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It was of course inevitable thatJeffrey Epstein’s death while in federal custody awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges would trigger widespread speculation and doubts about his cause of death. It was ruled a suicide, but “Epstein didn’t kill himself” quickly became a meme anyway, particularly in light of the apparent negligence by Manhattan Correctional Center guards as well as numerous other suspicious details surrounding his demise. But a new report fromThe New York Times Magazine,billed as the “fullest examination yet of Epstein’s death,” based on dozens of interviews, countless court and law-enforcement records, and forensic analysis of available images and footage, has now filled in a lot of the blanks. That includes additional evidence beyondEpstein’s alleged suicide note, which indicates he wanted to take his own life in the weeks before his death. The reporting also addresses alternate theories, including how it would have been exceptionally difficult for anyone to sneak into his cell and murder him. Per the report:
Some important questions about Epstein’s death remain unanswered and likely unanswerable. Nevertheless, our reporting establishes that Epstein showed a clear pattern of behavior in the weeks before his death suggesting an intent to kill himself.
Here’s the gist:
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According to the investigation, Epstein made what appeared to be an earlier attempt to hang himself two and a half weeks before his death, which was foiled by his cellmate. The cellmate toldTimes Magazinereporters he caught Epstein making apparent preparations to hang himself two other times as well. Cellmates and other inmates told theTimes Magazinethat Epstein seemed despondent and showed signs of a deteriorating mental state and/or suicidal behavior. “He’s not good to be alone,” Epstein’s last cellmate, Efrain Reyes, warned guards upon being moved out of Epstein’s unit.
Epstein also repeatedly expressed his doubts about whether he could survive being incarcerated and made references to suicide in jail writings.
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Per the report:
[K]illing Epstein would have required not just the complicity of one or two on-duty guards. It would have entailed an elaborate choreography involving at least two distinct operations of the jail, the SHU and the control center, at least one of which was unpredictably staffed. It would also have required detailed knowledge of the SHU’s camera placements and which recording systems were malfunctioning and which were not. And it would have required a willingness to risk capital charges — the death penalty — for the murder of an inmate in a federal facility.
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As one pathologist explained:
“Forensics is not an exact science,” said Judy Melinek, a board-certified forensic pathologist who often consults on criminal cases. “It really isn’t. It’s interpretive. You can have injuries that look exactly the same; one is a homicide, and the other is a suicide.” This is particularly true of neck injuries, which pathologists consider among the hardest to interpret conclusively. For that reason, Melinek said, medical evidence was less important in making such a determination than the details of the scene of the death — which meant that knowing those details was critically important.
But the problem is, in this case, there aren’t many verifiable facts to base those conclusions on:
