Jeffrey Epstein was not your typical white, middle-class, working American. He was a well-to-do criminal who was involved in one of the most controversial sex trafficking rings of all time (Jeffrey). His background and his criminal history made it all the more confusing when he “committed suicide” in August of 2019. His death sparked one of the more intriguing cases of speculation and conspiracy, with questions concerning the lapse in security footage, his ties to powerful individuals, and people questioning the narrative. To this day, there are memes and social media references, stigmas, and questions about Epstein's Island and whether or not the man killed himself in one of the most culturally significant conspiracies of our lifetime.

     Jeffrey Epstein was involved in one of the largest child sex trafficking rings in the world before he died. Not even this was the biggest conspiracy surrounding the ring, which is alarming. It was how easy he got off that sparked immense controversial speculation. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta said, “The NY prosecution offers an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice” (LeBlanc). This idea never came to fruition, however, with Epstein being found guilty of only two cases of state prostitution. This is even more intriguing when digging deeper to find that the FBI found and confirmed 36 underage victims (LeBlanc).

     Epstein's controversy only goes deeper when asking the question of whether or not he did kill himself. Why would a man with so much life to live find himself in the darkest place mentally one could imagine? Was it because he was facing life in Jail? Or possibly due to his complete loss of status inside of a prison cell? These are both assumed to have led Epstein to be in such a mental state that he felt his only way out be by taking his own life. To be fair he did not have many alternatives, as the officers and professionals presiding over his care were not doing their job to the fullest extent. It is said in a report released by the New York Times that there are nine instances in which they are unsure if he was allowed a shower or not, and ten instances in which they are not sure he was allowed recreational time (The Epstein Files). The report is very in-depth but the point is that there were many lapses in logging his time with the facility. The day before his death over 2,000 documents were unsealed and released. Documents about the nature of his crimes and accusations. This could be the ultimate reason why he cut his life short. These documents exposed him publicly to the world and to the power moguls to which he had ties. This could’ve caused his mental spiral, but no one knew due to the insufficient care and observation administered by the professionals over his case. These few instances are reason enough, however, for said mental spiral. It is clear why the man could’ve had suicidal ideation. It is not clear why there was so much misconstrued information and information that was not logged correctly. That is not enough to back the conspiracy that his death was anything other than a suicide.

     The Epstein case picked up worldwide media coverage in 2019 and then again in 2023 with the release of the infamous List. A list with the names of high-profile individuals associated with Mr. Epstein. This list was released due to a defamation case involving Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was arrested earlier in the year with charges related to aiding Epstein in his sexual misconduct. This was the case that led to nearly 1,000 more documents being unsealed.

     The conspiracy theories surrounding this case all stem from the secrecy and information withheld from the general public. All this information being withheld, however, does not prove that there were alternate circumstances relating to the death and mishandling of the Epstein cases. There is a rule in American football, if a ruling by the referees is challenged, there must be sufficient video evidence to overturn a call. Now this is not football, nor is it that simple, but there is simply not enough evidence to truly support the claims against his finalized case outcomes.