Book excerpt: Herald reporter Julie Brown’s excavation of Jeffrey Epstein’s sordid past
In a new book, ‘Perversion of Justice,’ Herald reporter Julie Brown describes her pursuit of Jeffrey Epstein’s dark secrets.
When Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown first began investigating Jeffrey Epstein in October 2016, the case had long grown cold.
Epstein’s victims — now grown women in their late 20s and early 30s — were still traumatized. They had never forgotten how prosecutors in the criminal justice system had failed to protect them and hold their predator accountable for his crimes. The series revealed how Epstein and others involved in his sex trafficking operation were given unprecedented immunity — and the serious nature and scope of his crimes that were covered up.
Brown’s investigative series was published by the Herald in November 2018. Almost immediately, federal prosecutors in New York opened a new criminal case against Epstein — and eight months later, Epstein was arrested by the FBI on sex trafficking charges. With Epstein in a federal jail awaiting trial, Brown and Miami Herald visual journalist Emily Michot traveled to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in July 2019 to try to uncover more about the sex crimes he may have committed on his private island in the Caribbean, sometimes referred to as “Pedophile Island.”
This is an exclusive excerpt from Julie Brown’s book, “Perversion of Justice,” published by Harper
Collins/Dey Street Books, which will be released on July 20.
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I had been trying for months to carve out some time to visit St. Thomas and take a trip out to Epstein’s “Pedophile Island,” which was also sometimes called “Orgy Island.” Sources on St. Thomas were sending me information about Epstein’s exploits on his island, Little St. James, as well as documents about his purchase of the larger island nearby, Great St. James.
A lot of people suspected that Epstein’s island was being used for sex trafficking. It’s a remote location, accessible only by boat or helicopter, providing a perfect cover for the sexual abuse that victim Virginia Giuffre and other women were alleging happened there.
I was also planning to meet with a source who called himself Chef James. His emails suggested that he knew a lot about Epstein. He told me, for example, that while Epstein was on work release at the Palm Beach County jail in 2008 he spent over $100,000 in catering bills for food that he brought into his “office.” A lot of that food went to deputies who were making upwards of $42 an hour monitoring him.
I thought Chef James may have worked for Epstein but given the avalanche of tips I had to wade through, I honestly didn’t have time to find out who he was.
Both Chef James and another source whom I called Island Mike claimed, without proof, that Epstein had the fix in with the former governor, John de Jongh Jr., and had even hired the governor’s wife, Cecile, to work for him at his St. Thomasbased company, Southern Trust, which was purportedly a data-mining venture.
St. Thomas is a poor island, and it wouldn’t take a lot to get the local politicians to look the other way when it came to doing what Epstein wanted.
In fact, St. Thomas was probably the perfect place for Epstein.
On our first night in St. Thomas, Emily and I finally secured two rooms with the help of Island Mike and then set out to meet Chef James at a little restaurant in town.
Mike must have been a little worried about us because he offered to come along and just sit at the bar to keep watch. I wasn’t worried, but Emily, as usual, kept asking questions.
“Who is this guy again?’’
“How do you know him?’’
“So, let me get this straight, you don’t have any idea who he is?’’
In hindsight, I should have done more homework.
That evening, as I was waiting for the Chef, I was exchanging texts with Lauren Book, a Florida state senator and child abuse survivor who had become involved in pushing for an investigation into whether there was any wrongdoing on the part of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office in connection with Epstein’s work release scam.
Chef James was supposed to join us about 10 p.m., after he got off work, presumably from his job at a restaurant on the island.
As we waited, Emily became more nervous. I kept texting Lauren about the investigation, wondering whether I should return to the hotel and write a story that night. It had already been a long day, and I couldn’t even recall whether Emily and I had eaten anything.
Then Lauren mentioned that she had received a number of threats, from people who were warning her against pursuing anything connected to Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. This got my attention. This was a gutsy move because Lauren’s father, Ron Book, is one of the most powerful lobbyists in Florida.
I then called Ron to find out more. I knew he was using all his power to determine where the threats were coming from.
“Well, a while back there was this guy who kept sending Lauren these terrible emails, she was afraid for her life,’’ Ron said. “We had to hire security and try to find the guy. He only went by the name Chef James.’’
“Chef James? Are you sure?’’ I said, leaving the restaurant and walking outside so that no one could hear the alarm in my voice.
I told Ron that a guy using that very name was about to come to the restaurant to meet with Emily and me.
“Get out of there fast,’’ Ron said.
I returned to the restaurant and Googled my email for Chef James’ email address. I couldn’t believe it. This guy had sent me more than 50 emails since 2016, well before I even wrote about Epstein. He had first written me about my Florida prison series. Turns out he claimed to be a former inmate at Suwannee Correctional Institution in Florida who had served 25 months for a sex crime he claimed he had never committed.
It was well past 10 and no one had showed up looking for us, so that was a good sign. But as we were paying our bill, two men appeared and sat at the bar, staring at Emily and me. I asked them where they were from, and they told me the Middle East.
Island Mike, who knows everyone on St. Thomas, didn’t recognize them and motioned for us to leave. Seeing that we were getting up to go, they sneaked out first. Mike escorted us out, where the men were standing outside smoking cigarettes. Mike asked for a smoke, and they began chatting.
Mike was still talking to them when we pulled away in our rented Jeep and headed to the hotel. We were both a bit shaken.
We got to our rooms and I could hear Emily next door, piling the chairs and a nightstand in front of her door.
I put my night clothes on, fell into bed and slept so soundly that I didn’t hear my phone or Emily knocking at my door around midnight.
NBC had just published a story about Epstein being found unconscious in his New York jail cell.
When I awoke and checked my phone the next morning, and saw all the messages, I immediately knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make the boat trip to Pedophile Island with Emily and Island Mike that morning.
Reports were sketchy, but it appeared that on Tuesday Epstein had been found unconscious, with injuries to his neck, on the floor of his cell. It was not clear whether he had tried to commit suicide or whether he had been attacked. Initial reports were that Epstein had been moved into a more secure protective custody unit because he had received threats from other inmates.
Depending on which account you read, his cellmate, a corrupt former cop named Nicholas Tartaglione, had either tried to kill Epstein or he had prevented Epstein from hanging himself.
Tartaglione, 51, wasn’t talking. His attorney said his client claimed he was friendly with Epstein and had nothing to do with what happened. He theorized that Tartaglione was being set up because the ex-cop had filed complaints on the prison’s inhumane conditions.
The incident happened in a secure cellblock. The two were housed in a windowless room, infested with insects and rats, with standing water on the floor.
For reasons that remain unexplained to this day, the Metropolitan Correctional Center had bunked a hulking accused quadruple murderer with a 66year-old nerd with an egg-shaped penis who happened to be the nation’s most famous child molester.
Then the surveillance video of the incident disappeared. Prison officials said it was inadvertently destroyed. Tartaglione had an illegal cell phone. But the government wasn’t releasing its contents.
Epstein’s injuries were not serious, and he was placed on a suicide watch.
Meanwhile, the Capitol police in Tallahassee, Florida, were investigating threats made against a Florida state senator. Lauren Book made an appeal to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to investigate Sheriff Bradshaw’s handling of the Epstein case. Two days later, she got several more calls warning her to stop.
“Little girl, you don’t know what you’re getting into,’’ one of the callers said.