How America’s most infamous sex trafficker tried to pervert justice
Jeffrey Epstein. He was found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
What you need to know:
- Multimillionaire Jeffrey Edward Epstein purchased a lavish pink-cotton-candy waterfront mansion for $2.5 million in 1990 at 358 El Brillo Way on Palm Beach.
- Once girls were lured to his spacious bathroom, which doubled as his massage room, they were sexually abused in acts ranging from inappropriate touching to rape
Palm Beach, in the ‘Sunshine State’ of Florida, is an island populated by the most affluent in society, including owners of professional sports teams.
It was also home to a child sex trafficking epidemic that turned the state into a major hotspot for victims recruited from Latin America.
Multimillionaire Jeffrey Edward Epstein purchased a lavish pink-cotton-candy waterfront mansion for $2.5 million in 1990 at 358 El Brillo Way on Palm Beach.
He refurbished it with the finest antiques and unusual pieces of art with walls beguiled with imposing photographs of his conquests, including pictures of naked girls and women.
From 1998, Epstein and his enablers lured schoolgirls, predominantly from Royal Palm Beach High, to his waterfront mansion.
The girls, aged 13–16, were from West Palm Beach, where workers lived. They were offered money in exchange for massages they'd provide Epstein.
Once in his spacious bathroom, which doubled as his massage room, they were sexually abused in acts ranging from inappropriate touching to rape.
Epstein then paid his victims $200–300 each and recruited them as co-conspirators, pledging to reward them with more money if the teenagers brought their friends.
This led to a ceaseless revolving door of young girls who fed his paedophiliac addiction, as he instilled in them an illusion of job security.
Epstein's preferred prey were prepubescent girls from troubled backgrounds who needed money and had little or no sexual experience.
He was assured that no one would believe the disenfranchised girls in case they exposed him.
He was further buoyed up by the support of his accomplices – deceitful lawyers, crooked police, unscrupulous journalists and unethical private detectives.
Most of the girls came from broken families. A few were homeless, one slept under an overpass and another was a witness in the murder of her stepbrother.
Some had been raised by alcoholic parents, drug addicts, or guardians simply struggling to keep roofs over their heads.
A number of the girls lived in foster homes and some were detained in juvenile delinquent facilities.
Epstein was a master of manipulation and deception and promised to become his victims' benefactor at a cost.
Not only were the girls expected to perform sexual acts for him but also, in some instances, pressured to have sex with his guests, including Prince Andrew and Donald Trump, who, like Epstein, were old enough to be their grandfathers.
In 1998, Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, heir to the Robert Maxwell British media empire, began visiting colleges, art schools, spas and fitness centres on West Palm Beach to recruit girls for him.
With persuasive flattery, she handed out business cards in depravity and used the guise that she wanted to hire young and pretty masseuses and assistants to work in Epstein’s mansion.
Ghislaine, a multilingual Oxford history graduate, became Epstein’s foremost accomplice, solicitor and groomer. She had an eye for scouting underage girls with low self-esteem and creepily targeted those with traits that Epstein desired – Caucasian, blond, blue-eyed, petite, and attractive.
The girls were then driven to the mansion by Epstein’s chauffeur, Juan Alessi.
When they arrived, Ghislaine introduced them to Emmy Tayler, another of Epstein’s enablers, who arranged his massage schedule and worked as Ghislaine's assistant.
Emmy briefed them before leading them up a spiral staircase from the kitchen to a master bedroom and into his infamous bathroom, where they were met by a nude Epstein.
By 2005, the operation was in full swing. Several arrived at Epstein’s mansion daily.
On March 14, 2005, Palm Beach Police detective Mitchel Pagan took a phone call from a crestfallen woman. She stated that her 14-year-old stepdaughter had possibly been molested on Palm Beach by a rich man.
Palm Beach police opened an investigation and in September 2005, police detective Joe Recarey uncovered the well-organised scheme.
The FBI took over the investigation in October 2006, when it was clear that Epstein’s sexual crimes went beyond Florida.
The evidence, which carried a 53-count indictment, was presented to the federal prosecutor for Miami, Alex Acosta.
Acosta compromised the entire case by wrangling an unusual plea bargain with federal prosecutors, shockingly giving Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity.
Epstein was arrested and ended up spending only 13 months in prison, as part of the plea bargain.
The cover of Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story by Julie K. Brown
Miami Herald investigative reporter and author of Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story, Julie K. Brown, initiated an in-depth investigation, interviewing dozens of victims.
She also uncovered details of the initial plea bargain and her published revelations eventually led to Epstein’s re-arrest on July 6, 2019, in a covert operation.
Epstein allegedly died by suicide on August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial.
Ghislaine was sentenced to 20 years in jail on June 28, 2022, for her abhorrent collaboration in Epstein’s aversive child trafficking schemes.
The writer is a novelist, Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre (@jeffbigbrother).
