At the centre of the sordid tale of Jeffrey Epstein lies a single, glaring truth: Epstein could never have done the unspeakable things he did if he hadnt existed in a world that allowed him to amass unlimited wealth.
Thats not the argument of Alana Goodman and Daniel HalpersA Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein, part of a spate of new reporting on Epsteins life, crimes, and outlandish death. As reporters for the right-wingWashington Examinerand various conservative media before that, its unlikely that the authors were aiming to write a parable about the perils of concentrated wealth in the hands of amoral financiers and the need to redistribute it.
Rather, Goodman and Halper have produced a well-reported, down-the-line book on the Epstein saga, a story that, by its very nature, makes that case for them. The story of Epstein and his crimes is impossible to untangle from the matter of wealth and power: who has it, who doesnt, what theyll do to get it, and the terrible things they can do once they have it.
A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey EpsteinAlana Goodman and Daniel HalperBarnes & Noble
Epstein himself was New Money, his drive for riches fuelled, the authors report, by bitter memories of a dreary upbringing in an immigrant family firmly on the lower end of the middle class.
As they and other recent Epstein-centric media argue, these working-class roots drove Epstein to craft a lifestyle of gleaming luxury for himself, and made his eventual imprisonment in a rat-and-roach-infested Manhattan jail particularly traumatic.
As we now know all too well, Epstein used his charm, charisma, and lack of ethical scruples to springboard himself out of the low-income trap having dropped out of college and found himself working as a roofer and into a teaching position at a preppy high school he wasnt remotely qualified for, one he used as another stepping stone into the world of the elite. After that, it was only a few rungs more before Epstein had his hands on the near-limitless fountain of cash he soon used to construct the sexual pyramid scheme that structured his days, waving around the money he had always craved to lure young girls who had none of it.
Money and wealth explain virtually every facet of Epsteins crimes. How did he get away with these schemes for years under the noses of the Palm Beach Police Department, eventually escaping with barely a slap on the wrist? It may have helped that he had given the department and the city government tens of thousands of dollars, and hired a top prosecutors husband as his attorney.
How did he avoid even media scrutiny for as long he did? Epstein paid for glowing coverage that oversold his philanthropy, and dangled job offers in front of journalists. The evisceration of the now-defunct muckraking websiteGawkerat the hands of billionaire Peter Thiel made it even harder to report on him, argues one reporter, whose salacious, on-the-record piece about Epstein, his alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, and an unnamed billionaire, died at the hands of legal threats by the latter.
Also read: Disgraced US Financier Jeffrey Epstein Dies by Suicide: Media Reports
Money and wealth also explain Epsteins infamous network of relationships. We already know how the prospect of loose millions dropping from Epsteins pockets drew scientists and intellectuals to his amateur salons (What does that got to do with pussy!? were among Epsteins contributions to these intellectual soires).
And we also know the role money played in Epsteins friendship with Prince Andrew, who begged the pedophile financier to help bail out his debt-ridden ex-wife. So, too, does it explain his connection to Bill Clinton, who had privately made known his intent to spend roughly half my time making money after leaving the presidency, and whose Global Initiative at the Clinton Foundation, the authors report, may have gotten its seed funding from Epstein.
In fact, its the reporting on Clintons Epstein-related misadventures that may well draw the most interest in the book (andso far already has). Goodman and Halper tease out new details about the two mens relationship, demystifying it in a way that is both damning and exonerating for the former president.
On the one hand, multiple sources suggest Clinton wasnt having underage sex around Epstein. On the other, the reason hewashanging around the pedophile is little better for a man who continues to be one of the Democratic Partys leading lights: he was having an affair with Maxwell, the woman who procured and abused girls with Epstein. That this revelation might actually somewhatimprovehis public standing after years of speculation speaks to the legendarily bad judgment and greed of the former president.
Little St. James Island, one of the properties of financier Jeffrey Epstein, near Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Photo: Reuters/Marco Bello
Readers of the book will find plenty more details about the two mens friendship that reflect poorly on the former president, including the possibility, supported by circumstantial evidence, that it was his former national security advisor who tipped Epstein off to an impending police raid in 2005, allowing him to spirit away his computers and other electronics off the property before the authorities came knocking.
Suffice it to say, Goodman and Halper, together with Netflixsnew Epstein documentary, give a fairly definitive debunking to Clintonsoverwrought denialsinsisting not just that he didnt know about Epsteins crimes, but that he barely knew the man at all honest! Nonetheless, just as we saw with Russiagatesembarrassing flopin 2019, these expositions serve as a useful reminder that reality is often at least a degree or two more banal than the sometimes-wild conclusions that scraps of evidence seem to point to.
This is also a worthwhile lesson when it comes to the mystery at the centre of the book and, in retrospect, Epsteins life: why and how he died. Anyone looking for a definitive answer to whether Epstein was killed by his own hand or someone elses wont find it here indeed, its unlikely theyll find it anywhere. But Goodman and Halper comprehensively lay out the facts of Epsteins incarceration and death, devoting ample time to multiple theories.
Theres more than enough reason to believe Epstein may have marshalled his considerable resources to escape justice by killing himself, from his documented fear and unhappiness at the prospect of a life in squalid captivity, to changing his will in the eleventh hour, and the fact that he had already finagled some special privileges while in prison. Theres even evidence that Epstein may have viewed attempting suicide as a gambit to get transferred out of the facility. Still, too much exists to swallow the official story, from the series of mistakes and coincidences that gave Epstein the breathing room to die with no witnesses or surveillance footage, to the unusual to say the least autopsy results and treatment of the crime scene, to Epsteins determination to fight the case, and various other inconsistencies.
One thing seems clear: whether it was negligence or foul play, keeping Epstein alive was far from a priority for many powerful people, given not just what he knew, but what was almost certainly a sprawling blackmail operation he was running. If the ruling class had wanted him alive, Epstein probably would still be here today.
Also read: US Financier Jeffrey Epstein Charged With Sex Trafficking of Minor Girls
Just look at how Chelsea Manning, who committed a crime the US power eliteactuallycared about publicly revealing Americanwar crimes wasplaced on round-the-clock suicide watchfrom almost the moment she was arrested, locked for twenty-three-and-a-half hours a day in a tiny concrete hole with only a mirror, a lamp, and anti-suicide smock, stripped of all of her clothes, even her underwear and flip-flops, lest they be used in exactly the way Epstein allegedly used his clothing and bedding to off himself. Yes, they wanted her to suffer, but they also wanted to see her convicted in court, and they took no chances. Epstein didnt get the same treatment because at the end of the day, the people who run the world didnt care if or perhaps even prayed that he wouldnt make it that far.
There is only one definitive conclusion the authors come to: We dont need to know what happened to know weve probably been lied to. With Epstein gone, its now with his soul mate and alleged co-conspirator Maxwell that any further answers lie, though dont hold your breath: if she is ever taken into custody, its not hard to imagine history repeating itself.
Without answers, there will be no end to speculation about the truth of Epsteins life and death, and the true scale, depth, and nature of the criminal operation he was running. Whatever scenario you conjure, however outlandish, banal, or sinister it might be, never forget it could only be possible thanks to the economic and political system that Epstein and all of us were born into, but never asked for.
Branko Marcetic is a Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterdays Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. He lives in Toronto, Canada.
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Jeffrey Epstein Was the Monster Capitalism Made - The Wire