RedHanded - FROM THE VAULT - Jeffrey Epstein: Parts 1&2

Episode Date: July 27, 2025

NOTE: Our update on the Epstein files will be released TOMORROW (Tuesday July 29th) to everyone. In the meantime, for all the context, here’s our two-parter in full!--The story of Jeffrey Epstein – the billionaire financier with an industrial-scale web of child abuse implicating some of the most powerful people in the world – sounds like some half-baked conspiracy theory. But it’s all true.We tell the story from the very beginning – from Epstein’s grifting origins to sex-trafficking minors over to his private island. And how Epstein kept on getting away with it, despite there being hundreds of people that knew what he really was: a dangerous, influential and insatiable child rapist with a sophisticated network of fixers. And finally, we take a look at what kind of justice – if any – was served. Plus: what really happened in that jail cell in 2019?Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Hey, I'm Cassie de Peckle, the host of Wondery's podcast Against the Odds. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who live to tell the tale. This month, we're bringing back a fan favorite season. 14, former President Teddy Roosevelt mounts a dangerous expedition to map an unexplored river in the Amazon, known as the River of Doubt. He, his son Kermit, and the rest of their team face dangerous rapids, hunger, and even murder from within their ranks. They have no idea how long it will take to reach the end of the river, and as each day passes, the perils of the jungle bring them closer to death. Follow against the odds on the Wondry app or wherever you get

your podcasts. Binge the entire season ad-free right now, only on Wonderry Plus. Start your free trial in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify today. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondry's American Scandal. In our latest series, a family of religious fanatics moved to Ruby Ridge, Idaho to wait out the apocalypse, but their paranoia and suspicion of authority lead to a confrontation with federal agents and their own personal Armageddon.

Follow American Scandal on the Wondria, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, hello. You are about to listen to two episodes that we did back in 2023, on the whole, Jeffrey Epstein, Galane Maxwell, insert various other names, a scandal, expose, extravaganza, so many words, so many people, so many words, so many crimes, so many children. That is what you are about to listen to.

This is a vaulted episode from two years ago, and it's obviously coming out because there has been quite an unsatisfactory update, the whole Jeffrey Epstein thing, and we're doing a whole entire shorthand on it, which is coming out tomorrow, but do not fear. If you don't normally listen to shorthand, even though you should be scared because that's a terrible decision that you make every single week to not listen to our extra content. But if you don't, then don't worry, because we are going to be releasing our Jeffrey Epstein shorthand update for all of you here tomorrow. Eyes in his open, but for now, get yourself up to date by listening to this. Goodbye. I'm Hannah. I'm Surruti.

And we sound tired, even though it is actually 2023 now as you listen to this. We are still in the past. Yes. We're getting ahead of the game. Happy New Year, though. Happy New Year, yeah. I hope your New Year's were pressure-free and fun as they never are. But it is January 2023, for all of you.

For us, it's still December. And we are scheming to get out of the office and into pyjamas with wine and fire. That is my entire plan. But that's not the reason for the season when you're listening. It's January. Maybe you're a little bit hung over still. Who knows? But we're here to perk you up.

Exactly. Today we are telling the story of a billionaire financier who sat atop an international pyramid scheme of child exploitation. It took place over decades, involved hundreds of victims and implicated some of the most powerful people in the world, from business moguls to US presidents, and British royalty. It sounds like some half-baked sensationalist conspiracy theory

being furiously typed up on a black website in neon green font by some Timfoil hat maniac screaming, paedophile island! And it would sound insane if it wasn't all true. How did Geoffrey Epstein go from humble beginnings to Megapido Numero Uno? Just how extensive was his web of abuse

And how did he evade justice time and time again? And what happened in that jail cell in 2019? He's not dead. To answer those questions, we have to start in Coney Island, New York, in 1953. Seymour and Pauline Epstein had been married for just over a year when they welcomed Jeffrey Edward Epstein into the world. when Seymour returned from fighting in the Second World War

The family moved into an apartment in Seagate A fenced off residential district on Coney Island For the uninitiated Coney Island is an area of New York City In the southwest of Brooklyn It's where New Yorkers go for beaches, amusement rides and walks on the pier Yeah, it's like an Uptown girl Where is it Dakota Fanning and Brittany Murphy an Uptown girl

And they go to Coney Island They eat your cone dog, someone's sick Something? No idea But Seagate on the west of Coney Island was originally built to house summer retreats for some of New York's wealthiest families

and although the money mostly vanished from Seagate in the Great Depression, the 12-foot gates and sense of separation remained. In the early 60s, real estate developer Fred Trump, father of, of course, none other than Donald, turned huge stretches of Coney Island's beachfront into high-rise apartment buildings,

which he called rather unimaginatively Trump Village, which doesn't sound like a place that anyone would want to live. In Britain, Trump means fart. It does. And this development only served to isolate Seagate even further. And as the money fell, the standards of living did too. Seymour and Pauline were both second-generation immigrants, whose parents had fled Eastern Europe

at the turn of the 20th century. Young Geoffrey adored his mother, but his relationship with his father was a lot more detached. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I don't know why this made me think of it, but the name Seymour feels very old and timely to me.

Jane Seymour. And so does the name Eugene. And I've been listening to a podcast series about eugenics, and the reason the name's Eugenia and Eugene became so popular in the 20s and 30s is because everyone fucking loved eugenics. The name Eugene means well-bred.

Look it up, I'm serious. What's the princess's name? Eugenie. It's even worse. It's even worse. It's good, though. I think it's just called The Story of Eugenics. I'll send it to you.

I think you'll like it. Excellent. That's what I will be listening to as I sit by the fire. And everyone else will be creeped out by me. But that's exactly what I want to do. So yes, do please send it to me. So let's leave the Eugenes and the Princess Eugenies where they are and move on with another old and timely name Seymour.

Seymour believed in the value of hard work, plucky determination and making things happen for yourself. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, American, etc. The family would play games over the dinner table, like repeatedly matching pairs of overturned cards designed to sharpen Geoffrey's memory and mental agility, like when Lisa goes to that other smart girl's house and they just play word games at the table.

That's what it makes me think of. And just in case anybody doesn't understand, it's a Simpsons reference. Yeah, and they're like, why don't you play with this ball? An associate of Epstein's, Stephen Hoffenberg, has said that Jeff made it clear that he felt confined by his poverty.

He was furious at his lot in life. And Hoffenberg's quoted in The Spider, Barry Levine's great book on Jeff Epstein's web. And here's what he says. Hoffman says, He grew up as a nobody, and he couldn't take that. This is the world that Jeffrey Epstein was born into, surrounded by the ghosts of money and privilege,

but feeling confined to an unremarkable life. And from his family's high standards, he thought he could only escape by carving a path, all of his own. Geoffrey was a chubby kid, unathletic and into maths and science from a young age. But despite seeming like a ripe target for bullies, the young Geoffrey Epstein was charming from the start. Making people like him came very easily. He grew tall early and was said to have stubble at age 12.

Gross! No, no, that's weird. Don't like that. And possibly because of this prepubescent stubble, Jeffrey Epstein's nickname throughout those early years, was bare. He was definitely highly intelligent, but easily bored. Uh-oh. And that intellectual restlessness saw Jeffrey Epstein skip the third grade, and then the eighth.

In 1969, he graduated high school two years early at the age of 16. And then he enrolled at the prestigious private college, Cooper Union, in Lower Manhattan. Tuition was free. He was excelling in his studies. Everything was going smoothly. But inexplicably, after two years, Geoffrey Epstein dropped out. Then he enrolled at New York University, again acing his subjects for three years, before dropping out again without graduating. And this same pattern would repeat throughout his young adult life,

flitting from challenge to challenge whenever he got bored. And obviously everybody already knows the name Jeffrey Epstein, There's not much we can spoil her here. But he really, from a very young age, shows what could either be just, like, tenacity in his very young age. But then as he gets a bit older, you start to see some of the symptoms of possibly more psychopathic tendencies. The fact that he can't see things through, the fact that he's quite easily bored and distracted. And, you know, he's like so close to graduating. Three years he's acing his subjects.

And he's like, no, I can't be bothered. I'm going to go do something else. Yeah. Who said it when they were like Hannibal? Yeah, they said in that, that Hannibal is like such an unrealistic depiction of a psychopath of that level because he never would have completed and seen through medical school. And obviously we do know that there are people with psychopathic tendencies who go on to become politicians, incredibly successful CEOs, lawyers, doctors, but people who have that Machiavellianism as well typically tend not to

because, or I guess maybe more of the dark triad. But it's complicated, it's complicated. They don't like being told what to do. people they think are less intelligent than them, which is everyone. After all this, and still without a degree, Jeffrey somehow managed to get hired as a physics and calculus professor at the Dalton School. Dalton is an intensely selective private academy and tuition nowadays is over $50,000 a year. It's constantly ranked amongst the best schools in North America.

Needless to say, its standards for teaching are extremely high. Lucky for Epstein, the school had just been taken over by Donald Barr, an eccentric ex-military disciplinarian. Barr was impressed by Epstein's problem-solving abilities. And not for the last time, Jeffrey Epstein managed to talk his way into a position way above his qualifications and experience. And here's the first of many fun facts for you this series. The year before Epstein joined Dalton, Donald Barr, the head teacher of a prestigious prep school, published a sci-fi novel called Space Relations. And Space Relations is the story of intergalactic sexual slavery.

So I'm sure Donald Barr and Jeffrey Epstein had quite a lot to talk about in the staff room. Yeah, obviously publishing a novel that has themes of intergalactic sexual slavery could just be a colourful imagination, an interesting story. but it's hard to ignore when it's in relation to Jeffrey Epstein. Yeah. So the parents of Dalton School kids were all Wall Street Fat Cats, Hollywood actors, and other members of New York's cultural elite. And this was Epstein's first introduction into that world.

These kids were full-on mini-maid in Chelsea. They'd fly off to Paris for a long weekend. They'd spend their winters on skiing holidays in Switzerland. They had it all. and it was everything that Jeff was after so he wasted no time in trying to ingratiate himself. Dalton students from the time

remember parties they held in their Manhattan apartments while their parents were away. They'd be sat around drinking and smoking weed and then suddenly their physics teacher would turn up trying to hang out with them. This is the thing, I think sometimes when you're going through this

you forget that he's not a student there. He's a teacher. He's a physics teacher there. And these kids are like, he just keeps trying to hang out with us. It's very, um, how do you do, fellow kids? Like, it's cringe. It's so cringe. So, so cringe. That's like seeing your teacher in the supermarket times a hundred per jillion. Yeah, because he's at your fucking party while you're high and drunk. It's so gross. And the thing is, like, it's not just that he turns up there as if that wouldn't be bad enough. Teacher Geoffrey Epstein was also incredibly leery and inappropriately close with female students,

especially those that were smaller than their classmates. And this whole time, he also stood out for his dress sense because he never tried to fit in with Dalton's preppy formal style. Instead, Professor Geoffrey Epstein was known for his huge floor-length fur coat and 70-style shirts, exposing a thick, book. of black chest hair. I mean, it's odd because you're like, in one way you think he's trying to fit in with these ultra elite, but then the way he so peacocks himself and so goes for this like

almost pimp-like 70s look, I guess he's trying to stand out. I don't know. Does he think it makes him look cool to the kids? Because that's obviously who he's interested in, particularly the petite girls among them. I don't know. All I know is that I'm upset. Yeah, I mean, you should be. It's upsetting. And it's going to get worse. You're listening to an episode of Shorthand, our weekly show for Wondry Plus subscribers.

Listen exclusively and ad-free every Tuesday on Wondry Plus through Apple Podcasts and Spotify or in the Wondry app. The town of Agda in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and seven. But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn. The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption. His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant. Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting. I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.

As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties, I would like to. to address you all. Legal proceedings have been initiated. Join me, Anna Richardson and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption and magic. Binge all episodes of The Mystic and the Mayor exclusively and ad-free right now on Wondry Plus. Start your free trial in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or the Wondry app. The official reason he was let go is because his educational style was not meshing with that of the school, probably because he didn't have a fucking degree or any qualification to be doing what he was doing, and he's a pedo.

But Jeffrey Epstein saw an opportunity to get a foot in the door, and he wasn't about to let that slip by. In the spring term of his last year, he met a man called Alan Ace Greenberg at a parent's evening. Greenberg was the CEO of Wall Street Trading House Bear Stearns, and Epstein taught his daughter, Lynn. Epstein impressed Ace Greenberg. He confided that he didn't really want to be a teacher, and he had ambitions in the world of finance. Greenberg himself had started as a clerk at Bear Stearns and risen through the ranks to CEO, so he saw a bit of himself in Epstein in his energy and his drive. Epstein went in for an interview, tapped up a fraudulent CV with made-up college degrees, and talked the talk.

Which in the 70s is kind of all you need to do. Oh yeah. I mean, the thing with Jeffrey Epstein is, until all the child molestation starts, right? I'm not pro that. Until all the child molestation starts, you do have what we similarly have with a lot of cult leaders that we've talked about or some of these more like go-getter types.

that you've come across. The early story of where he's just able to be like, right, this is what I want. I'm going to lose this job teaching a Dalton. I'm going to go to a fucking parent's evening and see which parent is going to give me my next opportunity. And on one hand, you're like, say what you will. He's obviously incredibly manipulative. He's lying all the time. He's shallow. He's glib. He's clearly got psychopathic tendencies. On the other hand, he gets the job and he gets shit done. And I'm not, again, not defending him, not here for the child molestation. But it is remarkable what he's able to achieve. That's for sure. And just like that, Epstein was given a job, developing and marketing quantitative analysis for options.

That is crazy because that is what my dad does for a living. And I am like, he is a mega genius, my father. And I'm like, if Epstein was able to get that job at Bear Stearns, fake CV or not, he must have been doing it. Otherwise, they would have been like, you're not doing the job you were hired to do. So... I mean, I think he was good at it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. it's like he lies his way into these places, but he delivers.

Epstein's starting salary is $200,000, and before the age of 25, he bought himself an apartment on the Upper East Side. By all accounts, Epstein was incredibly gifted in financial affairs. He was sharp, discreet, and quick-witted, and could easily deal with unexpected developments. And by the time the top brass at Bear Stearns caught wind of his bogus CV, It was too late. Epstein was already an integral cog in the machine. Still, paired with rumours of insider trading and other bubbling scandals,

they were forced to let him go, with a nice little hundred grand bonus to soften the blow. So once again, Jeffrey Epstein was on his own. But it would not be like Jeff to give up there. So, with an impressive roster of contacts, he started his own, investment firm out of his apartment. He gave it the fancy-pants sounding name Intercontinental Assets Group, which, Consulteo-Consolteous? It's exactly Consulteo-Consolteous. It's like, I'm a hotel, but also you can take your kids sailing for the weekend.

But it says assets in there, and we're a group. I'm not just one man in my apartment. And basically what Intercontinental Assets Group was setting out to do, was managed the fortunes of the ultra-rich. And business started well. But it was a bit slower than he wanted. So, Epstein started managing the finances of arms dealers, too. They always get there eventually.

And I'm also like... Including the royal family. And I'm also like, so do all of the fucking banks. And the Vatican. Everyone's at it. Because they got loads of money. And Epstein had an uncanny ability to convince people he could be a value to them.

I think that's like one of the key things that Epstein is able to do from a very young age is make himself invaluable to whoever or whatever situation he's in. And combined with a skill for manipulation and a haywire moral compass to put it mildly,

it brought him incredible wealth and success. I mean, that's all you need. Smart's manipulation and a lacking moral compass. And you can rule the world. 48 laws of power. But those skills would also make Geoffrey Epstein an insistent and manipulative sexual abuser.

In fact, wherever he went, from high school to the world of finance, Epstein had developed a reputation as a ladies' man, which rarely comes without sinister undertones. And it was around this time, as he's making his forays into the world of finance, that the first accusations of assault date back to. In the summer of 1984, Epstein was on a... holiday on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

The owner's 13-year-old daughter often worked as a babysitter for the wealthy vacationing couples. And as a babysitter, she remembered her surprise at being called up to Epstein's Beach House to discover that he had no children. Still, she was welcomed by the 30-year-old guest and offered drugs and alcohol. And later that evening, he assaulted her for the first time. It continued over the next few years and any time he returned to Hilton Head.

Epstein also started to take secret nude photographs of her while she was asleep or under the influence and he would shout at her if she suggested that he'd give them back. This girl has reported that he even flew her to New York and offered her as, quote, fresh meat to his friends. So just so there's no confusion, and we're actually all clear on what we're talking about. Jeffrey Epstein transported a teenager across state lines at least three times

to perform sexual favours for him and other powerful adults, and that is what, trafficking. By his early 30s, Epstein had learned how to use his power and influence to take advantage of young girls and to make sure they kept quiet about it. Meanwhile, his network, aspirations, and bank balance were only getting bigger, and shadier by the second. Through an arms dealer pal, Epstein met Stephen Hoffenberg, the man we heard from earlier.

He was the CEO of Tower's Financial Corporation, yet another consultio-consultius in this story. And Tower's Financial Corporation was a shady debt-buying financial firm, and once again, Epstein schmoosed his way in. And as Hoffenberg remembers, he had an extraordinary ability to bond. Epstein's supernatural ability was to discern what the other person was looking for. And we've said this before, this kind of person, this kind of sort of predatory, psychopathic person, narcissistic tendencies, they are the very best profilers out there. Their absolute golden key into every situation is to look at another person, understand what they are missing,

understand what they want from you, and then give it to them in the most shallow way possible. So Epstein grew the business's revenue from $20 million to over a billion in just one year. That is some year-on-year growth. Anyone's going to be very pleased with that. And when the company pivoted to being a full-on Ponzi scheme, Epstein was all in on the fraud. He was integral to how the scam operated, how they illegally manipulated stock prices, created fake assets, earning themselves millions of dollars in the process. But when the law finally caught up with Towers Corp,

it was Hoffman who took the hit. Again, classic, you're either useful or you're in the way. And when Hoffman was no longer useful to Epstein, he was the perfect Patsy to throw him under the bus. And Hoffman was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. No wonder he's fucking running his mouth all over that book. Yeah. And somehow, through shifting the blame and pleading ignorance,

Geoffrey Epstein walked away, scot-free. So to answer the question of how Big Jeff made his millions, the answer is a fake CV, shady investments for arms dealers, and large-scale fraud. And Epstein continued his run of success throughout the 80s, with more and more powerful people trusting him with their money. He continued to have an inexamination. inexplicable influence on these ultra-rich people.

For example, the billionaire Les Wexner, the owner of Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie and Fitch, built Epstein a 10,000 square foot guest house on his estate. Hmm. Sure. Why does he need that? What's really going on in there? I think we all know. Yes.

Wexner also let Jeffrey Epstein use his yacht, which at the time was the last. largest yacht in the United States of America, and Epstein also had free run over Wexner's private plane. Wexner also, in the 90s, signed over his New York apartment to Epstein for a grand total of zero dollars. Epstein's ability to get what he wanted is often put entirely down to his charisma. He was incredibly good at sitting down with powerful people and impressing them so much that they gave him a chance. But the more you find out about Epstein, the more you realize that it's not so much a boy from wrong side of tracks does good by being good at stuff.

It's actually much more to do with manipulation. Yeah. And also, like, the people he's manipulating or the people he's working with, like say a Les Wexner, right, he's not a stupid man, Les Wexner. He didn't become incredibly wealthy and go on to own the biggest yacht at the time in the US by being stupid and simple and giving away all of his money and assets and building houses for people for free. No, he did it by making money off eating disorders. Absolutely. So I'm like, what's in it for him? It's not just Les Wexner being manipulated by superstar manipulator Jeffrey Epstein.

This is where you see that web start to build of not just influential people. But people he's pulling into his orbit who probably have unsavory shared interests. Sure. You might, might let a trusted business associate use your apartment now and again. It's like, oh, come up to the cabin, should I mean? But give them the whole thing for free? I don't know. Rich people don't say rich by giving shit away for free. No. But we're going to come back to Epstein's manipulation tactics next week.

So for now, we're going to move on. Unsurprisingly, Epstein saw an opportunity in his friendship with Les Wexner for sexual manipulation too. Epstein often pretended to young women that he was a talent scout for Victoria's Secret before exposing himself and masturbating. So as the

80s drew to a close, Jeffrey Epstein clearly had a system that worked. He certainly had the money and connections in the world of finance to get what he wanted. And he'd used that to build himself a private empire. Thanks to Wexner,

he had one of New York's largest townhouse that remember he got for free, and in 1990, Geoffrey Epstein bought himself a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, the super-exclusive neighbourhood for the super-duper wealthy. He was flying around in private jets

and would hold fancy parties, always with very young girls in attendance. Jeffrey Epstein had many of the hallmarks of the lifestyle he'd always strived for. But what Jeffrey Epstein didn't, have. What he couldn't manipulate, what he couldn't pretend to have was class. He was new money. His bullish charisma that had worked so well in business didn't translate to the socials and mixes of the old money elite. And that's actually very reminiscent of like, say,

Donald Trump. I think that was one of his biggest bug bears or is one of his biggest bug bears, is that you know, he's like loud and brash and does his like construction business and all of that kind of stuff and clearly had a lot of money that his father made. But one of his biggest gripes was always that the upper echelons of New York society never wanted him to be a part of their inner circle because they were like, he's got no class. Look at him. His fucking building looks like Gaddafi made it, like covered in gold. Like, and I think Jeffrey Epstein, because of his background, because he didn't have that Eugenie breeding, they looked down on him. And Jeffrey Epstein was also reclusive.

and hated large groups of people to get the lifestyle he wanted to manipulate and abuse and get away with it on an industrial scale he needed a partner in crime someone that was already a part of that world and effortlessly mixed in those circles and it was around this time

that he first met Galane Maxwell Which means it is time to stick a bookmark in the Epstein saga for now and time walk back to the 1920s and zoom off to a small village in the Czechoslovakian mountains. Jan Ludwig Heimann Binyaman Hock was born in 1923 to a family of Ashkenazi Jews. Life wasn't glamorous. He didn't own a pair of shoes. until he was seven. But things got a whole lot worse when German forces marched into Prague

when he was just 15. He managed to make his way to England and joined the British Army and went on to participate in the D-Day landings. The rest of his family were exterminated in the Holocaust. So he decided to reinvent himself for a new life as an English gentleman and gave himself the name

that would shake the world Robert Maxwell. If you want to learn more about Robert Maxwell, there is a podcast series called Power the Maxwell's. And it is incredible. Astonishing well-told story. So go and have a look at that if you want to understand more about Robert Maxwell. He was fluent in seven languages. In Power the Maxwell, they say that he learned English in three weeks. And he spoke it with not a hint of an accent, sounded completely English.

He joined the British Foreign Office in Berlin, and after a brief stint as an MP, he founded a publishing company, which started it. life making scientific textbooks. And with that company, Robert Maxwell made an absolutely bonkers fortune in news media, where Rupert Murdoch had the son, Robert Maxwell had the Daily Mirror. Maxwell got married in Paris, and he and his wife settled down in their 53 mansion near Oxford, called Heddington Hill Hall. When they had children, he was adamant that they would not know the poverty he had grown up with, so they wanted for nothing. Their youngest, Galane, was born in France on Christmas Day, 1961. She grew up surrounded by money and luxury, but also power. Robert Maxwell would host all sorts of dignitaries,

titans of business, and high-ranking politicians at Headington. And since Galane was his favourite, he kept her in the room from a very young age. Galane had a deep, unconditional love for her father, even calling him the captain, and he always treated her as special, even among their rarefied world. Robert Maxwell even named his 180-foot yacht Lady Galane. His expectations of all of his children were incredibly high. Much like the Epstein's, the Maxwell's gave their children tests in mental agility at home. At the dinner table, they would be quizzed on geopolitics. and asked to report to him what they hoped to achieve in the future.

If their answers were not satisfactory, they'd be whipped with a belt and made to write a letter of apology to their father. And that's the Barla method. He stole it. Patent pending, patent pending, patent pending, patent pending. And Robert Maxwell was extremely protective. When Galane went to study at Oxford because, of course, she did, her father banned her from bringing any men home

or being seen with any potential partners. He was convinced that any man dating Galane would just, just be after his fortune. He wanted to be the only man in her life. And I think it's hard to ignore the parallels between Robert Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. The whole like coming from nothing, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, the working away up to the top of any industry that you're going to be in. And also you'll go on to see between the dynamics between Galane and Jeffrey

and Galane and her father that sort of controlling, obsessive, you're just an extension of me mentality. But despite the rules that her father set down for her, Galane was a big hit on the party circuit. If you've seen any pictures of her at this time of her life, she is beautiful. And she very much does look like, I might get in trouble for this. But I always think she looks like a dark-haired Diana. Yeah, I can see that. She has very like a, what they share is that bird-like features.

Petit bird-like features, that's what I'll say. So, yeah, I can see it. And big eyes. Yeah, and big fans of off-the-shoulder bardo cut dresses. Quite. Diana's better, though, obviously. Looking. Can you imagine?

I was just being like, well, actually, fuck Diana. I just can't get enough of Galane Maxwell. No, Diana's hotter than Galane Maxwell. Was R-O-P. Friends of Galane at the time remember how comfortable she was working a room. She seemed to know everyone. I mean, she probably did. And no level of wealth or influence intimidated her.

She rubbed shiny shoulders with members of the British royal family. Bet you can guess who? Prince Andrew the Duke of York was a family friend that Galane had made through her father's business connections but we're going to circle back to Doble's Pizza Boy in part two

I really hope they've got a plaque in that Pizza Express and Woking I really, really hope so Galane was an outrageous flirt always ready with a dirty joke or inappropriate comment and always ready to give unsolicited advice on sexual practices

In the new Netflix documentary about her life, one friend remembered Gillane coming downstairs with a handful of scarves, and she blindfolded the men and then asked the women to take their tops off and made the men guess who was who, based on the breasts that they were fondling. She also used to do things like open the front door in her underwear

and then like invite people around for tea but just be in her underwear the whole time, and like women, not men. Again, power the Maxwell's, just listen to it. She's very much an exhibition. is Galane Maxwell and she is in many ways very similar to Jeffrey Epstein

but in many ways his polar opposite where he lacked that sort of he's good one on one Jeffrey Epstein I think that's what you find when you look at his story but in large groups at parties he is not that person whereas Galane is that person

she can work a room she can charm groups of people and I think also importantly you can see here that her sexual proclivities, her sexual filter, if you will, are lower than maybe the norm. Because I think often what happens, and we'll obviously

discuss this later over the course of the two episodes, people are like, oh, you know, does she just get sort of perverted by Jeffrey Epstein? No, she's got it in her. She's got it. It's there. It's because she's rich and posh. That all like that. Oh, I believe it. So in November 1991, news broke to Robert Max was missing at sea. The captain. He'd fallen off the side of the Lady Galane while out sailing

from the Canary Islands, and his body was found later that day. Many suspected foul play. His business empire was deep in debt, and he was facing a repayment of £75 million in loans to the Bank of England. I mean, that tells you how rich he is that he's £75 million in debt to the Bank of England. It was also revealed that he had embezzled over 500 million from his employee's pension plans. Yeah, again, Power the Maxwell's will explain this in great detail. The theory is, well, what we're expected to believe, is that he went on to the top deck to have a piss in the middle of the night and he fell off. Sure.

Sure. But whatever the cause of Maxwell's death, Galane was devastated. And not least, because his will only allowed her. $100,000 a year trust fund. It wasn't nearly enough to maintain the lifestyle that she was accustomed to. In her newly bought Manhattan apartment, Galane complained that she was now poor. Yes, she had the connections, the social ability and the high society clout. Plus she knew how to use people, how to work on their discomfort for her own enjoyment and benefit.

But she had lost her father figure, the man for whom her whole whole. life seemed to be in service, and more immediately, she'd lost his money. And with it, the ability to fuel her no expense spared lifestyle. Within a year of losing her father, Galane Maxwell started dating Jeffrey Epstein. And together, with her social clout and high society ways and her name, and with his money, they would be the perfect storm. Jeff and Jilly had lost their fathers just a month apart So not only were they both members of the Dead Dad Club They both had strict high expectation upbringings

More than that they both wanted the same things from life Geoffrey hosted the parties Gillane bought high society in and worked the room And as we all know They were a match made in abusive hell Of course we can be pretty confident that Geoffrey Epstein would have abused and manipulated young girls and women

even if he'd never met Galane but it's also safe to say that it may never have become such a wide-ranging and powerful industry of abuse without the involvement of Galane Maxwell. And next week we're going to tell you all about the extent of her involvements. But for now, let's just say she was all in.

Jeffrey's grifting abilities had brought him to the highest echelons of society. And with Galane by his side, he could indulge in his wildest fantasies. If billionaires, arms dealers and politicians were taken in, what chance could teenage girls have had against the manipulative power of Geoffrey Epstein? They didn't stand a chance. And I think also his ambitions with this kind of, like you said,

industry of abuse that he crafts himself, or this pyramid scheme of abuse that he crafts himself, is again indicative of like his ambition and I don't mean that obviously in a positive way I'm saying like when he's young you see he's like bored with his lot in life like even a normal job a normal family never would have been enough for him and I think even for Epstein with the abuse a normal level quote unquote of abuse

would never have been sufficient for him it had to be the top of whatever he was going to do and it was always going to be if I'm going to be an abuser how can I be the most successful, the most expansive, the most far-reaching one that I can be. So Maria Farmer was a young painter, who in 1995 was graduating from the New York Academy of Art. She specialized in nudes and focused on themes of adolescence.

She'd often paint from photographs of her own younger sisters. At her graduation show, she was thrilled when her triptych was snapped up almost instant. It was a real-world vote of confidence for her art and, at a total of £38,000, it was a serious financial windfall as well. But not long after it sold, she was approached by the Dean of Students, Eileen Guggenheim. What a poor person name!

I bet Eileen's got absolutely not a pot to piss in, barely two pennies to rub together is Eileen. And Eileen told Maria to forget the sale. because there were two very important benefactors to the school who were going to buy it instead. But they were going to buy it for half the price. So Maria was introduced to the couple, Jeffrey Epstein and Galane Maxwell, who said that the price cut would be more than worth her while.

Epstein called Maria soon afterwards with a job offer. He wanted her to buy art on his behalf and managed the entrance to his townhouse. So she would greet Epstein's job. connections as they came in. Once, Donald Trump came through that very door with Geoffrey Epstein, and Epstein turned to Donald Trump and said, she's not for you, referring to Maria. Among the visitors to the house were a string of young girls, who, Galane said, were all

auditioning to model for Victoria's Secret. Galane would occasionally dart out of the door, saying, I've got to go and get girls for Geoffrey. She described these girls that she'd go and scrape up from somewhere as newbiles and would have a chauffeur drive her around until she saw a suitable candidate. Like the child catcher. Yeah, that's the only way to describe her. And when Galane saw a young girl that she liked the look of, she'd shout at the driver to stop.

And then she'd get out and speak to the girl. Maxwell would say that Epstein had been told by the best doctors in the world that he needed three orgasms a day. So Galane said that she found three girls a day for Epstein because, quote, I can't keep up with his needs. Jeff and Galane had started as a couple, but soon they became something else. They would always be seen out together and were totally dependent on each other, but the physical side of their relationship cooled down significantly. And whatever it was they had became a lot more like a business arrangement. While working at Epstein's house, Maria Farmer spoke to him about her family.

In particular, her sister Annie, who was a subject of many of her paintings. Epstein wanted to meet Annie. He offered to help her go to college and flew her from her home in Arizona to New York so they could meet. They discussed her plans over Champagne. Then they went to see a movie, as they watched the first. film, Epstein started rubbing Annie's hand and then her leg. Epstein said that he would send Annie to Thailand for an educational trip and even invited her to his ranch in New Mexico. Annie and her parents had assumed that she would be going with a group of other students or participating in the same

program. But of course, when Annie arrived in New Mexico, it was just her. Jeffrey Epstein and Galane Maxwell on a 10,000-acre ranch in the middle of the desert. During that weekend, the 16-year-old was asked by Galane to give Epstein a foot massage. And she was given pointers as she did. Galane repeatedly asked Annie if she wanted a massage herself, and eventually Annie gave in and said yes. She took off her clothes and her bra and lay under a sheet on a massage table. Soon Galane pulled down the sheet to massage her chest.

The doors had all been left open, and Annie was sure that Epstein was watching. The next morning, Epstein came into Annie's bedroom saying that he wanted to cuddle. Oh, it's just so predatory. She's 16, and she's trapped on this fucking giant ranch with these two crazies in the middle of nowhere. Just imagine being 16, and this fully grown man comes into your room and says he wants to cuddle.

Oh, I feel sick. I know this is only the tip of the iceberg, but it's so, like, visceral because you just can imagine how she cannot escape. There's nothing she can do. There's nothing she can do. Epstein crawled into bed with her, and Annie, terrified, made an excuse and locked herself in the bathroom, which is quite literally the only thing she can do.

A similar thing happened to Maria. Farmer at Epstein's Ohio house, and when it did she phoned her sister to see if anything had happened at the ranch. Which of course it had. Maria also noticed that several of her photos that she used to paint from featuring her teenage sisters, half-naked, were missing. She called the NYPD to report the assaults. They said that since the crimes had happened in New Mexico and Ohio, it wasn't their jurisdiction and there was nothing she could do. So Maria called the FBI, but she never heard back. It started with a string of abuses like this,

and those we've mentioned aren't even the half of it. But in 2000, in Palm Beach, Florida, it became an industrial scale web of sexual assault. By the time Virginia Roberts was 16, she had run away from an abusive home after a family friend molested her, and she ended up living on the streets. So when she got a summer job as a locker room attendant in a spa, Virginia felt like she was on the track to make something of herself at last.

And this spa was part of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. He really does just keep popping up in this story, doesn't he? He is quite difficult to ignore in this narrative, yes. Can't wait for 2024. No. Trump, 2024, outstanding. Kanye Trump. So one day in 1999, Virginia was reading a book about massage therapy and remembers being approached by a charismatic, worldly British woman.

Galane Maxwell introduced herself and the two got talking about Virginia's hopes of becoming a licensed massage therapist. Galane said she was friends with a billionaire financier with a jet set lifestyle who just so happened to be looking for a masseuse to travel with him. And this jet-set billionaire financier wants a girl who doesn't know anything about massage apart from a book that she's currently reading. Yeah.

Yeah, that's how the world works, for sure. She's honestly, you know, when you're like, she's like the child catcher. Even the way she kind of looks, she reminds me of a witch from the witches. Yeah. You know, when they just turn up and, like, there's one scene where it's like the kid's up a tree.

Or he's in the garden and he sees this woman, he runs up a tree and she just stands at the bottom with a snake. That is Galane Maxwell at Maralago, stalking Virginia Roberts. But remember, Virginia is 16 and desperate to make something of her life. So she jumped at the opportunity. And she accepted an invitation to this billionaire financier's home just a mile away from Trump's on Palm Beach. And I just want to be super clear. I know we're ridiculing it. We're saying like this doesn't happen in the real world.

I want to make it super, super clear that I'm not saying that in any way 16-year-old Virginia Roberts should have known that and that she shouldn't have gone. Why wouldn't she? She's working in this incredibly expensive resort and this woman turns up. She's got all the airs and graces of somebody who looks to be legit in that world. And when she turns up at the house, it's in Palm Beach. Of course she's going to believe it. Who wouldn't? Especially a 16-year-old.

And they know that. Today is the worst day of Abby's life. The 17-year-old cradles her newborn son in her arms. They all saw how much I loved him. They didn't have to take him from me. Between 1945 and the early 1970s, families ship their pregnant teenage daughters to maternity homes and forced them to secret homes.

place their babies for adoption. In hidden corners across America, it's still happening. My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will. They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me. The godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell, the father of the modern evangelical right and the founder of Liberty University. We're powerful men emboldened by their faith, determine who, Who gets to be a parent and who must give their child away? Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Before the Internet ruled our lives, AOL brought America online with email and instant message.

By 2000, AOL was so powerful. It bought Media Giant Time Warner. This was a deal that was supposed to bring us into the future, revolutionized media. But instead, it became one of the messiest corporate. disasters in history. So what went wrong? The dot-com crash, culture clashes, or something deeper? Business Wars gives you a front row seat to the biggest moments in business and how they shape our world, because when your flight perks disappear, your favorite restaurant chain goes bankrupt or new tech threatens to reshape everything overnight, you can bet there's a deeper

story behind the headlines. Make sure to follow Business Wars on the Wondery app or wherever you get podcast, and you can binge all episodes of business wars the AOL Time Warner disaster early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus. The town of Palm Beach is located on a barrier island, separated from mainland Florida by a short road bridge. For decades, it's been known as an enclave for the hyper-rich and famous. Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, and Jimmy Buffett have houses on its famous billionaire's row. How Jimmy Buffett is a billionaire is completely beyond me.

And as we said, Donald Trump's Winter White House, the 126-room Mar-a-Lago resort, is in Palm Beach, too. So when Virginia Roberts crossed that road bridge, she knew that she was crossing over into another world. Galane met her at the door and led her through the house to a room with a massage bed, and on that massage bed was a naked man. Galane started to massage the man demonstrating the 16-year-old Virginia. Soon, both Galane and the man on the bed were touching Virginia. And in an instant, things escalated even further. Not knowing what would happen to her if she said no,

Virginia gave in to their increasing demands. She was forced to perform oral sex on Epstein, and then he raped her. afterwards they both told her that the interview had gone very well and they wanted to see her again the next day over the following months Virginia did whatever they asked from sexual favours at any time to putting Epstein socks on before bed

who sleeps in socks and Virginia Roberts wrote over the next few weeks they trained me to do what they wanted including sexual activities and the use of sexual toys. It was basically every day. And it was like going to school. I also had to have sex with Epstein many times.

And Virginia Roberts during this entire time was often reminded how lucky she was to be there. And soon she would travel the world, meet amazing people, and get her massage therapist's license. And she was also told, in no uncertain terms, that there was no way out. And, like, going into motivations for why Virginia Roberts kept going back every day.

On one hand, she stayed because she was incredibly young. She was 16 years old, and she was frightened. If you remember, she's already run away from an abusive home and is all on her own. And this opportunity, as horrific as it would have been for her, may have seemed like the only way she was going to propel herself out of poverty. But, on the other hand, Epstein would also constantly remind her just how powerful he was. He said he owned the police department and that there were people out there, dangerous people, who owed him favours.

Virginia's story is among the earliest reports of abuse of underage girls from within the walls of Epstein's Palm Beach Mansion. But Virginia's story is far from rare. Just across the bridge from the island is West Palm Beach. Beach, a neighbourhood that's firmly back in the real world. It's hardly run down, but like all places that aren't reserved for the 1%. It has areas of poverty and pockets of desperation. And Geoffrey Epstein, through Galane Maxwell, used West Palm Beach as a hunting ground. There are many, many victims' accounts from the years after Virginia Roberts first met

Jeffrey Epstein and Galane Maxwell. And they all tell a similar story. A girl would be approached by another girl that she knew from the neighbourhood. They'd say that there was a man over on Palm Beach who would pay $200 if he gave him a massage. The friend would drive them over there, pick up $200 and leave them in the massage room. There, the man would sexually assault the girl. The girl would be given $200 and pressured into silence. A vast majority of these girls were underage, and many of them were as young as 14.

It's a pyramid scheme. Mm, exactly. Because at first, Elaine goes out, she's out in the car with the chauffeur pointing out girls. But then all she does is she starts giving the girls they've already indoctrinated money to go get other girls to bring them. So she doesn't even have to go out anymore. No, exactly. And they created some sort of weird perverse incentive scheme even within this system because some of the girls would be offered more money to go out and find more girls.

It's like commission. Epstein was obsessed with constantly seeing new faces. And he carried on his sick pyramid scheme of intimidation and recruitment for years. He and Galane purposefully targeted girls from hard-up areas, those that would need the money. They'd also identify those with trauma in their past, especially sexual trauma, as they found that they were often easier to manipulate.

They could both identify what it was that someone needed and exploit that need. Edstein brought them there with the promise of money, or a way into a new life. But he'd keep them coming back with threats, of his power and the idea that he was above the law, as well as, of course, the emotional abuse. Many of the girls stayed and kept coming back

because they couldn't see life getting better elsewhere. He was, after all, in some cases, flying them all around the world, buying them expensive gifts and taking them to the movies. Many times he would promise to fund their education in the future or to introduce them to important people. Most of these girls were in their early teens and not equipped to process that kind of power dynamic.

His victims are thought to be in the hundreds. In 2005, 14-year-old Michelle Licata was found at school with $300 in her bag. Her mother pressed her on where she got the cash. Michelle revealed that just before Christmas, a friend had passed her a note in class. It had asked her if she wanted to make a bit of extra money for Christmas by massaging old guys in Palm Beach.

That sounded like easy money to Michelle, so she headed off to Epstein's massage manton, and when she got there, he was facing down on the table. He gestured to the oils and told her to start on his legs. After some time, he flipped over and started complimenting her. To the braces wearing 14-year-old, this was quite disarming. She'd never considered herself to be pretty before. And then Epstein told her to get down to her underwear. Then he started masturbating.

Then he assaulted her. Michelle's mother was, of course, horrified, and she went right to the police. Michelle was questioned and gave a statement, which was found to be credible, and an investigation was launched. Because Epstein was so powerful and well-connected, it was referred immediately to the Special Investigations Unit. So far, so good. The lead investigator dug deeper, and he found other girls, and heard the same story over and over again. Many victims, between 14 and 18 years old, said to the police that they had been pressured into sex with Geoffrey Epstein,

but most victims were scared of him and didn't want to press charges. Likewise, his employees mostly stayed silent out of fear of being sued, so the investigation team kept his house under constant surveillance and even tracked his flights. And after going through Epstein's rubbish, Investigators found a school report card from one alleged victim and a receipt for flowers that he had sent to a school to be handed to another young girl when she finished a drama performance.

Seven months into the investigation in October 2005, authorities managed to execute a search warrant. Epstein's house was filled with painting, statues and photographs of naked and half-naked figures, including many of children. And we've all seen that portrait of Bill Clinton. But in several locations around the house, police found desks with loose wires where computers had clearly been hurriedly taken away. It was obvious that Epstein had been tipped off. Still, victims' descriptions matched the house exactly, proving that they had been there.

And memopads exposed that Epstein had been contacting a series of minors. By this point, over 40 teenage victims had accused Geoffrey Epstein. and once the police had five willing to go on record, they applied for arrest warrants. When state attorney Barry Crisha received the application for the warrant, he was immediately confident that Epstein would be put away for the rest of his life. But, of course, it wouldn't be that easy, because Epstein lawyered up.

There were eight of them in total, including Clinton impeachment lawyer Kenneth Stub. and the absolute poster boy of sleazy lawyers, Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz had made a whole career out of getting reduced sentences for high-profile very guilty people. He even represented O.J. Simpson. Of course. I mean, to be honest, if I were Epstein, which I'm very glad I'm not, I'd go for the dream team. Are you kidding?

Oh, of course, of course. Where's Kardashian? Sign me up. And unsurprisingly, the eight strong lawyer squad was savage in their country. questioning of those brave few teenage girls who'd come forward to testify, going all in on defamation of character and accusations of lying. Dershow is said that their credibility was in doubt because of their backgrounds. One was asked if it was true she'd had three abortions. And then, when she said yes, she was asked, what's worse, having three abortions or giving sexual massages to Geoffrey Epstein?

In July 2006, Geoffrey Epstein was charged with a single felony count of solicitation of prostitution. He posted Bond a few hours after he was arrested and went home. After the verdict, Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Rater personally wrote to all of the victims. He said that justice had not been served and therefore he was referring the case to the FBI. And then the FBI opened a federal investigation called Operation Leap Year. They tracked down the pharmacists, even though they had a tough time doing it. After Maria's initial reporting of her assault in the 90s, Galane Maxwell had hounded her with intimidating phone calls and threats of violence.

Galane said she'd burn all of Maria's art and destroy her career. So she'd better watch her back. And let's face it, Galane Maxwell is completely capable of doing that. Oh, yeah. Eventually the FBI found Maria Farmer living under an alias in the mountains of North Carolina. Finally, for the victims of Epstein and Maxwell, it seemed as though there might be hope for justice. In 2008, Jeffrey Epstein was on his 75-acre private island in the Virgin Islands

when he got a call from Alan Dershowitz, telling him to return to Florida. Dershowitz said he was facing 18 months in prison, on two state charges, solicitation of prostitution and procuring a minor for engaging in prostitution. FBI special agent Nesbit Kirkendor put together a case so comprehensive that Epstein would be jailed for life, even if he was convicted for a single count. And there were almost 40 victims ready to testify. Plus they had flight logs that showed they were transported across state lines in private planes,

which of course is sex trafficking. A 53-page indictment was prepared. But the hearing was called at the last minute, without the victim's knowledge. The whole thing had been kept under wraps. Once inside the courtroom, Epstein's lawyers approached the judge and had a conversation that the rest of the court couldn't hear. They then led Epstein over to the bailiff, where he was fingerprinted and gave a DNA sample, only to be then led out of the courtroom.

All of this happened without the night. of the Miami police or any of the victims. And the plea deal that resulted was absolutely extraordinary. In exchange for pleading guilty, Epstein was granted total immunity from any other state charges and all federal charges. The deal also granted immunity to any of his co-conspirators, and those named in the documents were Galane, obviously, but also Nadia Marcincova, Michelle Tagliani, and Sarah Kellen. Those three women were all known associates of Epstein's and thought to have been at the

very top of the pyramid scheme of sex trafficking recruitment. Even more than that, the plea deal also included immunity for any unnamed conspirators, which is just astonishing that that's legal. The deal was unprecedented and no one was given any explanation at all. I'll give you the explanation. When you're a billionaire, you can basically do what you want. Epstein was sentenced to 18 months, which he was allowed to serve in a private wing of the Palm Beach County Jail. Captain Mark Chamberlain wrote, I'm authorising that his cell door be left unlocked and that he will be given liberal access to the attorney room where a TV will be installed. And that's not all. Jeffrey Epstein was granted work release, which for a sex.

offender serving at his sentence is utterly ludicrous. Honestly, all of these people need to be investigated immediately because this isn't just about him being rich. Of course he's incredibly rich. This is also like, when you look at historic sex abuse cases and you're like, we all look at them now and we're like, how was this allowed to happen? How did the police turn a blind eye?

How did politicians not do anything? Because they were all fucking in on it. Like Saville. Exactly. They were all fucking there. This is probably a reason why Epstein wanted his abuse industry to be as big and wide-spanning as it was. He would have known he's not stupid that that would have increased the risk,

but it also draws in more people involved in that shit. If you do more high-profile people involved in that shit, then when you eventually get caught, they'll go into back for you. Because you've got collateral on everyone. It's fucking outrageous. Outrageous. And this is the thing. We talk about historic abuses.

This is a modern day example of exactly how the same thing happened. So the work that Jeffrey Epstein was allowed, to go and do, took place at the high-rise offices of the Florida Science Foundation, a non-profit organisation started by Epstein himself, just months before pleading guilty. He paid more than $128,000 to the sheriff's office so he could be supervised by an off-duty deputy. And throughout his sentence, Epstein would fly girls, presumably, into the Florida Science Foundation offices, to engage in sexual acts with them. My God.

And of his 18-month sentence, he served just 13 months. So if none of this is making sense, then don't worry, we're all in the same boat. The FBI's investigation had provided enough testimonies and evidence to put Jeffrey Epstein in jail for the rest of his life. But enter U.S. attorney Alex Acosta. It turns out that Epstein had made another plea deal in secret with Acosta. And if you recognise that name, Alex Acosta, it's probably because he went on to become the Labor Secretary under Mr. Donald Trump. Should I say President Donald Trump? Emails were obtained by Julie K. Brown at the Miami Herald, who, by the way, did some absolutely astonishing journalism on this case over the years.

And those emails that Julie managed to get hands on suggested that over months of negotiations between Epstein's attorneys and Acosta's office, Acosta continually conceded to Epstein's demands. It was Acosta who, much to the fear of the FBI agents working on the case, all but shut the investigation down. Epstein and his lawyers were also known to have been meeting in private with Acosta, and the deal had been hashed out, signed and sealed in private, deliberately hiding the scope of Epstein's crimes. And so, as Jeffrey Epstein had said to Maria Farmer all those years ago,

he knew people and they owed him favours evidently whenever we talk about these sort of like sealed room negotiations all I can think about is how awful

I would feel like just unable to concentrate terrified I would do anything and then I'm like oh but like the reason he's got himself

into that situation is because he doesn't work on the same software as you no and after all this after these closed room negotiations had been hashed out The victims were, by law, powerless to pursue any further justice.

I mean, the level of corruption here, the shadiness, the backdoor dealings, the fact that all of this happened completely not in the public eye, and it just shot down anything the victims could do, is astonishing. But Jeffrey Epstein survivors were not going to give up without a fight. And that is where we are going to leave it with a glimmer of hope far, far, far in the distance. Join us next week to hear how dozens of victims

through brave testimonies fought the 10-year battle against the highest establishments in the world. When you come back next week, what we're going to do is we'll delve deeper into the much misunderstood role

of Galane Maxwell and answer the question, what was in all of this for her? We're also going to investigate how Epstein was able to manipulate the most powerful people on earth and explain how one totally sweat-free

pizza-loving prince got swept up in the scandal of the century. So join us next week to see how Epstein's House of Cards finally came tumbling down and take a closer look at what happened to Epstein in that jail cell in 2019. I'm Hannah, I'm Sruti, and welcome to part two of our Jeffrey Epstein Galane Maxwell, Peter Pile Island, Sweating Ons series. Last week was pretty rough. There is some roughness this week. There is indeed.

But some justice and resolution also. And some opportunities for tinfoil hat apparel. So, yeah, let's get into it. It's a big one. Obviously, it goes out saying, if you haven't listened to Part 1, go do that before you listen to this. And if you haven't also got your hands on red-handed tour tickets, then also go do that.

But for now, let's take a journey back through time and space all the way to 2008, where I think I was in year 11. 2008 was the year I joined university. Okay, so I would have been sixth form. Yeah. Just, you know, listening to 50 cent doing sixth form stuff. Live in life. I was sat in my first lecture of economics and they were like, so you've decided to do this during the biggest global recession we've had ever. So congratulations.

Come on in. maybe in four years' time you'll all get jobs. In my degree, they were like, no one becomes an anthropologist, you're wasting your time. Anyway, in 2008, Jeffrey Epstein had been handed an 18-month sentence, and his victims were devastated. When he only served 13 months, they knew that something had to be done. The victims knew exactly what Epstein really was,

a dangerous, influential and predatory child rapist, one with a vast network of fixes tasked with bringing him at least three girls every single day. And he'd been at it for years. But the plea deal that Epstein had signed, rushed through by pathetic little goblin man, Alex Acosta, granted Epstein full legal immunity from any other punishment.

As far as the courts were concerned, Epstein had served his time and the case was closed. For lawyer Brad Edwards and the 65 victims he would go on to represent, this just was not good enough. Epstein had to be stopped. In June 2008, Brad Edwards had just started his own law firm, dedicated to helping victims with civil cases. And it was then that a fellow victim's rights lawyer

had passed him a case from the FBI. It was the account of 20-year-old Courtney Wilde. who said that she had been sexually assaulted over on Palm Beach, six years previously, when she was just 14 years old. In his book, Relentless Pursuit, Brad details Courtney's story. As a young girl, Courtney had always been a straight-student. But her mother struggles with addiction made Courtney's high-achieving life harder and harder to manage.

She would often come home to find her mother and her friends using, hardly a safe, stable environment for a child. So Courtney started to sleep at friend's houses. But in the summer, before she joined high school, a friend told Courtney about a way to make some quick money. There was an old guy over on Palm Beach, who'd give you $200 for a massage. At 14, Courtney had of course never massaged anyone before.

She didn't even really know what a massage was. But she did know what to be. $200 was, and that was no joke. So she went to the house. She was led into a stark room with a long table. Then a man with grey hair entered in just a towel. He was friendly and set Courtney's mind at rest. He talked her through the massage and asked her about her life.

In return, he told her that he was a brain surgeon, but that he had started out poor. He introduced himself as Geoffrey Epstein. and said that he could help her become whatever she wanted to be. Then he turned over and removed his towel. The man assured the no doubt terrified 14-year-old Courtney, that this was perfectly normal. She didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do. And then quite quickly after that, he told her to pinch his nipples,

and then, again, told her to do it harder, and then he started to touch himself. After he'd finished, he gave Courtney $200, as promised, and she left. It was more money than she had ever had. On the way out, Courtney saw a painting of a little girl, about four years old, looking over her shoulder and pulling down her underwear.

And there were more. The house was covered in them. I think that's the thing with the whole Epstein story, is that he's not like abducting girls and taking them to a bunker and doing that. That's a lot of very obvious, like he uses his power and his money and his wealth to be able to do this, but I think it's the fact of in this Palm Beach house,

he also just has paintings and pictures everywhere of naked children. And Bill Clinton. And as we'll go on to find out, many an influential person. But I think that's the thing, isn't it? It's the arrogance. It's the hiding very much in plain sight, if you want to even call it hiding. He has no fear of anybody coming over and being like, why have you got a painting of a four-year-old child pulling down their underwear?

Isn't that a bit weird? Because he knows anyone he invites over there is not going to say anything. No. Who's painting those? That's what I want to know. So there are lots of paintings of young children, but there's one older woman who appeared in a number of photographs, mostly naked.

And there's another picture. The woman has clothes on, and she's pictured with Epstein and the Pope. That's a photograph, not a painting. Yeah, and I think that actually really cements the mentality of the person in this house, because next to pictures of naked, sexually provocative pictures of children, he has pictures that show his immense influence and his immense power. I mean, here's a painting of a naked child.

Oh, are you troubled by that? Well, here's a picture of me with the Pope, so what are you going to do about it? I think it's that juxtaposition of look at what I can do and get away with and no one's going to say anything to me and look at why. Before Courtney left, she was asked for her phone number. Epstein had liked her and wanted to see her again. In the cab home, she asked her friend about the experience, to which her friend said,

who, by the way, was even younger than Courtney, this is what rich people do. They're only trying to help a bunch of poor trailer park kids like us who need a break in life. Courtney was told that she could make even more money any time she wanted to. She could pocket $200 by just bringing more girls to the house she didn't have to touch her in ininifals or anything.

And so, over the next few years, Courtney brought over 40 girls to Jeffrey Epstein. The money she made was paying her bills, and she felt so lucky to have met him. But more and more Courtney knew it wasn't right. And when she read the police reports of the girls, she had taken to see this man, she knew she had to speak up.

And I think, like, you have to give Courtney Wilde so much credit for doing that because, obviously, we all would look at her absolutely as a victim. she was doing what she had to to survive and not even fully understanding the ramifications of what she was doing but for her to come forward in 2008 when these police reports are made public and say

I was a part of this and I wasn't just a victim but I was also the person that brought these girls to him I think that takes so much courage for her to do it's incredibly brave especially because she's seen all these pictures of the fucking Pope yeah absolutely and the fact that

they saw even after all this had come out that Jeffrey Hepstein only served 13 months. So when Courtney was put in touch with lawyer Brad Edwards, she gave him all of the names as she could remember, and he started getting in touch with all of them. That way he heard more names, and he started to map out the web. The scale of this network of abuse blew him away.

And he knew that he couldn't do this on his own. So he called a private investigator in, Mike Fiston. Fiston started asking around West Palm Beach for more information and it became clear that those who had heard of Epstein and were in some way implicated with him were all absolutely terrified. In 2008, shortly after Epstein's bullshit plea deal,

Brad Edwards filed a lawsuit on behalf of the victims. The suit, Jane Doe v. the United States of America, accused the U.S. Justice Department of violating the crime victim, Rights Act in the case against Epstein. It stated, since the victims were unaware of the trial, because remember, it had all just basically been done in secret and very, very hush-hush, the victims had been unfairly denied the opportunity to challenge the plea deal. While the victim's lawyers worked to gather evidence and build their case,

Epstein was serving time. But, as we said last week, it was just about the cushiest sentence ever served this side of Scandinavia. Preferential treatment was afforded to Epstein because, quote, Epstein is a first-time offender who will be serving a long sentence at this facility, and that is a very rare occurrence. He is poorly versed in jail routine and society, and his adjustment to incarceration will most likely be atypical. That is the most horrific thing I've ever heard.

Yeah, I mean, it's just prison talk for like, he's got loads of money, so we're going to be nice to him. I mean, Jesus Christ, the idea that, oh, he's a first-time offender, but he's serving a long jail sentence at this facility, which is very rare. So what, you've just not caught him before? What's that got to do with anything? The very fact that he's serving a long jail sentence

is proof that he is a criminal. He's been convicted. And the idea that somehow, well, you know, this poor little man has no idea about anything to do with prison because he's never been here before. What? What are you even talking about? They're acting like he's some sort of minor

who's been, you know, through some miscarriage of justice been sentenced to time in like big man prison. Yeah. Shut the fuck up. And since when is 18 months and really long sentence? Exactly. Oh, my God. So we went over this last week, but let's just have a little reminder.

Epstein was granted work release at his own business, whilst he was supposedly serving his sentence. He spent 12 hours a day, six days a week, at his own office in West Palm Beach. His lawyers even argued that he didn't need the requisite counselling offered to other sex offenders because he had a private therapist, and the judge was like, yeah, no problem, approved.

And after just 13 months, Jeffrey Epstein was released on probation. The conditions stated were that he were to stay on house arrest for a year, with any movements subject to the approval of his probation officer. But Epstein, never one to follow the rules, would break parole daily, going around his many houses and out to the shops. Presumably, although his probation officer and the police were none the wiser, Mike Fiston was keeping tabs. I can't imagine being Jeffrey Epstein's parole officer

being the easiest job in the world. No, but it also doesn't sound like it was a job that this person was making many attempts at being very good at. It sounds like that person is actually loads of rats wearing a trench coat. And I think the whole case with Jeffrey Epstein is that it is the perfect conspiracy-minded person's wet dream like we said last week

because all of the things that are the worst of society that you maybe don't want to believe, the idea that given enough money and power and influence, that even somebody who commits the most heinous crimes, like child rape, would be able to secure themselves a much easier ride. And he proves it. Every step of the way,

he gets away with everything that he's done in the face of an extraordinary amount of evidence and testimony from victims. And, yeah, it's just, it's quite frankly mind-boggling. And the fact that this didn't happen 50 years ago. This happened in 2008, this particular part of the story. And it just gets worse because another condition of Epstein's probation was that he was prohibited from having any guests at his office. But Fistin documented at least two accounts of 18-year-old girls

being taken to Epstein's office to meet with him. According to them, he had been naked apart from his GPS ankle monitor and the meetings had, of course, turned sexual. Mike Fistin repeatedly forwarded these records to Jeffrey Epstein's parole officer and every time he heard the same thing what would you like us to do he's a celebrity

soon Brad Edwards and Mike Fistin found themselves being followed Edwards remembers cars being parked outside his family home shining their full beam headlights through the window and then whoever was doing this started doing the same thing to the victims

All the while, Epstein was living his life exactly as he had done before he was convicted. He was even allowed to fly! And in the first three months of 2010, he went to New York and his private island, Little St. James, nine times each. And the island wasn't just a tropical paradise, but for years it had been providing Jeffrey Epstein with the most valuable asset that a billionaire child rapist could ask for. Total undisturbed privacy The island of Little St James is part of the US Virgin Islands A territory in the Caribbean to the west of Puerto Rico

Epstein bought it in 1998 for 7.95 million He called it Little St. Jeff's. God, he's such a fucking ticket. To locals and everyone else in the world, this island is now known as a paedophile island. A team of 70 staff worked for Jeffrey Epstein on paedophile island from masseuses to electricians and they stayed in the extensive staff quarters.

Epstein also built various cabanas and beach houses all over the island. All the food was strictly vegan and he had a huge shower installed with 10 showerheads to accommodate groups. God. I mean, what do you even do with this island and all that shit now? I mean, I wonder if it's still there or just some other billionaire pedophile that's bought it. Yeah, Clinton lives there now.

And as if the ten-headed shower wasn't sinister enough, Epstein insisted that his residence on Little St. James, like all his prophecies, was kept at an icy 12 degrees Celsius, which is 54 Fahrenheit. Most aircon units don't go below 16. 12 degrees? So, away from prying eyes surrounded by the calm Caribbean sea, Jeffrey Epstein could live out every fantasy he'd ever had. Throughout the 2000s, as well as his scheme of recruitment in Palm Beach,

Epstein would also regularly fly underage girls to his island. Airport personnel and island staff remember seeing girls as young as 11 or 12. They would often arrive in university hoodies and an apparent attempt to make them look older. And one of the many, many girls who had been brought to Little St. James over the years was Sarah Ransom. She was befriended in Sydney by a young woman her age

and told about Epstein. Before long, Bromises of fun and employment on a Paradise Caribbean Island found Sarah on a private plane to Little St. James. A private plane that I believe is also nicknamed

the Lolita Express. Yes, I believe you're right. But of course, the dream was over before Sarah even arrived on paedophile island. When in full view of many others on the plane, Epstein started having vigorous sex with a young woman. Sarah Ransom closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

You are never more trapped than when you're in the air on a fucking plane. I mean, the fear that would be trickling through you when you realize if this man is willing to do that in front of a plane full of people, what will he do behind closed doors? So Sarah spent weeks being treated in her own words as a sex toy. and was desperate to leave the island. One time she even escaped and ran to the coast, readying herself to swim if she had to. But within minutes, to her horror,

jeeps pulled up to the coast. It was clear that the whole island was under surveillance, and there was no escape until Epstein said so. Also seen on the island by staff was Virginia Roberts. You might remember her from last week. She was picked up at 16 by Galane Maxwell from the spa at Mar-Alargo. Virginia had been lured in with promises of masseuse training. Soon she was regularly being flown around at Epstein's behest

between New York, Palm Beach and the Caribbean. So he could abuse her, and so could his powerful friends. At 17 years old, she was seen on Little St James by the pool. She was wearing only her bikini bottoms and kissing and fooling around with a much older man. And this wasn't just any man. He was British royalty Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, the Queen's favourite son

had a reputation in the British media tabloids couldn't get enough of the man they called the Playboy Prince or when they had a page to fill Randy Andy and his web of arm candy I just the idea of calling Prince Andrew a playboy if you are a rapist of children, are you a playboy? I feel like playboy is a, is almost a positive term because it's like you can get women.

Yeah. He's just a fucking nonce. I mean, playboy prince, I mean, Jesus Christ, that's a compliment to me. And as well as being a celebrated sex pest, Prince Andrew was also known for being particularly shitty to anyone he deemed below him, which is probably everyone, especially his staff. The wait staff, security personnel, maids, and footmen at Buckingham Palace

all remember Andrew flying off the handle at them for any minor infraction. One maid remembers him asking her to come up four flights of stairs to open his curtains, which were right next to him. But, perhaps most disturbingly of all, in his bedroom at Buckingham Palace, this sweaty nonce has 72 teddy bears. and there is a laminated card in the side drawer with photos of the bears arranged on his bed.

The maids would have to put each of the 72 teddies back exactly where they had been or risk being screamed at by the prince. He is a father. Don't remind me. The fact that this man exists in this time and era and space is just so, so sad. Yeah, but, you know,

Don't worry, Harry and Megan, though. Do you know what I mean? Let's, look over there. Look over there. Don't look over here at these 72 teddies. They're like, look at me, look at me. And we're like, oh, okay, then. What about the fucking nonce?

Scarlet of all of them. Fuck off. Fuck the fuck off. My God. Surrity Bala brings down the monkey. Honestly. I actually thought it would be quite funny to watch the first. I thought the Megan and Harry documentary was one episode.

I thought it was one documentary. Oh, no, no, no. And I realized to my absolute hoary. that it is about six hours of fucking nonsense. And I did actually watch the first two episodes yesterday because I thought it would be funny and it was funny. But then it also was just quite fucking horrendous to listen to these narcissists just go on about themselves.

But now I can say I've watched a third of it and now I'm allowed to have an opinion that it is absolute dog shit. Cringeworthy to my very core. Yeah. And let's not forget. Prince Andrew is a child rapist and a sweaty nonce. Mm-hmm. And he is particularly entitled, even for the royal family.

And that is... Saying something. Yes, it is saying quite something. Because the whole time I was watching anything to do with the royal family, but particularly this documentary, was never have I listened to somebody complain about so fucking little, so fucking much. Like, oh, I had the smallest bedroom. That's because you're the youngest. I mean, Jesus fucking Christ, is awful.

Anyway, anyway, moving on. This is not a review of that terrible documentary. All right, very quick break, because I know you are gagging to get back to this particular episode. But we have to tell you a little bit about what's going on on Patreon this week. Certainly. Well, this week we have under the duvet where I explain how hypnosis works. Sadly, but it works.

It does work. And I will tell you how I came off the pill, and now the back knee's back. We also have a little chat about Russell Brand and contemplate the composition of the soul and whether it even fucking matters. And then I do a little review on a throwback dating TV show that I watched on Channel 4 called Perfect Match, where I literally couldn't believe, A, that people were smoking in clubs, because it's that old, and then all the horrific things that were coming out of people's mouths. And you can listen to all of that over on Patreon, and you can watch it too.

Under the Duvea is every week we release it every Wednesday morning. And also on Patreon, you can get Red-Handed, totally ad-free. And we also do monthly bonus episodes. And you can find all of that at patreon.com forward slash red-handed. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondry's podcast Against the Oats. In each episode, we share thrilling true stories of survival, putting you in the shoes of the people who live to tell the tale. And sometimes we get to hear from Survivor. themselves, in their own words. On our next season, it's May 23. Competitive swimmer,

Ali Truitt, has just graduated from Yale and completed her first marathon. But a few days after graduation, Allie is snorkeling in the Caribbean when suddenly she's attacked by a shark and finds herself in a fight for her life. Allie's epic journey to reclaim her love of the water pushes her further than she could have ever imagined all the way to the Paris Paralympics. against the odds on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge the entire season ad free right now only on Wondery Plus. Start your free trial in the Wondery app. Apple Podcasts or Spotify today.

On the 9th of March 2001, Galane took Virginia shopping in London to prepare her for a visit from none other than the Duke of York, Prince Andrew. Around 6pm, Andrew and his bodyguards arrived at Galane Maxwell's townhouse. She poured a pot of tea and introduced Virginia. Then she played her favourite game with her paedophile friends. She asked the prince to guess the girl's age. 17, he guessed. Epstein and Maxwell smiled. And Galane said, yes, she'll be too old soon. These people just death, death. Then the four of them went out to a Chinese restaurant. Before going on to Club Tramp, an exclusive members club in central London.

I honestly can't think of anything more that would just make me want to fucking die on the spot than going to a Chinese restaurant with Galane Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein and the fucking sweaty nonce prince andry. What did they even talk about? And Virginia's just sat there. My God, it is just so sick. It's sick. And this way, don't call him a playboy prince. he had to have a 17-year-old fixed for him that he could rape afterwards.

Yes, no, exactly. And, friends, Roman's countrymen, if you ever visit London, and anybody tells you to go to a nightclub in Mayfair, you turn the other way and you run. Yes, do, because this place, club tramp. Inside, the air was apparently thick with Cuban cigar smoke, and waiters brought out tray after tray of beluga caviar. Eventually, Andrew asked the girl to dance with him,

although Virginia wrote that it was less dancing and more, quote, pelvic smashing. Oh, he's some disgusting. And she went on to say, and this is just a perfect description that I 100% don't need to see with my own eyes, but wholeheartedly believe, quote, he was the most incredibly hideous dancer I had ever seen and I couldn't help but love. He was dripping with sweat and became extremely sexually forward to the 17-year-old, who was at this point 23 years his junior. After this, they were driven back to the townhouse with the prince's security detail following close behind. When they arrived, Epstein grabbed a yellow Kodak camera and took a photo of the 41-year-old prince with his arm around the 17-year-old Virginia.

Then Maxwell and Epstein made it abundantly clear what was going to happen next. They kissed Virginia goodnight and went upstairs. Virginia wrote about what followed. It was sexual intercourse and everything in between. It was disgusting. Yark. And all of this is paid for by the taxpayer. That fucking security detail by the UK taxpayer

because that security detail that's following him from Club Tramp back to a townhouse where he sexually assaults a 17-year-old. That's our money. Cool. Yeah, not being used to pay nurses. Anyway, afterwards, Virginia had a bath, and Prince Andrew came in and kissed her toes. When they all got back to New York,

Epstein paid Virginia $15,000 for the trip. She had sex with Prince. Prince Andrew three times over the years, including one orgy. And it wasn't just him. Virginia was expected to have sex with more of Epstein's associates, including academics, politicians and lawyers. One of whom was Alan Dershowitz, who you might remember as Epstein's scumbag lawyer from last week. None of them ever, ever wore a condom. No, because she's not a real person.

She's just a fucking walking sex toy. Yeah. Early on in that time, Virginia suffered a miscarriage. She had absolutely no idea whose it had been. In the Netflix documentary Filthy Money, Virginia says, you're screaming on the inside, but you don't know how to let it come out. You just become this numb figure who refuses to feel. All you do is obey.

During this period of her life, Virginia was taking eight Xanax a day, which she called her escape drug. But it wouldn't be long until she escaped the web for real. In 2002, just before her 19th birthday, the gruesome-to-sum, Maxwell and Epstein, came to Virginia with their biggest, sickest request yet. And this is so like fucking Ian Watkins shit, because they told Virginia that they wanted a baby.

I don't even want us to go into why, these two wanted a baby. I'll leave that to everybody's horrible, horrible imaginations. And they wanted Virginia to have this baby for them. Afraid to say no, Virginia said that she at least wanted to get her long-promised massage certificate first. The following week, she was bought tickets to Thailand to get her qualifications. Once there, Virginia met Robert Joufrey.

They fell in love and married weeks later in a bubble. Buddhist temple in the mountains near Chiang Mai. Afterwards, Virginia phoned Jeffrey to tell him that she wasn't coming back. He said, have a nice life and hung up. And I presume that he let her go quite so easily because she was aging out at this point anyway. And Virginia changed her name, from Virginia Roberts to Virginia Dufre. She had a new life, and she never ever wanted to be under the control of Jeffrey Epstein or Galane Maxwell ever again.

Gillane is interesting. Quite a lot of the time she's painted as living in Epstein's shadow, a kind of assistant that at best tolerated and at worst facilitated his abuse. Sometimes, it's even suggested that Gillane was just as much of a victim as any of the girls. But how much of a role did she actually play? And if she was just relentlessly providing Epstein with girls to assault, Why was she doing it? What was in it for her? Well, it is complicated.

We spoke about her upbringing last week, especially her relationship with her father, press tycoon Robert Maxwell. And yes, it's very likely that part of what drew her to Jeffrey Epstein was that she'd found another commanding father figure. There was no doubt that Galane Maxwell was attracted to extreme personalities, especially those that tended to be narcissistic, impulsive, and restless like her father. and she liked them even more if those personalities came complete with a gigantic bank balance. But it's not that simple, there is a bit more going on. As we said last time, if there was no Galane, then Epstein would still have abused. So what about the reverse? Would Galane have been involved in any kind of sexual impropriety if she never met Jeffrey Epstein?

Well, we know that she was always an overtly sexual person. in social settings. At parties she would hold court about how to give the perfect blowjob. She would set people up and educate them on how to be sexual with each other. And she would encourage young girls at parties to flirt with men and to do whatever they asked for sexually.

Now, obviously, being loudly horny at parties is not an indicator of future abuse, but the common thread from all of these stories is not just Galane's confident sexuality. It's a tendency to use sexual confidence, to manipulate people.

Yeah, and I think like there's one thing being sexually confident or whatever. If that's consistently your personality at all of the parties and you're just doing that all the time with people, it does show a person that is very unfiltered and lacking in any sort of boundaries with other people, which again doesn't make you what Galane Maxwell is, but it probably doesn't indicate the most A-OK person. Yeah.

And coming back to her father, Robert Mavis, Maxwell. Like we briefly touched on last week, he had a deeply sexist view of the world. He wanted his sons to be titans of business and his daughters to be desirable trophies. I think, you know, what you see in Robert Maxwell is kind of the typical narcissistic parent, right? His children are merely extensions of himself. They are not individual people with their own thoughts and feelings. So if his sons are successful in business, it's because he was a great father. And if his daughters are hot and desirable, then again it's because he is a alpha dog. And it was no secret that given this kind of thinking and his general personality overall,

Robert Maxwell often cheated on his wife, something that she quietly tolerated. Maxwell firmly believed that women were there for men's convenience only. And this rubbed off on his favourite daughter, Galane. Maybe she saw other women and girls as simply tools to use, much like her father had done, but she saw them as tools in order to help her move up in the powerful world of men. So what are the parallels between all of this and her relationship with Geoffrey Epstein? Well, Epstein once said that once a relationship is over, the girlfriend moves up, not down, to friendship status.

God! And there is just so much to unpack there. But once their short-lived relationship, because remember Galane and Jeffrey Epstein had been romantically involved at the start, But once this cooled, Galane was then elevated in the eyes of Epstein to trusted advisor status. I think, you know, the thing here is obviously it's like if it's a woman he's having sex with, she is beneath, she's below, she's somebody he's dominating probably some sort of, I don't even think Madonna Hall complex because I don't think he looked at Galane Maxwell like a Madonna.

But I think he saw her for the influential missing piece that he needed to infiltrate this work. and I think he kind of had to stop sleeping with her to be able to have her for what he actually wanted and needed. And once Galane elevated to this advisor status, she not only helped Epstein get what he wanted, but crucially, as we have been banging on about, she also took part. Galane features in many of the victims' accounts

as not only sourcing them, but also being present and participating in, in the actual abuse itself. And this is the crucial thing. Many women who are in prison for things like what were referred to like as sexual offences, typically they're not there having committed the sexual offence themselves. Typically they are there, like we saw with the Ian Watkins case, of making their children available to men who are predatory,

or like in this case, doing something that facilitates the procurement, quote unquote, of victims. But the difference with Galane Maxwell, which makes her much more akin to somebody like Rose West, and I'm not saying it's the same level because Rose West we know we're sexually sadistic. With Galane, it is harder to know exactly what her motivations were for being a part of the abuse, but she was absolutely there. The victim said that she would take off her clothes, touch them inappropriately, or massage them. So, very much, quite literally, hands on. And so if you look at it that way, the only main difference between Galane and Epstein was maybe the power that they had. Galane is often quoted as saying the victims were nothing and, quote, worthless.

Just like Sweaty Nantes Prince Andrew, she had a very real disregard for human beings that weren't of a certain class. You could say that Galane had a sexual inclination and ambition even to carry out abuse. But she needed Epstein, a threatening charismatic man. She needed him for the power dynamic to work. She was an expert at drawing the victims in. Many of the girls remember thinking that because Galane was this beautiful, charming and confident woman, they felt more at ease trusting that everything was fine, normal even. It's like you're much more likely to get into a car with a woman in it. Oh, 100%.

And I think also the class plays a massive role in this because she presents herself as what she was for the whole part, like a cultured, intelligent, well-spoken, affluent woman. So if she's coming up to you in Aspara Marilago, like she's with Virginia Roberts and tells you that she's going to change your life, why wouldn't you believe her? The girls they went after specifically were incredibly vulnerable, often incredibly poor, disenfranchised. So someone like Elaine Maxwell would have seemed so legitimate, so trustworthy that why would they have questioned it? And after all, female sexual abusers are incredibly rare. They make up just 5% of cases that are reported. so there's no denying that with her taking on a hands-on role with the abuse

that she must have got something from the actual abuse and so I don't think it was just that she was like supplying the victims finding these girls building this web or building this network just to keep Jeffrey Epstein happy or to like keep him on side or something like that or even to just show him how useful she is I certainly don't think she's some manipulated victim who was sort of just like a porn in Epstein's

game. Galane Maxwell knew exactly what she was doing, and she enjoyed it. She enjoyed the power, she enjoyed the control, and possibly she enjoyed the sexual thrill. Galane Maxwell's involvement with Geoffrey Epstein lasted for decades. But after his little holiday in minimum security prison, she did put some distance between them. Later, her lawyers would try and argue that she'd cut ties completely, but that's not quite true. Between 2007 and 2011, Epstein transferred more than $20 million from his offshore accounts to Galane Maxwell, and they were in regular correspondence. In 2015, he sent her an email that said, you've done nothing wrong and I would urge you to start acting like it. Go outside, head high, not as an escaping convict,

go to parties, deal with it. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Melina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well researched. Of the 880 men who survived the attack, around 400 would eventually find their way to one another and merge into one larger group. With a touch of humor. Shout out to her. Shout out to all my therapist out there's been like eight of them. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. That mother f*** is not real. And if you're a weirdo like us, I'd love to cozy up to a creepy

tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the way back machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes. You should tune in to our podcast. Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. You know those creepy stories that give you goosebumps?

The ones that make you really question what's real? Well, what if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories are not found in haunted houses or abandoned forests, but instead, in hospital rooms and doctors' offices. Hi, I'm Mr. Ballin, the host of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. And each week on my podcast, you can expect to hear stories about bizarre illnesses no one can explain, miraculous recoveries that shouldn't have happened,

and cases so baffling, they stumped even the best doctors. So if you crave totally true and thoroughly twisted horror stories and mysteries, Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries should be your new, to weekly show. Listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Both Epstein and Maxwell wouldn't face their reckoning for years. But now, let's get back to the campaign that did actually bring them to justice. After numerous parole violations,

and sophisticated legal wrangling on behalf of the victims. More than 20 women came forward seeking damages. Since they had seen no justice in the criminal courts, many victims looked to make Epstein pay for his crimes against them in civil courts instead. And Epstein was required to attend depositions for each of these victims, and be interrogated by the victim's lawyer. In 2010, Epstein faced seven depositions for, one case alone.

When lawyer Brad Edwards finally came face-to-face with Epstein representing Courtney Wilde. He didn't fuck around. He knew that Epstein had a habit of Fifth Amendmenting his way out of any questions. And Brad knew that the only way to get a rise out of a narcissist like this was to get

under his skin. So Brad asked him directly, How long have you been attracted to underage minor females? When Epstein grimaced, Brad followed up with, I'm not divulging any secrets here, right? And a similar tactic was employed by lawyer Spencer Coogan,

who was representing three victims, and decided to ask Jeffrey Epstein about his weird dick. Could you please give us your name? Jeffrey Epstein. Is it true, sir, that you have what's been described as an egg-shaped penis? Form, vague indefinite, And I'm going to give you the first warning, Mr. Kuban, that these types of questions are not only argumentative, but directed in a manner to embarrass Mr. Epstein. If you continue with this type of question, I'll adjourn the deposition immediately.

Sir, according to the police department's probable cause affidavit, one witness described your penis as oval-shaped and claimed when erect it was thick towards the bottom, but was thin. in small towards the head portion and called it egg-shaped. Those are not my words, I apologize. But as Mr. Now, adjourned. As Mr. Critton has stated that this is a... All right. I'm willing to continue.

Egg shape? I don't think I've ever seen one that's an egg shape. And I've seen some really weird ones. Oh, my God. I mean, it's just perfect. It's just perfect. I don't think the audio clip does it justice. We'll leave the link to the video.

which is very easily findable on YouTube. And it's worth watching just to watch his little toadie face as he's responding to it. Because absolutely the lawyer, Spencer Coogan, who asked that question, is absolutely right to have done so. And same with Brad Edwards. To get to someone like Jeffrey Epstein to shake him up, you have to ask those kind of questions because he's so used to everybody else playing by the rules, being decent, being moral, and he just gets to do whatever the fuck he wants. So sometimes you do have to stoop to that level.

And sure, it's fun to shame Epstein and very satisfying to watch his Toadface squirm. But more than that, even though the deposition was over in less than a hundred seconds, which is extraordinary, it was also just the result the lawyers were after. Firstly, Spencer Coven has said that it turned the tables. The victims had been bombarded with inappropriate, intimate questions throughout the investigation about their sexual experiences, despite the fact that they were all under 18 at the time. And secondly, when someone clams up and shuts down, rattling them is the best you can hope for.

Edwards and Coving both wanted the victim's accounts to be as public as humanly possible. So they made jabs at Epstein's fragile ego. Epstein didn't have the right to terminate the interview, but he walked out anyway. So Coven filed a motion for sanctions, filing a copy of the transcript, and video with the court, and in doing so, he had made Epstein's egg-like penis public record.

When it hit the news, Epstein was humiliated, and shortly after all three of Cuvon's cases were resolved. It's a very sneaky tactic, but for Epstein and his lawyers, it was a well-overdue taste of their own medicine. In The Spider, Barry Levine estimates that Epstein paid more than $20 million to the victims in at least 39 out-of-court settlements. and just three victims were paid 5.5 million between them. But through all this, Geoffrey Epstein's reputation was miraculously undamaged. For decades, he had been able to court elite figures from politics and academia. Technology moguls, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, all met with him in the years after his first imprisonment.

And we also know that Prince Andrew also kept hanging out with him after his first imprisonment. And Jeffrey Epstein also kept an extremely high and influential profile in the world of academia. His foundation donated millions of dollars to scientific research and organized global conferences with some of the most prominent scientists in the world. Stephen Hawking even visited Epstein's island for a conference called Confronting Gravity. By now, of course everyone even remotely associated with Epstein has tried to distance themselves from him. But back then, that very much wasn't the case.

Epstein would entertain all sorts of powerful people at his properties in New York and Paris and, of course, on Little St. James. And many would also join in for orgies and to abuse young girls. It's hard to say which, if any of the people that went to Little St. James, were involved in sexual impropriety. Because this is a thing. It can't just be that everyone who went to this island was some sort of child rapist. He knew which ones were going to be open to that and which ones wanted that.

And he would have known, well, if I want... X, Y, Z, because they're influential in this space, I'll give them whatever it is that they want. He is a man who is a very good profiler of people, understands what they want, and then gives them that so that he can get something in return. And while I say, you know, we can't be sure about which ones were involved in sexual impropriety, particularly with underage girls, it is fun to guess. So let's have a little game, shall we, have guessed the non-slash-n-not-n-n-guess the p-do. We pay this all the time. Guess the pido. So, Woody Allen. Yes. Bill Gates. I really hope not.

Clinton. Yes. Bezos. Yes. Prince Andrew. Duh. Stephen Hawking. I mean, he was a bit of a shagger in his time.

He was, but I would be very surprised if that had continued on to the island. And finally, Elon Musk. 100%. The man's got nine children. And while we're perusing Epstein's scientific connection, there's one more pretty pertinent thing that we should mention. It's just as almost too perfect. Jeffrey Epstein was obsessed with eugenics

and wanted to cede the human race with his own DNA. Of course he did. He rose to infiltrate the scientific community at the most elite level. He had plans to manipulate all of his connections to fuel his grant plan. And this is what it was. He wanted to use his New Mexico ranch as a base,

where women would be inseminated with his sperm and then give birth to his babies. His ideal scenario is to have 20 women pregnant at the same time in his sex ranch. And this plan was not a secret. Epstein announced the idea at a conference and regularly brought it up at dinner parties. Again, whether you want to think the child molestation

is like a hidden secret or not, this man is saying some batshit crazy things in public and people are still looking the other way. He was desperate for everyone to hear his ideas on perfecting the human genome, obviously, in his own image. He got the idea from the repository for German or choice, a sperm bank that aimed to only collect donations from recipients of the Nobel Prize.

My God. By the way, neither idea is illegal, and transhumanist foundations that aim to genetically improve human beings are very much still active, but that is a story for another time, but I bet it will be in your nightmares. In 2009, Virginia Dufray filed a lawsuit accusing both Jeffrey Epstein and Galane Maxwell of sexually trafficking her while she was a minor. She initially stayed anonymous, but when, in 2010, she gave birth to her baby daughter, Virginia made the decision to go

public. The mentions of British royalty soon caught the attention of reporters in the UK. and in early 2011, the Mail on Sunday ran a story on its front page. It printed the photograph of Andrew with his arm around the teenage Virginia and detailed her direct accusation that she was pressured into sex with the prince. This made headlines all over the world, accompanied by the photo that Epstein had taken all those years before, one that I'm sure everyone listening has definitely seen. Like we said, it features Prince Andrew with his arm around the 17th.

year old and she looks so young she's like wearing like a crop top and jeans or something and he just looks so old and fucking gross next to her and you know obviously a lot of people criticise that and they'll be like well look she's smiling and I'm like what is he doing with his arm around a 17 year old anyway whether she's fucking smiling or not there's camera pointing at her what do you think she's going to be doing crying like the the blowback that virginia Dufray got from people was unsurprising, but also just ridiculous. To consider the power dynamics between a 17-year-old girl who was essentially on her own in the world compared to the Duke of York, fucking hell.

Are you thick, if you think that that is a direct comparison? So anyway, the British royal family eventually made the statement as follows. Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue. Do you think they say that because the age of consent in the UK is 16 and she was 17? I mean, if there were ever irrefutable evidence like a tape or like photographs of the actual stuff happening, which I'm not convinced doesn't exist, then I think that that's what they would lean back on. But I also just think playing semantics like that wouldn't fly if, I mean, the majority of people who are aware of this case already think he's a sweaty nonce.

I think there are very few people out there now who defend him. I think there are a lot of people who turn a blind eye and aren't demanding nearly as much be done to this man as I would like to see, which is basically, in my opinion, he should be hauled off to the US and be made to stand trial there because Scotland Yard is fucking firmly in the pocket of the royal family here. They will never do anything against them as our MI5, as our MI6. But the FBI, law enforcement in the US, not the same situation.

So it does make me incredibly sad that there is, enough force or enough energy put behind sort of dragging that man across the Atlantic to face justice for what he's done. But I think if it did come out and they were like, well, we did say that they weren't underage. I think that technicality wouldn't cover their asses in any sort of way. I think they're just doing what they usually do, which is say nothing and when you're pushed to say something, make one statement that it's just not true.

But as if they don't fucking know that it is. It's disgusting. and the fact that he has two daughters who were like, oh, it just makes me sick. He's such a freak. But of course, Randy Andy, the Playboy Prince, denied absolutely everything. He said very loudly that he had no memory of the evening and he had returned to Buckingham Palace that night

after going to a pizza express in Woking with his daughter for a birthday party. He said much later in the now infamous Newsnight interview that the account just couldn't be true because one of Epstein's accusers Virginia Roberts has made allegations against you she was very specific

about that night she described dancing with you and you profusely sweating and that she went on to have bath possibly there's a slight problem with the sweating because

I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don't sweat, or I didn't sweat at the time. And that was, oh, actually, yes, I didn't sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at. And I simply, it was almost impossible for me to sweat.

On that particular day that we now understand is the date, which is the 10th of March, I was at home. I was with the children. I'd taken Beatrice to a pizza express in Woking. Why would you remember that so specifically? Why would you remember a Pizza Express birthday and being at home? Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do.

A very unusual thing for me to do. I've only been through Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went, oh, yes, I remember that. Who let him do that interview? I mean, I'm glad it happened because he's an asshole, but like, who? I mean, this is a man who screams at people for not putting their teddy bars back in the right place. This isn't a man who is used to or inclined to follow instructions would be my guess on that matter. I'm sure he, as the fucking child rapist, narcissist that he probably is,

very much thought that he could handle it, very much thought that. that everyone else is very stupid. I will go on there. I've got the perfect story. He's probably Googled conditions in which people are not able to sweat. And of course he has to throw in his Falklands fighting experience because he's a man

of the military, blah, blah, blah. It's like, I'm a hero. Fucking shut up. Honestly, that interview, the whole thing around this is just we'd be here forever if we talked about how horrendous the entire situation was.

But I think when you watch it, you watch his body language, you watch him. It tells everything. It's all the giving. ways of a liar, right? The fact that he doesn't just focus on the fact that I am not a man who pressured young girls into having sex with me. Instead, he goes into this era of saying that he can't sweat. Only people that are lying feel the need to fixate on seemingly unimportant parts

of the story, like whether he was, like to say that it couldn't possibly have been him because he can't sweat. And Virginia Joufrey described a man who was sweaty. That's not a defense. No. That's a defense of a man who has nothing else to say. I, it's just, it's farcical, honestly. So not being able to sweat, as I'm sure Prince Andrew Googled, is called anhydrosis. And it can happen for a few reasons. It can be congenital. It can be due to excessive dehydration. So your body just literally does not have the fluids to be able to produce sweat. Or it can happen after a serious bodily injury. None of those things are what Prince Andrew just said. So in case, just in case, You are in the 0.01% of people who were convinced by his story. We are telling you now, no, you cannot be so scared that you stop sweating for good. We acting bad, bad, bad, bad. We ain't trying to hurt nobody.

For decades, he was untouchable. I'm gone from Harlem to Hollywood. But now it's all coming undone. Sean Combs, the mogul, as we know it, is over. He will never be that person again, even if he's found not guilty of these charges. I'm Jesse Weber, host of law and crimes, the rise and fall of Diddy, the federal trial, a front row seat to the biggest trial in entertainment history. Sex trafficking, racketeering, prostitution, allegations by federal prosecutors that span decades,

and witnesses who are finally speaking out. The spotlight is harsher. The stakes are higher. And for Diddy, there may be no second chances. You can listen to the rise and fall of Diddy the federal trial exclusively with Wondry Plus. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Spotify, or Apple podcast right now. In 1992, federal agents surrounded a remote cabin in the mountains of Idaho. It belonged to Randy Weaver, a Christian survivalist with links to the far right. Weaver was wanted on a minor weapon. charge, but a series of blunders and misunderstandings turned the situation into an armed and deadly standoff. Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondry Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters,

and corporate fraud. In our latest series, a family of religious fanatics moves to Ruby Ridge in northern Idaho to wait out the apocalypse. But their paranoia and suspicion of authority lead to a confrontation with federal law enforcement and their own personal Armageddon. Follow American Scandal on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge newest seasons only on Wondry Plus. You can join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. Virginia's story was a sensation.

And since everyone was talking about Prince Andrew, everyone was once again talking about Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia had said that she'd been recognized. recruited by Epstein as a sex slave and groomed from the age of 15. Epstein's connections to powerful people undoubtedly helped him to avoid accountability over the years, but when the tide started to turn against him, it was his connections that brought him out into the public eye

where he had absolutely nowhere to hide, especially when one of his friends an island frequenter decided to run for president of the United States. When Donald Trump announced his candidacy He alluded to a falling out a few years earlier, between him and Geoffrey Epstein. But he certainly couldn't deny their long history of friendship. They had flown regularly together between New York and Palm Beach and could be seen in picture after picture after picture together at parties.

Despite that, and despite everything, Donald Trump was sworn in on the 20th of January 2017. Later that year, the Weinstein and Cosby scandals came to a head. and the Me Too movement swept social media. Women everywhere were inspired to know that there were strength in numbers. And citizens and media outlets alike had the momentum to keep uncovering large-scale abusers, especially those in the public eye. The global mood was,

if you are a powerful man with a history of sexual impropriety, your days of freedom were numbered. In April 2017, Alex Acosta was sworn in as Trump's Labour Secretary As with any new political hire, he was straight under the microscope and his closet was rifle through four skeletons. Investigative journalist Julie K. Brown at the Miami Herald remembered Acosta's involvement in the Epstein case. So she dug deeper into the inexplicably generous plea deal that Acosta had hashed out for Epstein all those years before. And over years of reporting and hundreds of interviews, she put together a series of arms. articles collectively titled Perversion of Justice, in which she detailed Epstein's systematic child

abuse in the most public way yet, identifying more than 80 of his victims. And she brought the 2008 injustice to the national stage for everyone to see. Victims went public with photographs of them as young teenagers on his island in his helicopter at his parties. Taking down Jeffrey Epstein became a national concern. Both sides of the political divide, called for the plea deal to be re-examined. Senator Ben Sasse wrote to the Justice Department, quote, the fact that federal prosecutors appear to have crafted a secret sweetheart deal for this child rapist should enrage mums and dads everywhere.

There was finally nowhere for Jeffrey Epstein to hide. Early in 2019, a federal judge ruled the prosecutors had violated federal law by not telling victims about the plea deal. He said that under the direction of Alex Acosta, they had not only failed to inform victims, but actively misled them. An investigation into Acosta's professional conduct was opened. The FBI spent hours talking to victims, and a new hearing was called, where Epstein would have to appear in front of a federal judge in New York, and victims would be invited to speak. On Saturday the 6th of July 2019, Geoffrey Epstein left Paris in his private.

Jer. And when he landed at Tietabra Airport in New Jersey, he was met on the runway by federal agents and arrested. Within hours of his arrest, 20 officers burst into his 21,000 square foot New York Townhouse. Inside, they found thousands of nude photographs of women and girls. And in a locked safe, they found child abuse images and CDs containing pictures of young girls. How was this not already found? The man had been arrested and served. 13 months of an 18-month sentence. Why had they not already searched his fucking townhouse in New York and found all of this stuff? It's not like they found it in a fucking storage knocker that they had never been like privy to.

This is mind-boggling. Also in that same safe was $70,000 in cash, 48 diamonds and a fraudulent Austrian passport with Epstein's picture and a false name. Two days later, prosecutors charged him with two federal charges, conspiracy to It's sex trafficking and the sex trafficking of underage girls. The court papers detailed a pattern and practice of human trafficking, sexual abuse and forced labour of young women. The 66-year-old Epstein pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyers started offering hundreds of millions of dollars in bond money to get him out. But, thank God, bail was denied on the basis that he presented a danger to the community and was an extreme flight risk. Four days after the Epstein arrest

Alex Acosta called a press conference and said that he was glad that the charges had been brought he said that Epstein was a sex offender and charging him was the right thing to do Shut the fuck up Alex Acosta you should be in jail right alongside him Yes Unfortunately he doesn't go to jail

But he was forced to resign two days later Sick Jeffrey Epstein was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Centre on the 6th of July 2019 to await trial On his second day there he was transferred to the special housing unit, or SHU, known as the whole, which was reserved for at-risk inmates, including informants, police officers and, of course, paedophiles. There, Geoffrey Epstein was confined to his cell for most of the day and evening,

and only allowed to shower three times a week. A few days later, he was put on suicide watch and moved to even worse conditions. in this sort of like new suicide or anti-suicide wing Jeffrey Epstein's clothing was reduced to a gown with Velcro straps beds have no sheets and lights are never turned off and on top of this inmates are kept under 24-hour surveillance by both guards and prison staff details about their behaviour being recorded every 15 minutes

or at least this is what should be happening but the prison at the time was not in a good way The Metropolitan Correctional Centre, or MCC as it's known, is a 12-story prison in Lower Manhattan, across the street from the NYPD headquarters. The prison was designed to hold 480 inmates. But by the time Epstein arrived, it housed more than 750, and that's on the prison industrial complex. It was freezing in winter, stifling in summer. Rats and cockroaches were absolutely everywhere.

In 2011 Amnesty International wrote to the Attorney General with concerns about cruel and inhumane treatment. A fellow inmate, William Mercy, who also worked as Epstein's counsellor, said they would not move him from the shoe to suicide watch unless he indicated to a prison psychologist or someone else that he felt a desire to kill himself. Two days after arriving in prison,

Epstein underwent a psychological evaluation. According to Bureau of Prisons documents, Epstein told the jail psychologist that he had a wonderful life. He referred to himself as a coward and said that he didn't like pain, plus he referred to the fact that suicide was forbidden in his Jewish faith. He said, quote, I would not do that to myself. It would be crazy to take my own life. And the psychologist noted that Epstein was future-orientated. still maybe he overestimated his ability to get back to his former life on July the 18th a judge denied a renewed bail request and Epstein's hope for freedom began to shrink

five days after that Jeffrey Epstein was found semi-unconscious on the floor of his cell lying in the fetal position he was discovered by his cellmate who told guards that he had found Epstein with a bed sheet tied around his neck Epstein was sent to hospital, where he was successfully revived and discharged. Initially, the jail reported that its cameras had accidentally recorded another area of the prison. And so, the footage that they needed to see what happened in the lead-up to Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide attempt did not exist. One fellow prisoner says, however, that when he asked Epstein what had happened, Epstein made a strangling gesture with his hands.

And when the prisoner asked if someone else had tried to strangle him, apparently Jeffrey Epstein had nodded. Epstein told prison officials that he had just blacked out and had no memory of what had happened. So he was put back on suicide watch for seven days, then returned to the shoe. On the 9th of August, so just a few weeks later, the FBI announced that more than 2,000 pages of previously confidential judicial documents

would be unsealed. These documents related to Virginia Dufre's defamation lawsuit and were filled with details of the inner workings of Epstein's sex trafficking ring. Epstein had run out of options. He spent the afternoon talking to his lawyers in a cramped upstairs conference room. That evening, Epstein told officials that he wanted to phone his mum. But Pauline Epstein had died in 2004. He really wanted to speak to his 30-year.

old Belarusian girlfriend, Kachina Shuliac. We can't know why or what he said, but perhaps she was the person he was closest to in those final years. Maybe she was the only person that he could call. He spoke to her for 15 minutes and then went back to his cell. That evening, his cellmate was transferred out, with no replacement. Just after 6.30 a.m. the next morning, a prison employee doing the breakfast rounds discovered Jeffrey Epstein hanging from his iron bed frame. His orange bed sheets were tied around his neck. An ambulance was called and EMTs tried to revive him for at least seven

minutes. He was taken to hospital, where his time of death was declared as 7.36am, one hour. after he was found. The US Attorney General at the time blamed this on a perfect storm of screw-ups for the serious irregularities at the prison that night. The jail was underfunded and protocols were often missed. The inmate in the cell next to Epstein

said that he heard the sheet being ripped and maintained that, quote, Jeffrey Epstein definitely killed himself. Any conspiracy theories to the contrary are ridiculous. I mean, I don't know. I just feel like it's a lot of coincidences, the fact that the camera is not filming, the fact that there's no guards that see anything.

And yeah, the prison is underfunded and like a total mess. But when there were also double the number of people in that prison, then should have been, it's also quite surprising that they moved a prisoner out and then didn't replace him with anybody else. And this happens in that exact time. Yeah, I think it's a very convenient excuse. use to be like oh well the prison system's fucked so obviously you know he couldn't be surveilled

as he should have been that's a very two things can be true at once the prison system can be fucked and Jeffrey Epstein could have been killed and like we're not typically ones for like running with conspiracy theories of obviously they're interesting to talk about and we should always talk about them because nothing is ever black and white but I think in this case when there are so many things that lie in that realm of conspiracy theory but turned out to be 100% true, I wouldn't be able to confidently or safely say that Jeffrey Epstein wasn't killed. I'm not even really convinced he's dead. I mean, there's also that. So obviously, the whole thing was undoubtedly strange. And even the fact that the cellmate next door being like,

oh, he definitely, definitely killed himself. Like, who knows what that person's been threatened with or promised or whatever? It does seem like a very definitive statement, doesn't it, for someone who is in the cell next door? And it's like, if you're in the cell next door, you can't see into Jeffrey Epstein's cell. Like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't think we have all of the answers, not even near to all of the answers about what really happened. So of course, the whole thing was strange. And of course, given how unbelievable so much of this story was, when Jeffrey Epstein's death was announced, the conspiracy theory started swirling immediately. After all, what are the chances that an at-risk prisoner who had already attempted suicide would be left

unattended again? And yes, the prison might be underfunded all of these things. But this was a very high-profile case and he was a very high-profile prisoner. I find it again hard to believe that he was just left completely with no eyes on him. And I guess the question is why would anybody think he was killed rather than the fact that he did just kill himself? Well, how convenient was it for all of his very incredibly powerful friends, all of those who had been implicated in Epstein's web of abuse for him to suddenly just drop dead? I also think, and this is pure speculation, but it's our show, and we can say what we want. He just spent the whole day in meetings with his lawyers. If he was planning on killing himself, why wouldn't he be like, smuggle me something in

that would be an easier, less painful way to go than hanging yourself from your bunk bed? Yeah. And also, I think if you, you couldn't argue it either way, I think, with the, why would Jeffrey Epstein kill himself? Because one part of me says that a man like that wouldn't because he would think, there's always, I still have all that money. There is still every, free chance, like I did before, that I will be able to find a way to fix this for myself. I find it hard to believe that he would have given up. Yes, things were looking more and more bleak. He was in a bleak prison by this point, wasn't working, he wasn't getting bail. But like, a man, this, not delusional because in the past, he's been right about what he's been

able to achieve, but a man that powerful for him to think that he couldn't find a way out of this, even if his lawyers had said that day, you're fucked, there's no way out of this. I still don't think he would have believed that. But then you could also argue that maybe he did believe it and he figured, well, I'll play this as I played my whole life on my own terms and I'm going. I don't know, I can argue it both ways. Coming back to the strangeness of his death,

the convenience of the fact that he's dropped dead and now all these very powerful people who he knew secrets about were seemingly safer because it was known that Epstein had video cameras everywhere on his island in all the rooms, in his townhouse, etc., etc. and presumably these video cameras had countless hours of footage of powerful people doing things that they shouldn't be. And that sounds like prime blackmail material to me.

The kind of information that's definitely worth killing for. Epstein's brother Mark suspected foul play from the off and even hired the pathologist Dr Michael Baden to check the autopsy report. And those results were pretty damning. They showed no evidence at all to suggest that Jeffrey Epstein had jumped from him. the bunk, and his injuries were not, as Barton said, reflective of suicidal hanging. To clarify, he said that the breaks that Geoffrey Epstein had in his neck are, quote, extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation.

For Epstein's victims, this was one last insult, a coward's way out of his approaching justice. Two days before his death, Epstein signed papers that put his entire $577 million fortune into a trust in the Virgin Islands. And that made it much more difficult for victims to get the restitution they deserved. But what they did get was their day in court. Despite a proposed motion to dismiss the case after Epstein's death, the judge ruled that the victims should still have their voices heard. and one after another they stood to give their testimonies describing first-hand on the world stage what Geoffrey Epstein did to them.

But the story didn't end there. There was one long-estranged co-conspirator who still had not faced justice. When the dust settled on the news of Epstein's death, people started to turn to his one-time girlfriend, full-time assistant. Galane Maxwell. She had been a prominent character in all of the evidence against Epstein and stood accused of procuring abuse victims for years.

But the more immediate question was, where was she? For 11 months, authorities hunted for Galane across the world and found no trace. Until, on the 2nd of July, she was found, deep in the mountains of New Hampshire, on 156-acre retreat called Tucked Away. The 58-year-old had been hiding there, wrapping her phone in tin foil to hide her location. Does that work? That seems mental that that works. Don't know.

Just use a burner phone. What's she talking about? So FBI, when they found her, raided the property and arrested Galane. They found a copy of Brad Edwards' book, Relentless Pursuit, on her nightstand. Just some, you know, light fucking night reading about all of her. the children you had sexually abused. And Galane Maxwell was charged with four counts related to procuring and transporting minors for illegal sex acts and two counts of perjury. I find it very distressing here that she is not charged with any sexual crimes

because once again they are falling into the trap of simply arresting her and charging her with the procurement of these victims rather than the first. fact that she actively took part in the abuse as the victim said she did. But the victim's lawyers were raring to go. Brad Edwards had 100 boxes of incriminating material on Galane Maxwell, including police reports, flight records and photographs, all showing proof of interaction with the victims. During Maxwell's time awaiting trial in jail, she maintained her innocence and requested bail six times. But every time she was denied. Her family, also rallied behind her, and started a campaign for her freedom on the website, realgallane.com.

On the 29th of November 2021, victims came face to face with Galane in court. The defence predictably tried to minimise her involvement and tried to push a perverse feminist angle. She argued that it was wrong for a woman to be taking the rap for a man's crimes. She even brought out cowboy boots bought by Epstein for Annie Farmer, the young girl that we spoke about last week who was trapped at his ranch. The defence argued that since Annie had kept the boots, her experience can't have been that damaging at all. Gilae's defence even went into detail about the breast fondling accusations, claiming that

Maxwell hadn't touched the girl's nipples, just the rest of her breasts, so that's completely fine. When you consider the fact that Annie was 16 at the time, this really is not a great defence. They don't have tons to work with, but they could have done a bit better. Deliberations began on the 20th of December and carried on over Christmas Day. 2021, which is Galane's 60th birthday. On the 29th of December, Gillane Maxwell was convicted by the jury and found guilty on five counts. One of sex trafficking a minor, one of transporting a minor, with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity,

and three conspiracy to commit co-ate felonies. Coate just means that the crimes that she conspired to commit actually happened. sex trafficking a minor was the most serious charge and carried a 40-year sentence on its own it was declared once and for all that Galane Maxwell was an active part of the system of abuse not just a cog in the machine she was not just following orders and altogether she faced 65 years in prison

she was sentenced to just 20 Now we haven't been able to go into much detail on the victims themselves in this week's episode. But suffice to say, they were incredible throughout. Prince Andrew actually reached a settlement with Virginia Dufray for 12 million pounds. He was stripped of his royal title by Queen Elizabeth and forced to step down from all 230 of his patronages. He had lost his official police protection, although the king still pays more than three million pounds a year. for Andrew's private security guards. Andrew no longer has an office at Buckingham Palace,

but we have no word on where his teddy bears currently reside. In Geoffrey Epstein's declining final years, as his house of cards fell down around him, he told his publicist, I don't want billionaire pervert to be the last line of my obituary. And while billionaire child rapist might be more on the money, he will never be remembered as the successful. billionaire philanthropist that he painted himself as, nor is he remembered as a visionary

transhumanist who populated the earth with his genius progeny. His body lies in a cemetery in Florida, in an unmarked, unremarkable grave next to his parents. The exact fate he was so desperate to escape. There you have it. Jeffrey Epstein-Gallane Maxwell, that's what happened. You can make your own mind up if he's dead or not. I'm not convinced. I think either he's not or he was killed. I think I'm not saying he didn't kill himself, but it just seems very, very, very convenient

that this man who could expose a lot of people for a lot of things and also increasingly a man who looked backed into a corner where would he be willing to cut some sort of plea deal where he is going to throw a lot of very influential people under the bus complete with evidence in order for him to not be, A, for him to not be the sole child rapist out there, but also be to maybe get himself a lesser sentence. Totally. And I also think I'm not saying for an instant that Galane Maxwell didn't deserve what happened to her because she absolutely did. But I think because she is now

in prison, everyone's like, okay, case closed, we can all move on now. Which is not the case. As Thru said, Andrew should be fucking extradited. Like, it's, this is not over. It shouldn't be over, but because Galane is in prison, we seem to think it is. Yeah, because that could be the question that some people ask of why didn't whoever killed Jeffrey Epstein, if you're saying that it's a conspiracy theory and he was actually killed, also killed Galane Maxwell. But I think they had to keep her alive to become, and I know sounding very conspiratorial here, but you can't sit through this case and not go a little bit there. And I think the reason that Galane Maxwell wasn't taken out of the picture of that's what we think happened to Epstein is because

they needed someone to be the face of justice quote unquote having been done. They needed someone to be, and I'm not saying she's a patsy, I'm not saying she's a fool guy, she fucking deserves everything that she got and more, but they needed someone to make everybody shut up. I completely agree. Someone to make it seem like justice was done, to be the face of that, to be the scapegoat. But she was 60, she's going to be 80 if she ever gets out, hopefully if she doesn't get parole any sooner. And obviously someone like Prince Andrew is never going to get thrown under the bus. No. But may we all continue to demand it, though, in a horrifying about turn,

people were of course being arrested for shouting at Prince Andrew and calling him a sweaty nonce. Yeah. We should be in this country allowed to yell at Prince Andrew and call him a sweaty nonce without being arrested by the police. And this is why I will forever bang on about the importance of free speech. So there you go. That's it, guys. That is the end of the horrible, horrible two-parter that was. Go have a shower.

Go make yourself a cup of tea. But that's it, guys. Enjoy, and we will be back next week with Rasputin. Rasputin, you are right. A full-hand, full-house, red-handed. Royal flush on Mr. Rasputon. So we'll see you then. Hooray!

Goodbye. To listen to shorthand every week, start your seven-day free trial with Wondry Plus, and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or... In the Wondry Act. How hard is it to kill a planet? Maybe all it takes is a little drilling, some mining, and a whole lot of carbon pumped into the atmosphere. When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene. Are we really safe?

Is our water safe? You destroyed our time. And crimes like that, they don't just happen. We call things accidents. There is no accident. This was 100% preventable. They're the result of choices by people. ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet. Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us, and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it. Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Thank you.