Five chilling errors that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to kill himself in prison (2024)

BOMBSHELL documents have revealed a catalogue of errors that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to dodge justice by hanging himself in jail.

The depraved financier was taken off suicide watch after duping prison psychologists, while guards posted to monitor him allegedly fell asleep.

Epstein, 66, killed himself in Manhattan Correctional Center while awaiting trial on federal charges of trafficking young girls.

It came just two weeks after another apparent suicide attempt when he was found unconscious with a bedsheet twisted round his bruised neck.

He was put on enhanced suicide watch — but taken off again just 31 hours later at the request of his lawyers.

And he was left alone in his cell despite an explicit order for another inmate to be housed with him.

It later emerged he changed his will two days before killing himself - said to be a "final f*** you" to victims designed to frustrate compensation claims.

Now documents obtained by the New York Times reveal a series of errors by bungling jail authorities in the lead-up to his death in 2019.

Warders failed even the most basic tasks, according to records.

Staff falsely listed him as a black man with no prior sex convictions on his intake form.

That was followed by mistake after mistake - leading then-Attorney General Bill Barr to later blame the jail for “a perfect storm of screw-ups”.

However the documents do not offer any support to conspiracy theories that Epstein was murdered or someone helped him hang himself, the Times reports.

He we look at five of the most glaring errors.

Mystery call to 'dead mother'

Some 2,000 pages of documents obtained by the NY Times include a reconstruction of Epstein's final days.

It reveals how — on the night before his death — he was allowed to make a 15-minute phone call which appears not to have been recorded.

A unit manager at the detention center helped helped him make a “social” call and dialed the number for him.

But the call was not included in official phone logs provided to the paper.

“I asked inmate Epstein who he was calling,” the unit manager wrote in a report. “He stated his mother.”

in fact Epstein’s mother Pauline had died 15 years earlier in 2004.

The call was actually to his 30-year-old girlfriend Karyna Shuliak, three sources told The Times.

Epstein helped put the Belarus-born beauty through dental school, and she is said to be one of the largest beneficiaries of trusts he set up shortly before his suicide.

Incomplete phone logs record only one social call during Epstein's 33-day detention - which was to Ms Shuliak more than a week earlier on July 30.

She declined to comment to the Times last night.

Cellmate moved and not replaced

After the call, Epstein returned to his cell where he spent his last night alone despite orders for him to have another prisoner with him.

He was in the Special Housing Unit on the ninth floor, after he was correctly identified as a "high profile" inmate.

He asked for a single cell but was told he could not be alone “for safety and security concerns”.

After the first hanging attempt, he shared a cell with Efrain Reyes, a prisoner who was assisting the government in a drugs conspiracy case.

Epstein complained his cellmate’s talking kept him awake at night.

Then on August 9 — the day before Epstein's suicide — Reyes was transferred out of the jail.

Staff were alerted that Epstein would need a new cellmate — but it did not happen despite obvious concerns for his state of mind.

That same day, Epstein met lawyers as documents were unsealed describing lurid allegations against his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell.

According to the prison report, the release of the court papers worsened his mental state, “further eroding his previously enjoyed elevated status and potentially implicating some of his associates”.

Fooled psychologists

Epstein underwent several psychological assessments in the jail.

Documents show how he boasted about being a banker with "big business" and rubbing shoulders with A-listers.

He said that “being alive is fun”and looked forward to going back to his glamorous lifestyle.

A psychologist noted that he was "future oriented" and concluded suicide watch was not warranted.

In another report, a psychologist wrote: “He was smirking and said, ‘Why would you ever think I would be suicidal? I am not suicidal and I would never be.’”

He also cracked jokes that he was Jewish and suicide was against his religion.

But he hinted at episodes of despondency after he was denied bail on July 18.

That ruling was cited as “a significant disappointment for Mr Epstein and likely challenged his ability and willingness to adapt to incarceration,” according to a post-mortem psychological reconstruction.

“Given the potential impact of the judge’s decision, a psychologist should have assessed Mr Epstein’s mental status upon his return to the institution.”

Taken off suicide watch

On July 23 Epstein was found slumped in his cell with a sheet round his neck.

He was then put on suicide watch with round-the-clock monitoring.

But just hours after the apparent attempt to kill himself, he claimed to one psychologist he was living a "wonderful life".

He denied any thoughts of ending it all, insisting: “I have no interest in killing myself.”

Epstein also claimed he was a “coward” and did not like pain, adding: “I would not do that to myself.”

His legal team demanded he be taken off suicide watch and jail bosses granted the request after just 31 hours.

Instead he went back on a program of psychological evaluation.

Guards 'fell asleep' and surfed internet

A notice in the files shows how guards were instructed to carry out "mandatory" rounds every 30 minutes.

But Epstein was left unmonitored on the night he died.

Two officers on duty were instead seen on surveillance footage walking round a staff common room.

The video also showed them appearing to be asleep at times.

And computer records showed they were shopping online for furniture and motorcycles.

At 6.30am on August 10, Epstein was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead.

Guards Tova Noel and Michael Thomas later entered a deferred prosecution deal after admitting they falsified logs.

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