WHO KILLED JEFFREY EPSTEIN?

By Tim Rohr

There are more important things in this world going on than "who killed Jeffrey Epstein?" However, I have been watching the Epstein thing out of the corner of my eye for several years, not because I care much about the case, but because I knew at some point the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands would be implicated. It was just a matter of time. 

I lived in the V.I. in the early 80's for four years. And they were four years of "high adventure!" Stories I may tell another time. And, because I "married" into the Virgin Islands, I have remain connected to the goings-on there for many years thereafter. 

As you may know, Epstein ran his "Fantasy Sex Island" on his own private island, located just a swim away from the main island of St. Thomas. 

The U.S Territory of the Virgin Islands consists of three main islands, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. And there are many smaller islands within the territory. "Little St. James," Epstein's island, is one of them.

Over the more than three decades I have either lived in or been in one way or another connected to the U.S. Virgin Islands (particularly St. Croix), I have made and retained some of my most treasured friendships, but also saw first hand a corruption that would make similar "corrupters" in the government of the sister territory of Guam blanch. 

So when the Epstein thing first broke, and long before "someone" killed him, my first thought was "how long will it be before the government of the VI is called out?" It was just too obvious. How could such a blatant, high-profile sex trafficking operation operate for years just a swim away from Government House?

On Nov. 22, 2023 - the 60th anniversary of the assassination of JFK by the way - a suit against some of the biggest names in the USVI government, including current Congresswoman, Stacey Plaskett, was filed.

And it's "juicy." Here are a couple of pertinent excerpts:

Government officials, including but not limited to Defendants First Lady Cecile de Jhong, Governor Kenneth Mapp, Senator Celestino White, Attorney General Vincent Frazer, Governor John de Jhong, Stacey Plaskett, and Senator Carlton Dowe facilitated Epstein in his ongoing sex trafficking operation by ensuring that Epstein received preferential treatment and unfettered, unmonitored freedom while in the USVI, and by providing Epstein and/or his companies instruments which further enabled his sex-trafficking ring and related crimes.

the USVI government leaders, staff, and officials benefitted by receiving generous financial donations, financial advice, support, loans, access to lines of credit from Epstein and his entities, and that crucial financial support allowed Epstein to successfully rape, sexually assault, coercively sex traffic Plaintiffs and numerous other women freely and openly, access to underage and other women, and a haven to act without government scrutiny -- by customs, police, or airport personnel -- or public knowledge.

I don't know if this will do it, but I have always longed for the Virgin Islands to be "cleaned up." It is such a magnificently beautiful place, but because of the corruption at every level (despite good people at every level) it is one of the most dangerous places in the world. The island of St. Croix, alone, ranks 7th in the world, per capita, for the most murders - most of which occur within a two mile radius of where I lived.

For decades, the crime and the danger has encouraged a real "brain drain" - the exodus of some of the VI's best people, many of whom are my former students.  And I, myself, had to make a fast "exodus" from the VI "back in the day" for "disturbing" a drug ring operating in a local Catholic high school, and whereafter my life was on the line. But that's a story for another day.