Alana Goodman - A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein

Conspiracy theories spring up when an official story is implausible, unpersuasive, or, sometimes, total bunk. These days they seem to develop on the margins of the internet and then spread to the general publicoften very, very quickly. The best are not made up out of whole cloth. They are carefully considered alternative theories to understand something that does not make sense. They rely on facts, or at least kernels of truth, which are then expanded and extrapolated on to come somewhere, somehow closer to telling a more complete and (one hopes) truthful story.

So, what happens when a conspiracy theory comes true? That is what seemed to happen on August 10, 2019, when one of the most notorious inmates ever to inhabit the Metropolitan Correctional Center was found hanging in his cell.

Ever since Jeffrey Epstein, notorious pedophile and pal/client to the rich and famous, was arrested, people had speculated that he would be murdered. Over the years, Epstein had befriended some of the most powerful men in the worldpresidents, princes, business titansembroiling many of them in his sex scandals. As he awaited trial, many people mused that he had more secrets to share, more scandals to expose, perhaps more powerful names to implicate. What would happen if he decided to squeal? Worse, for his powerful allies, would he be so desperate to get out of jail that he would be willing to tell authorities whatever they wanted to hear just for the chance to be free? Would they risk this possibility, or would they ensure that he could not expose them?

If Epstein talks, theres gonna be a lot of powerful people who could go down, Nick Bryant, a dogged reporter who had been on the Epstein case for far longer than just about everyone else, speculated in an interview.

The Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown went a little further in her detailing of the very powerful people close to Epstein. Theyre sweating a little bit, especially today, Brown told MSNBC the day after Epstein was arrested. There have been a lot of names that I could see on these message pads [listing clients] on a regular basis as part of the evidence. These message pads where they would call and leave Epstein messages, such as, Im at this hotel. Why do you do that, unless youre expecting him to send you a girl to visit you at your hotel? So there are probably quite a few important people, powerful people, who are sweating it out right now. Well have to wait and see whether Epstein is going to name names.

Epsteins sudden, unexpected death brought that to a most convenient end. It ensured those secrets were never revealed, that so many questions would never be answered. To his accomplices and abettors, his would have been the most timely and useful suicide ever committed.

If thats really what it was. Questions about whether the notorious sex offender had been murdered arose within minutes once the news of his death reached the public.

Even President Donald Trump, a former friend of Epsteins, re-tweeted a Twitter message from one of his supporters that speculated Epstein had information on Bill Clinton & now hes dead.

I see #TrumpBodyCount trending but we know who did this! said the Twitter post.

As reporters who have, between us, covered plenty of news stories and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, we have become natural skeptics. Weve learned to take with a grain of salt wild accusations or in some cases wishful thinking, even when they come from the president of the United States. But as we began to look into the Epstein story, we started to understand the widespread skepticism. The official story of Epsteins death had holes in itbig holesfrom the beginning. Cameras that might have chronicled the scene mysteriously failed. Tapes were suddenly erased, disappearing, or someway inoperable.

Reasonable questions multiplied. Why were the guards at that cellblock so lax, especially when dealing with such a notorious and high-profile cellmate? Why were the security cameras so error prone at this particular moment? Was this really just a jailhouse comedy of errors with a distinctly unfunny ending? How could a prison that housed some of the most deadly and dangerous criminals in the nation really behave so unprofessionally, so sloppily? Or was there something more going on?

No one has done a good job answering these questions. Not the feds. Not any state government. Not New York City officials. Not the media. Not Jeffrey Epsteins friends and associatesand there are manywho themselves are still enjoying life from their perch at the upper echelon of our political, elite class. An August 2019 public poll conducted by Emerson College found that 34 percent of Americans believed that Epstein had been murdered. By January 2020, 52 percent of Americans believed he was murdered to prevent him from testifying against powerful people with whom he associated.

As we looked into the case for ourselves, we kept turning up more questions to answer, more suspicions to explore, more new facts that emerged to fill the gaps and challenge the official narrative. We examined the mystery of his finances and his secretive business arrangements. We interviewed those who knew Jeffrey Epstein well, either as friends, business or legal associates, or because they were victimized by him.

A Convenient Death will not help you trust media accounts of Epsteins death. It will not restore your faith in the government or other powerful American institutions.

What it will do is take readers inside the dark corners of the American and international power structure, revealing why any number of people could have been driven to drastic action to make sure those corners stayed in the shadows. And it will make readers uncomfortable, especially those who believe there is nothing to be learned from Epsteins crime spree and the complete mishandling of justice.