Jeffrey Epstein, who supposedly hanged himself in his jail cell while under federal indictment for sex trafficking, paid fellow inmates for protection, CBS’s 60 Minutes reported Sunday night, and the noose with which he supposedly hanged himself doesn’t match the marks on his neck.
Jail officials did not photograph Epstein’s dead body the way they found it, while photos of Epstein’s cell show two nooses, not one. Epstein also left a strange note.
The program’s Sharyn Alfonsi discussed the latest revelations about the Wall Street financier’s final hours with celebrity pathologist Michael Baden, who raised even more questions about the suspicious death.
Hired by Epstein’s family to watch the autopsy, Baden says the suicide ruling was premature, as The New American has reported.
The Note and Photos
The note, Alfonsi disclosed, “was written on yellow lined paper with a blue ballpoint pen and there were complaints about jail conditions.”
Epstein wrote that a guard “kept me in a locked shower stall for 1 hour,” while another “sent me burnt food.”
As well, Epstein wrote, “giant bugs crawling over my hands. No fun!!”
Sources said Epstein was depositing money into the commissary accounts of fellow inmates for protection because he feared for his life.
Photos of Epstein’s messy cell show orange bed sheets strewn on the bunk and floor, along with a sleep apnea device and an electrical cord.
They also show not one but two nooses:
Photos from his jail cell also appear to show inconsistencies, including questions about whether investigators examined the correct ligature used in Epstein’s death. At least two nooses were photographed lying on the floor of the cell, both appearing to be made from strips of orange bedsheets.
But photos of the noose taken in as evidence and presumably thought to be responsible for killing Epstein show both ends of the noose folded and hemmed, not cut. Sources have told 60 Minutes that the guard who found Epstein cut him down before trying to revive him.
The autopsy found “contusions on both wrists, an abrasion on his left forearm, and deep muscle hemorrhaging in his left shoulder muscle,” Alfonsi reported, as well as “an injury to the back of his neck, a cut on his lip, and an injection mark in his arm, though it is unknown whether the latter injuries happened during an attempt to resuscitate Epstein at the hospital.”
Yet “there’s no photograph taken of Mr. Epstein in the cell,” Baden said.
Other pathologists told Alfonsi that “knowing the position in which Epstein was found would clarify certain aspects of the autopsy, including the location of the ligature around his neck, injuries found on his body postmortem, and the way lividity settled, which is the way the blood pools after death.”
Noose Doesn’t Match Ligature Mark
Baden has been asking questions about the “suicide” finding for months.
“Baden said small burst capillaries, known as petechiae, found on Epstein’s face, mouth, and eyes are often an indication of strangulation,” Alfonsi reported. “But it was injuries to Epstein’s neck that make Dr. Baden call into question the official ruling of suicide,” as The New American reported months ago.
“There were fractures of the left, the right, thyroid cartilage and the left hyoid bone,” he said. “I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging. Sometimes there’s a fracture of the hyoid bone or a fracture of the thyroid cartilage.”
“Going over — over a thousand jail hangings, suicides in the New York City state prisons over the past 40-50 years, no one had three fractures,” Baden said.
That much has been known for some time, but Alfonsi’s report added new details about the means Epstein supposedly used to hang himself. Why Epstein troubled himself with making a noose was odd, Baden said, because Epstein had “other wires and cords,” like that on the apnea machine he could have used.
The noose included in the autopsy report, Baden told Alfonsi, “doesn’t match the ligature furrow mark. It’s wider.”
The photos also show what appears to be blood that is not on the noose, Alfonsi observed.
“That’s right,” Baden replied. “This looks like a clean noose that was never used to compress anybody’s neck.
Alfonsi also asked Baden about the location of the wounds on Epstein’s neck.
With “most hangings — especially free hangings the ligature slides up to beneath the — the jawbone, the mandible,” he replied. “Here it’s in the middle of the neck.”
As well, “Baden says a wound straight across the neck is more common when a victim is strangled by a wire or cord.”
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
