Jeffrey Epstein, alleged sex trafficker of minors, took his own life on August 10, 2019. He was in his jail cell, and the medical examiner ruled the cause of his death as suicide by hanging, but many are skeptical.
One Clemson student, who wishes to remain anonymous, speculates that “only a fool would think that Epstein committed suicide by himself,” referring to the suspicious circumstances of his death and Epstein’s links to powerful people. Epstein had just been taken off suicide watch for almost two weeks when the incident occurred.
The New York Times reported that the guards who were supposed to be checking his cell every thirty minutes fell asleep and failed to check for roughly three hours. The New York Post reports that there is no surveillance video of Epstein’s death. Epstein had proven connections to rich and powerful individuals. These are some of the suspicious details that feed the nascent conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death.
One Clemson professor, Dr. Peter Cohen, teaches an honors seminar called “Religions, Cults and Secret Societies.” This class focuses on the analysis of these groups but also looks at several conspiracies. He speculates that, “there wasn’t a conspiracy to kill him,” but also entertains the idea that there could have been a conspiracy that led to his suicide being complete.
There are several pieces of evidence that Cohen says he believes could support the idea of a conspiracy, including the facts that Epstein took out a life insurance policy on himself just days before his demise and the common treatment of pedophiles by other prisoners.
In response to the switching of wardens around the time of Epstein’s death, he states that there might have been a “wink, wink, nod, nod” to look the other way while Epstein took his own life.
Defining a conspiracy, Cohen says that it is “two people, or more people who are involved in possible illegal activity,” going on to say that the guards looking the other way would be a conspiracy, just not necessarily a criminal one.
Cohen closed the interview saying that Epstein knew what was coming and “was probably looking for an out.”
Politicians from both parties have spoken out in regards to the conspiracies and the failure of justice. Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a junior senator who has been thrust into the political spotlight in the past year, sent one tweet about the subject, saying “We need answers. Lots of them.”
Others say that prison failed the victims of Epstein’s crimes for the second time.
Rachel Hall, founder of the renewed Clemson University chapter of College Republicans, holds the belief that Epstein’s death had nothing to do with the current state of the prison system. Hall’s counterpart in Clemson’s College Democrats did not respond to requests to comment.