Jeffrey Epstein’s Former Jail Mate Believes He Was Taken Off Suicide Watch ‘Intentionally’

Epstein was placed in the general population at Metropolitan Correctional Center along with prisoners accused of everything from murder to serious drug offenses and extreme violence. His former lawyer Alan Dershowitz says on the podcast, "These pre-trial detention facilities are terrible, and they have driven more than Jeffrey Epstein to suicide."

His jail mate speaks out on the podcast about those facilities, and about how badly the financier was treated during his time at MCC. He claims, "The guards didn’t like Epstein because he was always asking for special treatment ... Epstein would have to wait two weeks before he actually got anything, worse than any other inmate that was there."

The fellow inmate continues, "One time, I heard Epstein’s bunkie call for help from the guards. I think that was the first time he had tried to kill himself. When they carried Epstein out of the cell, man, yo, they dropped him on his face ... I heard it hit the floor with the loudest thud. I’ll never forget it, man, because it was sickening, but Epstein didn’t make a sound because he was out cold."

That incident was likely Epstein's first alleged attempt at suicide on July 23, just five days after he was denied bail. He was found semiconscious in his jail cell and had injuries to his neck and claimed he was assaulted by his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. But Tartaglione said Epstein had tried to commit suicide, and later, an internal prison investigation reportedly cleared Tartaglione of any assault.

That incident led to Epstein being placed on suicide watch. Lindsay explains on the podcast, "At some point, it was determined by the Bureau of Prisons that Epstein engaged in a legitimate suicide attempt. So they ... put him on suicide watch. When an inmate is placed on suicide watch, he or she is removed from either the general population or the special housing unit (SHU), and they’re moved into a specially designed suicide prevention cell in the health services department."

"When you’re on suicide watch in an institution like the Metropolitan Correctional Center, there is a guard literally sitting in a chair outside your cell watching what goes on in your cell at all times," former MCC inmate Richard Stratton reveals. "He was being watched very, very carefully."

But Epstein didn't get that treatment for long and was taken off suicide watch just six days later. "In the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it’s a policy that only the chief psychologist ... can remove an inmate from suicide watch," Lindsay explains. "I believe Epstein manipulated his way off of suicide watch, and that was a mistake."

"The only reason they would take him off suicide watch is so that he could be murdered without anybody being there to say, 'Well, we didn’t see it happen,'" Stratton claims.

Afterward, Epstein was moved to the 9 South area of the jail, a special housing unit which is also a lockdown unit and heavily surveilled. So how did the late businessman end up dead less than two weeks after the move? His former jail mate believes, "I think they took him off of suicide watch intentionally. The guards were happy Epstein was trying to kill himself."

"When you’re in supermax, virtually nothing can happen without some complicity on the behalf of the staff," Stratton says. "You’re totally under the control of staff at all times ... for a guy like Epstein to have supposedly killed himself in this institution ... Why was he taken off suicide watch? He was taken off suicide watch so that someone could get in there and kill him, as clear as day."

Epstein's former personal chauffeur claims on Episode 11 that Epstein was paranoid about threats to his life even before his time at MCC. "He was afraid that somebody was going to try to kill him," he claims. The businessman's former business partner, Steven Hoffenberg, agrees: "He was trying to negotiate a deal with the government. Why would a man with $600 million trying to turn state’s evidence against the rich and the powerful kill himself? ... If you weigh the facts and look at the events, they do not add up."

There's a chance we may never know exactly what happened at the end of Epstein's life, but clues continue to trickle out. For instance, on November 19, two federal correctional officers were charged with “making false records and conspiring to make false records and to defraud the United States” in connection to his death.

The guards allegedly created records falsely stating they completed the requested checks of inmates at MCC in the SHU on the night Epstein committed suicide, when those tasks were not, in fact, done. As a result, they found Epstein's body far too late to do anything about his death. Will we continue to learn more about his suspicious passing as time goes on?