Newly released records detail Jeffrey Epstein’s final days: Attempt to contact pedophile Larry Nassar, call to dead mother and more reveals
NEW YORK — Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was overwhelmed and unraveling amid his imprisonment in a Manhattan jail cell, attempting to contact high-profile pedophile Larry Nassar and even his dead mother just before his suicide.
The latest details about Epstein’s 36 days behind bars were revealed in 4,000 pages of documents obtained Thursday by the Associated Press from the Bureau of Prisons in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The documents also shed new light on the federal prison agency’s botched response after Epstein was found unresponsive in his cell at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, where he’d been awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Just prior to his death, Epstein was under psychological observation for a suicide attempt that left his neck bruised and scraped. But after 31 hours on suicide watch, he vowed he wasn’t going to take his own life, telling a jail psychologist he had a “wonderful life” and “would be crazy” to end it.
But by Aug. 10, 2019, the billionaire was dead. The New York City medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death to be a suicide by hanging, sparking uproar and conspiracy theories suggesting he was actually murdered.
Here’s a look at what the newly released documents reveal about Epstein’s final days:
Letter to Larry Nassar
Jeffrey Epstein’s attempt to contact Nassar, once a renowned sports doctor, was unsuccessful. A letter was found returned to sender in the jail’s mail room weeks after Epstein’s death.
“It appeared he mailed it out and it was returned back to him,” the investigator who found the letter told a prison official by email. “I am not sure if I should open it or should we hand it over to anyone?”
The letter itself was not included among the documents turned over to the AP.
It’s not clear what exactly Epstein wanted to say to Nassar, who is currently jailed in Florida for sexually abusing hundreds of athletes and young women under the guise of medical treatment during his time as team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University.
Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on December 7, 2017, after pleading guilty to charges of child pornography and tampering with evidence. The next year, Nassar was ordered to serve another 40 to 175 years in Michigan State prison on seven counts of sexual assault in Eaton County stemming from incidents during his nearly 20-year medical career.
Health and STDs
During an initial health screening at the prison, Epstein revealed he had more than 10 female sexual partners within the past five years and that he had been previously treated for chlamydia.
The newly released medical data also showed the disgraced financier was struggling with constipation, hypertension, lower back pain, prediabetes and sleep apnea.
Sleep Apnea and Running Toilets
Epstein’s severe snoring — worsened by the fact that he did not have his sleep apnea machine behind bars — wasn’t the only thing preventing Epstein from getting a good night’s sleep.
According to the documents, Epstein tucked himself into the corner of his cell and covered his ears in a bid to block out the sounds of his broken, ever-running toilet. Jail officials noted that it often prevented him from sleeping through the night and that he was typically agitated as a result.
Epstein’s lawyer, Martin Weinberg, later said inmates at the facility were subjected to “medieval conditions of confinement that no American defendant should have been subjected to.”
Final Commissary Purchases
Prison officials said there were other signs Epstein was working to settle into his new surroundings, which were a far cry from the lavish lifestyle he’d enjoyed up until then.
Two days before his suicide, Epstein bought $73.85 worth of items from the prison commissary, including an AM/FM radio and headphones.
At the time of his death, the billionaire had $566 left in his account.
Phone Call to Dead Mother
The night before Epstein’s death, he excused himself from a meeting with his lawyers to make a phone call to his family. According to a memo from a unit manager, Epstein told a jail employee he was calling his mother, who once worked as a school aide and was a homemaker in New York City. She died in 2004, some 15 years prior.
Just hours earlier, a judge had made public 2,000 pages of documents in a sexual abuse lawsuit against him. Officials said it only further fueled his downward spiral, seemingly sparked after he was denied bail the month before.
