All language subtitles for 8_English_S01E01

[woman] Raise your hand, please.

Do you swear the testimony
you're about to give in this matter

shall be the truth, whole truth,

-and nothing but the truth?
-Yes, ma'am.

[lawyer 1] Would you please state
your full name?

It's Jeffrey Edward Epstein,

and my residence address is
6100 Red Hook Boulevard

in Virgin Islands.

[lawyer 1] Do you maintain
any other residences presently?

I have vacation homes in New Mexico...

uh... Palm Beach, New York and Paris.

[lawyer 1] Have you ever been convicted
of a crime?

Yes.

[lawyer 1] What was the crime
of which you were convicted?

[stammering] Uh... Two, uh, counts.
One soliciting prostitution,

and procuring a minor for prostitution.

[lawyer 1] Did you in fact commit
those acts?

I'm going to invoke
my Fifth Amendment right.

[lawyer 1] How many times have you
solicited a minor for prostitution?

Same answer.

[lawyer 1] How many times have you
solicited a minor for prostitution

-in the State of Florida?
-Same answer.

[lawyer 1] Have you ever solicited a minor
for prostitution in the Virgin Islands?

Same answer.

[lawyer 1] That is that you are invoking
your Fifth Amendment...

-Yes.
-...right?

Yes, Mr. [inaudible].

[lawyer 1] Have you ever solicited
for prostitution in New York?

Same answer.

[lawyer 1] Have you ever solicited
for prostitution in New Mexico?

Same answer.

[lawyer 1] Have you ever solicited
for prostitution in Paris?

Same answer.

[lawyer 1] Have you ever solicited a minor
for prostitution anywhere at any time?

Again, I'm going to assert my right.

[lawyer 2] Let's take a break.
We'll go off the record.

[lawyer 1] So you are terminating
the deposition at this time?

[lawyer 2]
We are recessing the deposition.

[unintelligible dialogue]

[police siren wailing]

I'm Vicky Ward.

I'm an investigative journalist.

I wrote a story about Jeffrey Epstein
for Vanity Fair back in 2003.

I heard about Jeffrey Epstein, actually,

long before
I was asked to write about him

because he was known

as this sort of Gatsby-like
figure of mystery in New York.

He was this single guy,

very wealthy, very good-looking,

and people knew
that he had made a lot of money,

but they didn't know how.

He claimed to be the money manager
for the uber-rich.

People knew that he hung out
with a lot of famous people:

Prince Andrew,

Bill Clinton,

a lot of famous academics,
the lawyer Alan Dershowitz,

and that he was always surrounded
by very beautiful,

often very young, women.

I knew Ghislaine Maxwell,
his then supposed girlfriend.

She was Oxford educated,

very witty, very funny.

She was a great connector for Jeffrey.

Graydon Carter, who was then
the editor of Vanity Fair, said to me,

"I've been hearing
about this guy, Jeffrey Epstein,

for years, but no one knows
anything about him."

And so he gave me the story.

It was a society piece.

It wasn't supposed to be
anything more than that.

But right away...

there was a red flag.

One of my sources said,

"I know a woman
who had a very unpleasant experience

working with Jeffrey.

And even worse,

her younger sister was abused by him
when she was underage.

Maybe they will talk to you."

And, obviously,
this took what had primarily been

a business investigation

in a whole...

different... direction.

[woman] I began painting
my senior year of college.

I just dedicated myself
to painting constantly.

I looked at it like
I was an Olympic athlete,

and I was just working all the time,
you know, training.

And then I was just giving myself
the fresh mind every time to the canvas.

This is my graduate school,

the New York Academy of Art.

I graduated in 1995,

and the night of our graduation,
actually, you usually have an art show,

and Eileen Guggenheim used to be
the Dean of Students,

and she would run it.

At this show,
I decided to enter a triptych.

So that's three paintings,
and it was the Alice in Wonderland series.

The show is phenomenal for me.
All three of my paintings sold right away.

The first painting I sold for $14,000,

and then the other two for $12,000 apiece.

And I was really, obviously, excited,

but Eileen then walked over to me,

and Eileen's literally like
twisting my arm,

and she says,
"This couple right here is

who is going to buy your art.
Do you hear me?"

And I said, "Well, I've already sold it."

And she said, "That's too bad.

You're gonna tell them that it's not sold,
and you're selling to this couple.

They're very important
benefactors of the Academy."

And Eileen says, "This is Jeffrey Epstein
and Ghislaine Maxwell, my dearest friends.

And they're just completely delighted,

and you will be selling to them,
and they will get a discount."

And so I got 6,000
instead of 12,000 that night.

And Jeffrey Epstein said, "Don't worry.
We'll make it worth your while.

Don't worry."

I didn't see or hear from Jeffrey
for a couple of months.

And one day the phone rang,
and he said, "I have a great job for you."

Jeffrey had just acquired this mansion
on 71st Street.

He told me, "This is your new job.
You're going to be managing the door,

and you're going to be managing
the people coming and going,

the decorators, the visitors."

One day Jeffrey Epstein said,
"I would like to know

how many siblings you have."

And I described that I had two sisters,

and I told him
that my sister Annie was very intelligent

and has hopes and dreams
for a career, probably in Ivy League.

[Annie Farmer] I was 16 years old,
and it was my junior year in high school.

Maria was living in Manhattan

and had told us
that she'd gotten a job, a great job,

working for this man, Jeffrey Epstein,

and that he might be interested
in helping me in some way.

He had proposed it would be helpful for me

to go on some kind of international trip

to Thailand and Vietnam
in order to build up my résumé

and to be more appealing
for a competitive school.

He agreed that he would pay for that trip.

At the time, it was very...

[laughing] It seemed very expensive,
you know, so...

um... I was just feeling
really grateful for that.

The trip was supposed to be
that summer in July,

and so he suggested that I come out
to meet him and Ghislaine Maxwell

at their ranch in New Mexico.

My mom's understanding
of what that trip would be was

a chance for me to meet
some other students

who would also be going
on similar trips.

But when I got there, I realized I was
the only one there staying with them.

They showed me around the property.

It was part of building up
this sense of, like, look at who I am,

look at all that I have,
be impressed by me.

Ghislaine was very interested in whether
I had ever had a massage before,

like a professional massage,
and I had not.

It was really presented as, like,

you're so lucky that you get to do this,
to, you know, get this massage.

She told me to undress,

and there was a table there
with a sheet on it.

You know, a portion of it was
just pretty typical, um...

but there was a time
when she had me lay on my back,

and she, you know, pulled the sheet down
so that my breasts were exposed.

Because of the layout of the house
and the doors that were open,

I knew that Epstein could see me.

I think the way
that she rubbed my chest in, you know,

in the massage also was inappropriate.

The scariest moment of the weekend was

when he came into my bedroom
in the morning

and said that he would like to cuddle.

He crawled into bed with me.

And, um... you know, was touching me,

and I don't remember
how long that lasted

because I was sort of checking out a bit.

But I remember making an excuse
like I needed to go to the bathroom.

Got out of bed,
and, like, went into the bathroom,

and kind of shut the door, and was...

you know, very scared
of what was going on.

And afterwards, I just avoided it.

I didn't tell my closest friends,
and I didn't tell Maria and my family,

and I just thought,

"I'm going to focus
on this trip this summer."

And I went to Thailand and Vietnam.

[Maria Farmer] Annie was on this program
in Thailand,

and I received a call from Jeffrey saying
that we want to help you with your career.

So I was asked to go do
an artist-in-residency.

I was to go to Ohio,

and I would be living
in this 26,000 square foot home

behind Les Wexner's house.

When I asked Jeffrey who Les Wexner was,

he said, "He is my client
and my very good friend,

who happens to be a billionaire,

and he would do anything for me."

So I drove a Penske truck to Ohio
because I took all of my art supplies.

I set up shop,

and I started painting.

These paintings were paintings
about puberty,

girls partially nude,

voyeuristic kind of private moments,

but not sexual.

My process is that I take photographs,
and I work from them.

And I was using
my two sisters as the models.

So, Jeffrey and Ghislaine
came to visit one day.

[insects buzzing]

[Maria] That night,
Ghislaine came and got me and said,

"Jeffrey would like to have
his feet rubbed."

And my stomach sank.

I felt like, "Gosh, I don't want them
to think I'm not grateful,

but this is so inappropriate," you know?

And so I... [groans] rubbed his feet
for a little while...

and he said, "Come up here."

Then he patted over here
for me to sit next to him.

Then Ghislaine sat down
on the other side of me.

Jeffrey immediately was doing this.

Like, it was really mechanical
and bizarre,

and Ghislaine then was doing this on me.

And then they were touching me
in different ways on my chest.

It didn't feel right at all,
and I didn't like it.

I kind of had like, you know, some tears,

and she goes, "Shh, it's gonna be okay."

And she was like really
with her other hand, like,

rubbing on my hand

and telling me
that it was going to be okay.

I had escaped my body at that point.

I wasn't really in that moment at all.

And at some point,

I was able to like
catapult my body out of that bed.

I went to my room,
and I barricaded my door.

I put a piece of furniture against it.

Just kind of huddled up in that room

until Jeffrey and Ghislaine left
that morning.

When I woke up, I went and checked to see

if my photographs of my sisters
were there,

and realized
three photographs had been stolen.

And I was freaking out.

So, I called Annie.

[Annie] My sister confronted me about
whether anything had happened to me

when I was at the ranch.

I told her things that had made me
really uncomfortable had happened,

but I really don't want to talk about it.

[Maria] I said, "Listen, you're never
going to have to deal with them again.

Do not worry.

I am so sorry you were exposed to this."

It was just a very uncomfortable feeling
to know that he had these photos of us,

and...

in particular of my younger sister

because she was just 12
when those photos were taken.

And...

it was just so...

um...

It was just upsetting to know
that he had those photos,

and to never know what happened to them
or how he was using them.

He could be using them
to sexually please himself.

[Maria] So the next day,
Jeffrey called me,

and he tried to pretend like

it was a really fun time he'd had
the night before,

and he tried
to kind of play it off like that.

And I said, "That wasn't fun for me."

And then he offered to give me
basically what I wanted

to not make a stink about everything,
just, "What do you want?"

Like, "How much money do you want?
What can I do for you?"

Um...

And I s... I didn't say anything.
I hung up on him.

When I got back to New York City,

I told the NYPD
everything that had happened.

I told them I'd been assaulted.
And they said,

"It's just not in our jurisdiction.
Like, we have nothing to do with this.

These things happened in Ohio,
New Mexico.

You're gonna have to call the FBI."

When I called the FBI,
I laid it out very specifically.

I said, "I'm reporting these people:

Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell."

I told them everything,
and I could tell that he believed me.

So, I really had believed
that he was going to take care of this.

And then we just actually
did not hear back.

[Vicky Ward] Because these sisters
had been ignored for so long,

they were very, very frightened
of going on the record,

speaking up about
what Jeffrey would do to them.

Part of them, understandably,

just thought they could never fight
against a man of his power.

We proceed,
very reluctantly after a family decision,

um... that we're going to do this thing.
We're going to talk about this.

[Ward] I spoke to the younger sister,

who was molested by him

and lived in fear.

[Annie] So, after we had presented
our story to Vicky,

then Vanity Fair had to take this account
to Epstein

to essentially fact-check it and get
his perspective and his side of things.

And when they did that,
he came back with his own story,

which was we were in fact
women that were infatuated with him.

And that's what this was coming out of.
It was,

you know,
revenge for that being unrequited.

[Ward] He would say,
"Well, Vicky, if I don't like this piece,

it's going to be bad for you
and your family."

And I was newly pregnant with twins.

He said, "Where are you giving birth?"

He followed that up with,

"I know all the doctors
in all the hospitals,

so it doesn't matter.
If you don't tell me, I'll find out.

If I don't like this piece,

I'm going to have a witch doctor
place a curse on your unborn children."

He was beginning to spook me out,
and these are just conversations.

So I could only imagine

how the women must have felt.

I got a phone call from Graydon.

He was pretty spooked because he'd found
a severed cat head in his garden.

He also found a bullet on his doorstep.

And then suddenly, I was told by my editor

that the girls
were being taken out of the story.

I was horrified. I said,
"Why? They've been so brave.

They've laid so much on the line. Why?"

And the message came back,

"Well, he's obviously sensitive
about the girls. That's a sore point."

I'll never forget
Graydon Carter saying to me,

"I believe Jeffrey Epstein."

[Annie] I remember buying
the copy of Vanity Fair

and seeing the spread, you know,
"The Talented Mr. Epstein."

And it said nothing
about any of his interest in girls.

I think that Vanity Fair basically
got bought off by Jeffrey.

The excuse was,
"Well, it's a business story."

It was a business story,
but, just like life,

the story was more complicated,
far more complicated.

I cried in public. [laughs]

Um...

You know,

so much work,

so much bravery,

and for what?

[Annie] It seemed it was more evidence
of the fact that he was powerful,

and he could fix whatever thing came up.

[Ward]
Jeffrey Epstein is the ultimate story

of the abuse of power and money.

But, of course, what none of us knew was
that the girls who I'd spoken to

were only the tip...

of the iceberg.

And it actually got even worse in Florida.

[sinister music]

[man 1] Jeffrey Epstein bought
his Palm Beach mansion in 1990.

Epstein was new money.

He didn't have generations
of growing up there,

sailing in the Intracoastal Waterway...

but he had tons of new money.

And if you have enough money,
you can buy your way in to any society.

There are things that have been true
about Palm Beach since I was a kid.

Some of the protectiveness,
some of the clannishness...

It's definitely a very insular world.

There is almost a hermetic seal around it.

It's not just
an extremely wealthy zip code.

It's an island.

And I think that...

it almost has a psychological effect
on the very wealthy people who move there,

or who have grown up there,

or whose fathers or grandfathers
bought estates there,

because there's a sense of security,
and safety, and privacy,

and they like it that way.

[man 2] Epstein and I
essentially were neighbors.

And why would
Jeffrey Epstein... come here?

You know, here it is.

I mean, you're on the ocean.

It's quiet and secluded.

I came down here in 2007,

and back then, there was very little known
about Jeffrey Epstein.

What people knew about him was
that he was stunningly rich.

The guy was living a life
that most people dream about.

He had a 15 to 20 million dollar house
here in Palm Beach.

He had one of the largest townhouses
in New York City,

a massive apartment in Paris,

his own private island in the Caribbean,

a sprawling ranch in New Mexico,

a helicopter,

two airplanes, one a 727.

[airplane engine roaring]

That's the commercial side of the airport

there where all the JetBlue
and everyone else lands.

But the west side of the airport is
where all the private jets are.

And that's where Jeffrey parked his jets.

I was a reporter here for 25 years.
I also lived over in Palm Beach.

Covered the Epstein case extensively.
This guy was a bit of a ghost down here.

Nobody really saw him. Nobody knew him.

In the '80s,
he hit it out of the ballpark.

A lot of powerful men liked him
and trusted him to handle his money.

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump,
they were both wealthy guys from New York,

and they both ended up living a mile apart
along billionaire's row in Palm Beach.

They knew each other.
Epstein frequented Mar-a-Lago for a time.

There's now a widely circulated quote
from Donald Trump,

which he probably would like
to reel back in,

"I've known Jeff for 15 years.
Terrific guy.

It is even said that he likes
beautiful women as much as I do,

and many of them are on the younger side."

[Carl Hiaasen] Palm Beach is
a very small town.

It's almost impossible to conceive
living there and moving in that world

and not hearing rumors about Epstein

or not being aware of something odd
going on at Jeff's place.

[engine starting]

I'm Michael Reiter.
I've been here 38 years,

on the Palm Beach Police Department
for 28,

and I was Police Chief in Palm Beach
from 2001 through 2009.

I first met Jeffrey Epstein
somewhere around 2001.

Epstein visited me in my office

to talk about making a donation
of equipment to the police department,

which was nearly $100,000.

It was a brief visit.
It was just a little bit of chit-chat.

My impression was that he was
just a wealthy, very private guy.

Nearly two years later,

we received reports from his neighbors

that there was
a large number of young women

going to and from his residence.

We thought, "That's suspicious."

We sent personnel to stop them

and interview them.

They were all adults,
the three or four that we talked to,

and they said that they were simply doing
office work for Mr. Epstein.

Since they were all adults,

there didn't seem to be
any further police interest.

Then in 2005,

the parent of a young girl
called the police station.

[dial tone]

[dialing numbers]

[telephone ringing]

-[Pagan] Hello?
-[stepmother] Hi, how are you?

[Pagan] I'm good. I'm returning your call,
I apologize. I don't know what for.

[stepmother] It's okay.
It was an incident that occurred

maybe three and a half weeks ago
with one of my stepdaughters.

One day at school, she got into a fight,
and she had over $300 on her.

So after asking her and asking her
what was going on,

I found out that it ended up being that

they went to Palm Beach
to a gentleman's house.

And they start off
by giving this gentleman a massage.

And he pays them.

If he likes them
and thinks that they're pretty enough,

-he keeps them around to do other things.
-[Pagan] Okay.

[stepmother] So I wasn't quite sure
if there was an investigation

or if you guys had any word--

[Pagan] Well, this is the first
I'm hearing of it.

-[stepmother] Okay.
-[Pagan] I'll need some more information.

Would your stepdaughter
be willing to come in

to provide me with a statement?

[Michael Reiter] When a juvenile reports

that they have been a victim
of a sex crime to the police department,

we immediately take that very seriously.

The parent was asked to bring the victim
into the police station.

A detective conducted an interview.

Immediately upon, uh...
that victim's report to us,

which we found very credible,
we launched an investigation.

The very first victim was
about 14 years old at that time.

We were able, from the interview,
to figure out exactly where the house was.

From the description the victim provided,
it was clear that it was Mr. Epstein.

The case was assigned
to our special investigations unit

partly because of the nature of the crime,

and partly because Mr. Epstein was
a powerful, influential person.

Joe Recarey was
the lead investigator of the case.

Unfortunately, Joe Recarey passed away
a few years ago,

but at the time, he believed
there were other victims.

So he began contacting them

and listening to their stories.

[Recarey] I appreciate you coming down
to talk to me.

-You're not in any trouble.
-[Stephanie] Okay.

[Recarey] I want to put that out there
right now.

-How did you meet Mr. Epstein?
-[Stephanie] Through a friend.

[Joyce] It was like two years ago or so.

[Recarey] About two years ago?
That's when you first met him?

[Joyce] Yeah. Yeah.

-[Recarey] You were 17 then?
-[Sharon] Mm-hmm.

[Recarey] What is it that you were told
you would have to do?

-[Sharon] Give him a massage.
-[Recarey] Okay.

[Recarey] During the massage,
did he... um...

ask you to remove your pants or...

[Heather] Yes.

[Reiter] Every victim told
essentially the same story.

They thought
that they would give him a massage.

That's what most of them were told.

That's what lured them there
for a small amount of money.

[Recarey] What else happened
when you were providing the massage?

[Susan] He took the towel off,
and he started pleasing himself,

which I was very uncomfortable with.

-I wanted to leave right when I got there.
-[Recarey] Okay.

[Reiter] Our biggest concern was
that the victimization not to continue.

That's why
we started surveillance right away.

We surveilled the airport...

[camera shutter clicking]

[Reiter] ...the house.

[camera shutter clicking]

[Reiter] As we found additional victims,

one victim would tell us about others,

those others would tell us about others,
and it began to multiply geometrically.

[Recarey] Okay. First of all,
I know this is hard on you, okay?

Just take a deep breath.

[Heather sighs] I'm trying. It's just...

I wasn't aware that I was going to be
alone with him for that ten minutes.

And I thought I was gonna die.

[Recarey] Did you have intercourse
with him?

-[Susan quietly] Yes.
-[Recarey] Okay.

[Reiter]
After two or three months,

we feared that this involved
a really large number of victims.

[Recarey] Can you raise your right hand?
Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,

-so help you God?
-[Michelle Licata] I do.

-[Recarey] State your name for the record.
-Michelle Licata.

I found the calendar
from December 2004...

the month that I met Jeffrey Epstein.

I wrote down my first party
that I'd ever been to,

talked to a boy
'til three o’clock in the morning.

And then right before Christmas,
that's the weekend that everything changed

in my entire life.

[Recarey] All right. In your own words,

tell me exactly
how you were introduced to this gentleman

by the name of Jeffrey
in, uh... Palm Beach.

[Licata] Um... My friend told me
in class that...

she could find a way of making money
for Christmas.

I didn't really know
what she was talking about,

but I was like, "Okay."

[Licata] I was a good kid.

I always thought
that my life was just ordinary.

I had seven kids in my family.

-[male teacher] Michelle Licata.
-[applause]

[Licata] I was really good in school.

I had a lot of friends.

[cheering]

[Licata] In cheerleading,

I got the Spirit Award.

[crowd cheering]

[Licata] Just a normal teenage girl.

[woman] And what are we gonna do?

We're gonna shop!

[woman laughing]

[Licata] One day, this girl wrote me
a note in class that said,

"Do you want to make some extra money
massaging old guys?"

And I was like,
"Okay, that seems weird. But okay."

[Licata] She said to just go
to this old guy's house

and just massage him for 45 minutes,
and you'll get like $200.

-[Recarey] Okay. How old were you?
-[Licata] Sixteen.

[Recarey] Okay.

[Licata] We're driving probably
like a good 45-minute ride.

We pulled into a big,
expensive-looking mansion.

Before we got out of the car, she said,

"Okay, so if anybody asks,
uh, you're over the age of 18,

but I don't think anybody is going to ask,
just if they do."

I was only there
for like maybe a minute or two,

and then he walked in.

He laid down on his stomach.

He said,
"Okay, there's some lotions over there

if you wanted to start massaging my feet
and my legs."

He flipped over, and he was talking to me
about, uh, the way that I looked.

He was telling me how beautiful I was.

I never thought
I was the pretty girl in high school.

I had braces,

and for somebody to be
pointing the spotlight at me,

it was like,
"Okay, he's giving me compliments.

I never thought of myself that way."

And then he kind of was like...

grabbing my hip
and kind of like maneuvering it

so that he could look at me.

He was telling me to take off
my shirt and pants.

He's like,
"You can get down into your underwear."

You know, you start thinking, "Okay. So...

if I try to leave or be like,

'Uh, no, we're not going to do this,'
you know...

how would you leave?

Like, is there a gun hidden somewhere,

like, he was going to pull out?"

As a young girl, you just do...

Because he's an adult,
you just do what someone asks you to do.

[Licata] And then he sort of grabbed
my thighs, and he was...

jacking himself off at the same time.

He just tried, like,
rubbing me down there.

[Recarey] Okay.

[inhales deeply] And...

[stammering] th... that was where
I started freaking out completely.

I was like...
[sighing] "Okay, okay...

Can we just get this over with?

This is just so unreal.
This is not happening."

He just looked like a scary sicko

in my mind, like...

He just looked like... [stammers]

[stammering] I just still have
the vision of his face.

[Licata] I backed away, and I said,
"Well, I don't know if I should do that."

And I freaked.

I was very hesitant and so scared.

[Recarey] As I told you before
and I explained to your mom,

what he did was wrong, okay?

-[Licata] Okay.
-[Recarey] Um...

[Recarey] I want to reassure you
on that, okay?

[Licata] When he was done,

he wrapped himself up in a towel,
and he said, "There's 200 for you.

I would really like to see you again."

And I was like... [inhales deeply]

"Okay, okay."
In the back of my mind, I was like,

"I am not ever coming back here
ever again."

And I just went downstairs,

and I felt so used.

I felt so used, like it was...
I was just like this dirty person.

Before Epstein, I was...

[exhales shakily]

[voice breaking] I was...

I was...

[sobbing] something else.

The way I saw myself... [inhales sharply]

a long time ago...

[sobbing] ...I was, like...

like this flower.

A flower that was, like, opening up.

And afterwards, it was...

[inhales sharply] ...like somebody just...

picked up that flower... [sniffles]

...plucked it from its roots,
and stomped on it and smashed it.

[sniffles]

[Recarey] I know this
is difficult for you,

and I know it was difficult for you
to talk to me today.

Is there anything else you'd like to add
to this statement?

[Licata] No.

[Recarey] Okay.
Then I conclude this statement.

The time on my watch is 5:25 p.m.

[tape player clicks]

[sinister music]

[Hiaasen] Many of the girls
were brought across the bridge

from the mainland,
which is West Palm Beach.

And it's a whole different world
when you cross the bridges.

Parts of West Palm Beach are like

a lot of other communities along
the Gold Coast where it's working class.

It's not necessarily high end at all.

It's a real world.

To think what it must have been like
to come from modest means,

and in some cases
broken homes, troubled homes.

Palm Beach is like Oz.

[chuckling] If you live in West Palm,
that's just not a world you experience.

My name is Shawna Rivera.
This is the house that I grew up in.

This is where usually
we would sit out here.

We had a big hammock on the patio.

This room was my room.

The time that I first met Jeff,
my girlfriend came over here to, um...

to take me with her to Jeff's, right?

Like right after this street here...

there's a trailer park, there's a canal
and then there's a trailer park,

and so she walked over here...

and convinced me to go with her.

I didn't have a good childhood.

I was a runaway for two years.

My mom used drugs pretty heavily
most of my life.

My dad went to prison when I was three.

And when I was ten,
my dad got out of prison.

At some point, my dad had a girlfriend...

who had some kids,

and the kids had clearly been abused
prior to this.

And I would say it was like a week or so
after my 12th birthday,

my dad and his girlfriend beat her son,
her eight-year-old son, to death...

[inhales deeply] Um...

In front of me.

And so I, um...

[clears throat] ...ran away from home.

I lived in, like, shelter homes.

Finally, my grandma
was able to get custody of me.

I was 14 years old
when I met Jeffrey Epstein.

My girlfriend, she's like,
"Shawna, I'm going to this guy's house.

I can't go by myself. I just can't do it.
I just need you to come with me."

I was just like, "All right. Fine."

I didn't know what was going to happen.
I just went along with it.

Once you get over the bridge
into Palm Beach, you see yachts

and all these huge mansions.

This is like

not something I'm familiar with.

We walk into the back,
and there's this girl.

She's young

with an accent. I don't know her.

She's familiar with my friend.
"Hi. Hi. Hi."

We walk into this room,

and this dude walked in.

I remember thinking he was kind of rude.

He says, "Oh, hey. Hi."

He's, like, on the phone,

and he, like, lays down.

So then my girlfriend tells me,
"We're just going to give him a massage."

And she said, "Oh, well,
we have to take our clothes off."

And I'm like...

"I have to take my clothes off?"

And she says, "Yeah, we have... We both...

We both have to take our clothes off.
All of them."

So you have me
and my 14-year-old girlfriend

totally naked,
and I'm giving this old man a massage.

But then my girlfriend says,
"Well, I'm going to go."

And I'm like, "What the fuck are you doing
leaving me here?" Like, "Why?"

I couldn't believe
she was walking out of there.

Then this guy,
he asked me how old I was...

and I remember telling him
that I was 15 years old,

and I was actually 14 years old.

That didn't scare him.

[inhales deeply] It was kind of, like,
"Oh, okay. You're 15. Okay."

Then he turned over... [sniffles]

...and he wanted me to rub the lotion

that we were using,
like, all over his chest. [sniffles]

And he told me to just grab his nipples

and squeeze and pinch as hard as I could.

[sniffles]

And I just, like,

I just remember standing there
and just being, like...

"What is going on? This is so weird."

I just couldn't wrap my head around it.
I was like, "What the fuck is this?"

I'm 14 years old.

I'm a virgin.

It just went on like that
for a couple of minutes,

and he finished...

and there was money sitting there.

He told me to go ahead
and pick up the money.

So I just got dressed,
and I walked out and left.

I was so embarrassed.

I didn't know how to say, like,
"No, I don't... I don't want to do that."

I don't know how long it was after
the first time I had gone over there...

but I... one day,
I got a phone call at my house.

They called me a cab to take me to Jeff's.

There was no explanation.
There was just, "Take the cab to Jeff's."

I assumed if I went back...

I would get more money.

I mean, I didn't have any money.

I didn't have a family like that.

I just...

didn't know how to handle it, you know.

So, I think I kind of went
into this kind of like...

pilot mode kind of situation,
where I just...

[inhales deeply]

...tried to, like, get through it
and just go home.

I couldn't say, "This isn't right."

I couldn't say, "This isn't normal."

I couldn't say, like,
"This is a sick man."

And it was probably
for like three or four years

I continued to go.

[woman] I'm an educational psychologist
and mental health counselor.

I've worked with many victims
of sexual trauma.

And the first thought that I had when
reading about the Jeffrey Epstein... case

is that he targeted girls
that were so vulnerable.

Um, and this is something
that most sexual predators do.

The first step in the grooming process
is spotting a vulnerable victim,

someone who is financially disadvantaged

or that already have
some sexual trauma in their past.

Sexual predators like Jeffrey Epstein
have an eye for picking out someone

who is in need of something,

and they identify that need,
and then they exploit it.

When you're pairing a teenage girl

with a brilliant,
narcissistic billionaire,

their adolescent brain was not equipped

to understand or react
to what was happening.

[Reiter] We were frustrated that,
while some people were cooperative,

most of the victims did not want
to prosecute for fear of Jeffrey Epstein.

They knew that Mr. Epstein was

a powerful, influential,
very wealthy person.

So they were very reluctant.

And so we decided to talk
to some of his employees.

[telephone ringing]

-[Recarey] Good morning, Mr. Alessi?
-Yes, speaking.

Hi. This is Detective Joe Recarey
with Palm Beach Police.

I'm investigating a case
against, uh, a former employer of yours,

Jeffrey Epstein.

[Alessi] This is something

that I really would not like
to be involved,

-if I'm not involved with it.
-[Recarey] I understand that,

but you may hold some information
which would assist me in this case.

[Alessi] But I don't want to get
in trouble or...

I don't want to get sued
by Mr. Epstein or by his company.

[telephone ringing]

[Recarey] You are Alfredo Rodriguez,
correct?

-[Rodriguez] Yes, that's me.
-[Recarey] Okay.

I just wanted to touch base with a case
that I'm investigating

involving Mr. Epstein.

[Rodriguez] Okay.

[Recarey] My main concern, obviously, is

the girls that come over to work for him.

[Rodriguez] Okay.

[Recarey] What can you tell me about that?

[Rodriguez] He has a lot of masseuses.

He has a list of favorite, uh...
female personnel

to give him massage, you know.

So he gets massage in the morning,
massage in the afternoon.

They were very private, sir, you know.

So I didn't know
what went on behind closed doors.

It was my job to keep everything discreet.

So...

[Recarey] Would you
say these girls were young?

[Rodriguez] Um...

Oof, you put me on the spot, sir.

[Reiter] Every part of this case
was an uphill battle.

His employees didn't want to cooperate,

so we went through the trash at his home.

In one case,
we found a school report card

for one of the victims.

And in another case,
we learned that he sent a messenger

to the school to provide flowers
to the victim

who had been part of a performance there.

[James Patterson] West Palm Beach
has dozens of high schools

and middle schools.

Thousands and thousands of kids.
Some private schools out there.

All these schools became a hunting ground
for this predator.

[woman] I think at 16, 17,
when you're in high school,

I think we're all vulnerable.

This is Royal Palm Beach High School.
This is where we went to high school.

Not the happiest moment in my life.

My name is Haley Robson,
and I was 16 when I met Jeffrey Epstein.

Growing up in West Palm Beach,
I had a big family, lots of cousins.

I have two sisters.

My dad was a police officer.
My mom worked in banking.

I love horses.

I started riding when I was 11.

Couple years later, I got competitive.

This was probably
the most happy time of my life.

But I had gone through
a traumatic experience

before I met Jeffrey Epstein.

The summer before I turned 16,

I was raped.

[clears throat]
It was my first experience with a man.

He was 21.

I just closed up.

Um... I started using drugs.
I was drinking all the time, smoking weed.

I just kind of wanted to just vanish,
just disappear.

The girl that introduced me
to Jeffrey Epstein

went to High School with me.

She said, "I know this guy and he would
give me $200 just to give him a massage."

And my first immediate reaction
or thought that came to my mind was

"This is my ticket out of West Palm.
This is my way out."

We drove to Palm Beach island...

and we actually walked in...
It wasn't the front door.

It was almost like this side door
that led into the kitchen.

I remember we walked up a flight of stairs
that kind of curved.

And the first thing that I noticed,
because it was so distracting,

was the wall art.

A lot of nudity.

Naked statues, naked pictures.

It made me feel uncomfortable...

and then I saw, like,
a photograph of kids.

It wasn't normal.

The massage began as a massage,

then he turned over.

He was naked on the table.

And I just remember feeling really scared.

It just brought up a lot of bad...

emotions.

[Recarey] Did he touch you?

[Haley Robson]
Yeah, in inappropriate places.

[Recarey] Does he use his hands?

[Robson] He uses his hand,
and I guess it's like a vibrator.

But, um...

I refused to do that.

He tried to touch me below the belt.

I declined.

Um, I told him I didn't feel comfortable.
"No, it's not going to happen."

At that moment, he was offering me,

"Okay. Well,
this isn't going to happen, so...

just if you have any friends,

if you bring them to me,
I'll give you $200."

-[Recarey] Just to bring a girl?
-[Robson] Yeah.

[Recarey] The girl that was going
knew she would have to massage him.

[Robson] She knew everything.

[Recarey] How long
have you been working for him?

[Robson] I probably worked for him
for a year.

I probably recruited...

maybe 24 girls.

[Robson] Those girls brought
other girls, too.

-[Recarey] Okay.
-[Robson] So, it's like a train.

[Recarey] Who else was underage?

[Robson] Under 18?

-All of them.
-[Recarey] All of them?

[Robson] All of them.

[Robson] I would recruit girls
that were friends.

I would just casually bring it up.

And we would drive together to his house.

I would take them to the room.
And then I would walk out.

Sometimes I would wait out by the pool.

When the girls would leave,
Jeffrey would come outside to pay me.

He would say, you know, "How are you?
How is everything? How's your family?"

He wanted you to think he was a friend
and that he cared.

[Recarey] All right,
I talked to my boss for a little bit.

-[Frick] Which is why I'm here.
-[Robson] Okay.

[Frick] Um... [sniffles]

[groans]

At this point, you've clearly
implicated yourself in a crime.

Okay? You've taken girls
to somebody's house

for the purpose of prostitution.

More importantly, and more significantly,
one of those girls was 14 at the time.

Okay? Now that's a pretty significant
second-degree felony.

I remember them being really tough on me,
and I think at one point I started crying.

And I remember feeling really scared.

And they treated me like
I was his right-hand man.

But what about the girl that recruited me?

What happened to her? What about the girl
that recruited the girl that recruited me?

I feel like I've been putting
the blame on myself for so long,

bashing myself,
and just being hard on myself,

but I shouldn't feel guilty about it
because I was 16...

and he's the adult,

and he should not...

make me feel...

guilty.

[sobbing] I've never said...
Never ever come forward like this.

It just, like, brings up,
like, so many emotions.

[Dr. Kathryn Stamoulis] The girls
that are recruiting the other girls

are definitely victims of Jeffrey Epstein.

They were manipulated in a unique way.

They were made to feel special,

and they were also offered opportunities

that could get them
out of their life circumstances.

And the added bonus that
they didn't have to do anything sexual

with this middle-aged man.

This is how Jeffrey Epstein created
a sexual pyramid scheme.

[Reiter]
After months of our investigation,

we realized that this was a way of life
for Mr. Epstein,

and I believe he felt
that he would never be caught.

And so it was very important for us
to get inside of Mr. Epstein's home,

because we wanted to see
if there was additional evidence

and to validate the information
given to us by the victims.

But we had to be very careful.

We did not want to reveal to Mr. Epstein
that he was being investigated

until we had an airtight case.

Finally, seven months into the case,

we felt as though that was the time
to execute the search warrant.

[dramatic music]

[Recarey] This is a complete description
of the residence desired to be searched,

including the curtilage attached thereof.

I will leave a list
of what items we're taking.

[Reiter] We were extremely surprised
at what we found inside Epstein's house.

[dramatic music]