How Jeffrey Epstein Got Away With It for So Long
There's still so much we don't know about Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes—and after his suicide, it's hard to know how much we'll ever find out.
Journalists are beginning to fill in the gaps, what with the ongoing work from newsrooms like the New York Times, and new investigations, like Broken from the New Yorker's Ariel Levy and the Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown. Wondery—the podcast network behind Dirty John, Dr. Death, and many more hit series—is doing its part with a new show, The Mysterious Mr. Epstein. The podcast, which launches today, promises to tell the story of "how a wealthy financier was apparently able to elude justice for financial and sexual crimes from his first days as a young man on Wall Street, until the very end."
In tandem with new new show, Wondery's Real Crime Profile is set to release a season exploring patterns in Epstein's behavior, and that of others in his orbit. Here, reporter Laura Beil and Jim Clemente, a onetime FBI profiler and former New York City prosecutor, give a taste of what to expect in Real Crime Profile. (And for a preview of The Mysterious Mr. Epstein, scroll down to find an exclusive clip of the show's second episode.)
How did Epstein, despite his relative lack of high society bonafides, manage to forge relationships with the rich and famous, and even royalty like Prince Andrew?
Laura Beil: He did some of that through charm. A lot of people said he was magnetic in the way that he came across. But once he managed to get through those doors—then the power and privilege and patriarchy, the old boys' network, very much supported what he was doing. And he brought people in as well, so that they—women and girls—would do the recruiting and do the bidding... I don't see that we can underestimate [his ability] to create an ecosystem which really supported his abuse.
Why do you think Epstein's major reckoning only came recently? Is it at all tied to recent cultural shifts and the #MeToo movement, or more happenstance?
LB: He did most of this in plain sight as well. I mean he was blatant in what he was doing, much like R. Kelly and Harvey Weinstein. These aren't people who were hiding what their doing. But they bring people in and recruit other people... and that ensures silence and collusion. So there is an element of coercive control here, and manipulation.
I think just going back in time, he learned that he can talk his way through things and turn the narrative—flip the script and turn it into a positive. When [Dalton, the private New York high school he taught at] says they let him go, he turns it into, "Well, I wanted to leave because I wanted to go into the financial world." He just has the ability to tell the story in a different way.
Even with the massages [he made underage girls perform], he's got top lawyers basically saying that they were therapeutic for him, and that they're spiritual, which is utter bullshit. I mean, it is abuse, what he was doing. And then other people are buying into his version of events and his narrative, which again, imparted the collusion.
Jim Clemente: This guy is able to convince people based on just his charisma and his almost certain qualification as a psychopath. He has absolutely no qualms about lying pathologically, about manipulating people, about using people at all.
You've both mentioned Epstein's charisma and ability to manipulate. Is that something he was born with, or learned over time?
LB: Oh, that's learned. A learned tactic. We're not born with charm. Manipulators understand that they can use it, and charm increases likability... That's why people described him as magnetic, and the same with Harvey Weinstein and others. People enjoy being around them. And he understood other people's vulnerability too.
JC: You can see in his earlier life, he was a failure, right? He didn't even graduate from college. But he was able to walk into the most prestigious high school in New York City, one of the most prestigious in the world. And he was able to convince the people there that he could teach the high level mathematics. He probably lied about his skills. He probably lied about his degree or lack thereof... And that was the foundation upon which he built his empire in New York City.
How was he able to remain close with powerful people, even after he was sentenced in Florida?
JC: Well, I think the fact is that at that point, they were hoping he would be quiet. I mean, if they already had a connection with him, then of course they want to appease him—because if the hammer falls on him again, the chances are that it would splash back on them.
LB: It also sounded to everybody else that it was just, he had gone to a red light district and he had been with a sex worker. That's on the face of it what he was charged with, rather than child sex trafficking. That's the whole problem with plea bargaining [charges] down.
And I genuinely think that everybody has a price... People got bought off, and we don't know fully what those behind the scenes conversations were. But there's also the aspect of the white privilege and male culture. Male entitlement, and male-dominated culture, where some just think like with Harvey Weinstein, "Well things like that happen."
Is there still a chance for justice for Epstein's victims after his death?
LB: I mean, I hope so. I really do because I think with someone like Epstein, you're talking about hundreds and hundreds of young girls who've been exploited and treated terribly. Some who probably are still battling with their secret... I hope they do get a form of justice, and for some of them it's about have it being heard. It's not just about the financial payout, it's about acknowledgement for what he did to them.
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