As Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers sort through "a million pages" of evidence against the financier-slash-sex-offender, we are left to sort through a bananas twist in this evolving plot, published today in the NY Times. According to the paper's report, Epstein courted scientific luminaries in an apparent effort to get help with his plan to "seed the human race with his DNA." How did he plan to do this? "By impregnating women"—at least 20 of them, according to one of the Times' sources—"at his vast New Mexico ranch."
As you will doubtless be aware by now, Epstein faces federal sex trafficking charges (to which he has pleaded not guilty) for his alleged abuse of dozens of teen girls between 2002 and 2005. Investigators believe that Epstein lured minors to his mansions in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida, where he paid them hundreds of dollars in cash to give him creepy, sexualized massages. Some of his victims were allegedly as young as 14, and some say that Epstein raped them. He allegedly flew these girls to his various homes as well—including to his Zorro Ranch, which has reportedly become central to the FBI's investigation.
According to the Times, the property was also central to Epstein's larger scheme to disseminate his genes. Epstein reportedly cozied up to the biggest names in the scientific field, including but not limited to: Late physicist Stephen Hawking; neurologist Oliver Sacks; Jaron Lanier, a founding father of virtual reality; and, George M. Church, who is, to quote the Times, "a molecular engineer who has worked to identify genes that could be altered to create superior humans." He reportedly jetted members of this genius cohort out to his private Caribbean island, Little St. James ("Pedophile Island"), threw them lavish dinner parties, and poured money into their research projects in an effort to get their ear—all the while, peppering conversation with mention of his weird (but apparently legal?) baby farm plan. From the Times:
On multiple occasions starting in the early 2000s, Mr. Epstein told scientists and businessmen about his ambitions to use his New Mexico ranch as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm and would give birth to his babies, according to two award-winning scientists and an adviser to large companies and wealthy individuals, all of whom Mr. Epstein told about it.
It was not a secret. The adviser, for example, said he was told about the plans not only by Mr. Epstein, at a gathering at his Manhattan townhouse, but also by at least one prominent member of the business community. One of the scientists said Mr. Epstein divulged his idea in 2001 at a dinner at the same townhouse; the other recalled Mr. Epstein discussing it with him at a 2006 conference that he hosted in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
In fact, Lanier reportedly suggested to the Times, "he had the impression that Mr. Epstein was using the dinner parties—where some guests were attractive women with impressive academic credentials—to screen candidates to bear Mr. Epstein's children."
According to the report, Epstein was interested not only in eugenics—the belief, most often associated with Nazis, in bettering human populations through selective breeding to control for certain traits—but also in cryogenics. He reportedly wanted his head and penis frozen post-mortum, so that he could be resurrected at some point in the future.
Anyway, you can read the full article in the Times. Meanwhile, Judge Richard Berman tentatively set Epstein's trial date for June 2020, giving the defense team ample time to make its way through the mountain of allegations against him.
