Sex offender and former financier Jeffrey Epstein died on August 10, 2019. Days before that, he attempted suicide in the jail cell where he was held on federal sex trafficking charges. Now, new records show what happened in between his suicide attempt and death.
The New York Times reported on the new documents from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which showed Epstein claimed he was living a “wonderful life” and had no plans or thoughts about suicide. He was placed on suicide watch anyway, though it appears that watch wasn’t sufficient enough to prevent him from committing suicide.
“I have no interest in killing myself,” Epstein told a jailhouse psychologist, according to the documents. He told this psychologies he was a “coward” who didn’t like pain and insisted, “I would not do that to myself.”
The Times reviewed more than 2,000 pages of “detailed notes and reports compiled by those who interacted” with Epstein while he was in prison on sex trafficking charges. Epstein, a master manipulator and liar, “repeatedly assured” those in the prison that he had a lot to live for with increasing clues that he might commit suicide, the Times reported. From the outlet:
He passed many days closed in a conference room with his lawyers, avoiding the confines of his dank and dirty cell. In conversations with psychologists and other inmates, he spoke of his interest in physics and mathematics and offered tidbits of investment advice. He reminisced about socializing with celebrities, even as he complained about the running toilet in his cell, the orange prison garb, his difficulty sleeping, his dehydration and a numbness in his right arm.
In one clinical intervention report, a psychologist wrote that “Inmate Epstein was also upset about wearing an orange jumpsuit and being treated like ‘a bad guy’ when he did not do anything wrong in the prison.”
In another document, Epstein asked who the best cook was in a certain part of the prison.
The documents also revealed that Epstein’s intake screening form was initially filled out incorrectly, listing him as a black male who had no prior sex offense convictions. Epstein was white and had two 2008 sex offense convictions that required him to register as a sex offender. Also, the jail failed to log a few of Epstein’s phone calls in violation of policy, the Times reported.
“The night he killed himself, Mr. Epstein lied to jail officials and said he wanted to phone his mother — who was long dead. He instead called his girlfriend. Jail personnel left him alone in his cell that night, despite an explicit directive that he be assigned a cellmate,” the Times reported.
A post-mortem of Epstein’s death revealed that his identity “appeared to be based on his wealth, power and association with other high-profile individuals.”
“The lack of significant interpersonal connections, a complete loss of his status in both the community and among associates, and the idea of potentially spending his life in prison,” it continued, adding that these “were likely factors contributing to Mr. Epstein’s suicide.”
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a free hotline for individuals in crisis or distress or for those looking to help someone else. It is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.