(New York) The official results of an autopsy showed that the financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell, the city’s medical examiner’s office said on Friday, determining that the cause of death was suicide by hanging.
[…] Guards on their morning rounds found Mr. Epstein at about 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, prison officials said. He appeared to have tied a bedsheet to the top of a set of bunk beds, then knelt toward the floor with enough force that he broke several bones in his neck, officials said.
His suicide came after he appeared to have made another attempt to kill himself in late July, and days after prison staff had recommended he be removed from suicide watch and returned to the special wing in which he was being housed.
[…] he had been left alone after his cellmate was transferred, and the two employees assigned to guard him had not checked on him for about three hours before he was found.
Officials said the employees, who have been placed on leave, were sleeping for some or all of that time.
It's not clear whether Russians or racism played any role.
Time to ban bunkbeds? And sheets?
I feel so much better now that we have a definitive answer. I feel much more confident about red-flag laws, gun registration, medicalcare.gov, etc. knowing it will be administered by such competent, dedicated civil servants.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see if the Medical Examiner's report is made public in a fully unredacted form or otherwise edited/concealed from public review. My guess is that it will be and that will be generally regarded as proof that the Deep State has won this round.
ReplyDeleteSo far, every single battle in the ongoing contest between the Deep State and Barr's DOJ has gone to the Bad Guys. Barr has not even stepped onto the field as yet. Everything is unrequited promises and predictions. If Barr has any honor or integrity, he will make a public statement about the debacle at the MCC and either put his reputation behind the ME report or fulfill his pledge of accountability.
Obviously and assault sheet.
ReplyDeleteBedding violence is a national crisis.
DeleteTom S.
I recall a recent contributor to the NYPost stating, based on his experience in the special unit where Epstein was housed, that the bedsheets were like paper--and such a hanger was improbable.
ReplyDeleteBut what would he know? He probably never attempted suicide by paper-thin bedsheets...
A pretty well known forensic pathologist, Cyril Wecht, has expressed reservations--at least based on published reports. Like me--and I have no expertise--he says that "velocity" is needed to break multiple bones and that's difficult to achieve in a confined space.
ReplyDeleteI have a brother who spent a year in prison. If he ever knocked on your front door you'd think "why is Arnold Schwarzenegger at my front door?" Tall, buffed out.
ReplyDeleteHe told me what goes on in prison and what happened to him.
I can say with 2nd-hand knowledge that it would be easy for 2 guys with a bed-sheet or towel to quickly kill Epstein exactly as he was found. It took 3 guys and 1 towel to subdue my brother. Epstein would require only 2.
He needed to be protected. He wasn't.
I assume that you couldn't stand on the top bunk. You'd have to sorta roll off. To get sufficient velocity yet not break your fall by simply hitting the floor would take some measuring. Yet they claim he was in a kneeling position. It's difficult to visualize.
DeleteReminds me of a cartoon in either Playboy or Penthouse in the early '70's. Two detectives are standing next to a table with an old fashioned hand cranked meat grinder. There is a pile of ground meat on the floor and an arm reaching out of the in side of the grinder with the hand grasping the crank. One detective says to the other, "Worst case of suicide I ever saw."
DeleteLife imitating art?
Tom S.