Suicide. Really?

This post may be a bit premature but I doubt it. Perhaps Jeffrey Epstein’s death was a suicide but there are serious questions. How long will it be before the results of the investigation are made public? All we have from the one concerning an ‘attempt’ a month earlier is that there were marks on his neck. I am definitely not a conspiracist but there are obvious questions that need to be addressed.

Back in the 1970s I was part of a project to help prisoners leaving the federal prison in Atlanta adjust to life outside. I was a commissioner of police. I volunteered to work with inmates with mental illness for 12 years in state prisons. In dealing with my own manic-depression I have experienced far too many episodes of suicidal ideation. Thankfully, I have not experienced any such psychotic episodes since abandoning psycho-pharmaceuticals in 1991.

I am not claiming any expertise but I do feel I can claim some familiarity with suicide and conditions in prisons. All I am offering are some of the ruminations this event brought to mind, given what I know. Obviously, there are matters involved to which I am not privy. One that stands out is the justification for removing him from the suicide watch.

It is just being reported that he hanged himself. If you haven’t had the pleasure of familiarizing yourself with prisons, you may not find that troubling. I have never seen a prison cell that provides one with anything with which to accomplish that. Belts and shoelaces are never permitted to an inmate. Sure, there are bed linens and perhaps other items one can tie around their neck but to what does one attach the other end? Also, as I said above, the only thing that they have told us about the earlier incident was that he had marks on his neck. That would suggest hanging but that haven’t claimed that.

We’ve all heard of suicide by cop. The easiest way for him to accomplish suicide would be to bribe another inmate to do the job. Given the nature of his crimes, it may not have been necessary to hire someone. The most detested crime by the general inmate population is pedophilia.

There are two ways of looking at Epstein. He had the wealth and connections to avoid real punishment in the past and might have been of the mind that he could pull it off again.

The other is that, being in a place that one prisoner of both claimed compared unfavorably with Guantanamo, he finally realized that his luck had run out.

One mindset could lead to suicide, while the other was unlikely to think of that as an option. At this point, we do’t know. We may never know.

We cannot ignore a couple of possible factors. Epstein was very well-connected. Results of investigations will be coming out soon that may taint many wealthy and/or powerful men. Some of the names are and will be surprising, some not. He was an alumnus of Harvard. He shares that distinction with several others not noted for the integrity, honesty, judgment and/or astuteness. There is Alan Dershowitz, Larry Summers, disgraced former Secretary of Labor and the U.S. Attorney that gave Jeffrey that sweetheart deal on his earlier conviction, Alexander Acosta and others. Even Prince Andrew’s name has come up. The air is frightfully thin in those rarefied social circles. Those social circles also include people who have little if any public profile.

We can’t excuse Trump’s personal attorney, Bill Barr, who as the one in charge and is ultimately responsible for getting Epstein safely to court. His client (which should be the country but is not) could have reasons for not wanting Epstein to blab too much. It’s extremely unusual for the FBI to investigate suicides in prison but, now that they work for Bill Barr, they will be the ones designated to provide the ~~4-page summary~~ official report of how it happened.

I am not the only one to be skeptical of what we can expect from the DOJ. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican, wrote a letter to Barr about Epstein’s death in custody, writing, “ . . . heads must roll. Every single person in the Justice Department — from your Main Justice headquarters staff all the way to the night-shift jailer — knew that this man was a suicide risk, and that his dark secrets couldn’t be allowed to die with him,” the letter read in part.

One more skeptic is Harvard’s top legal scholar. He called it inexcusable to remove the suicide watch from Epstein. He had more to say: We have to ask who stood to gain from his permanent silence? Whom could he have incriminated in an effort to win favorable treatment from the Trump Justice Department?