact with Clinton and Epstein was Clinton aid and Clinton Global Initiative co-founder Greg Band.
What was Donald Trump’s involvement with Epstein? Which former Mar-a-Lago employees or guests witnessed Trump with Epstein? One Epstein victim sued Trump in 2015, alleging Epstein forced her to have sex with Trump. Her lawyers withdrew the suit shortly after it was filed. Trump Attorney General Bill Barr’s father, the late Donald Barr, had a close relationship with Epstein.
What was Donald Trump’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein?
What about the the two guards assigned to watch over Epstein that night? Or other Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center employees who worked at the prison on the night of Epstein’s death?
Plenty of members of the fourth estate have unearthed eye-opening facts about Epstein, his life and times, and demise. These include Julie K. Brown, the reporter who broke the Epstein story in 2018, and Amy Rorbach, the ABC correspondent, caught on a hot mike telling a producer how she had the Epstein story in 2016 and ABC killed it.
She said she was convinced Epstein was murdered, as “he made his money through blackmail,” according to a video released by Project Veritas.
Julie K. Brown broke the Epstein story in 2018.
What about Epstein’s earlier Florida prosecution and conviction? Former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter told Dateline that the department’s investigation of Epstein from 2005-2008 was “the worst failure of the criminal justice system in modern times.”
Do law enforcement personnel who worked at the Palm Beach County jail while Epstein was incarcerated have anything to say?
Brilliant people dealt with Jeffrey Epstein. Scientists from Harvard, MIT, and elsewhere both worked with Epstein and took his money, some after his 2008 conviction.
What does FR need to know?
Often, some of the best ideas come from the unlikeliest of sources. Fortunately for the Frank Report, our readership regularly provides insight, judgment, counsel, and commentary.
Readers are participants in our quest for truth. To that end, we ask you to weigh in.
Would you take on this project? Is the documentary form appropriate for investigation, reporting, and storytelling for the Epstein story? What angles related to Jeffrey Epstein’s death have other outlets neglected to cover?
Should Frank get someone to start his car for him in the morning?
We want your thoughts, comments, opinions, concerns, or anything else you want to say on this topic. If anything is off-limits, no one will know until it comes out on the obituary page.
