Thread by @MotherJones

1/ @LelandNally called every name in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book. Here’s what happened. (CW: Sexual assault.)

2/ First, some background: Epstein’s little black book is a compilation of all of the billionaire's contacts, apparently assembled by his staff.

3/ The book first turned up in a courtroom in 2009 after his longtime butler, Alfredo Rodriguez, tried to sell it to lawyers representing Epstein’s victims for $50,000.

4/ In all, there are 1,571 names, about 5,000 phone numbers, and hundreds of emails and home addresses for celebrities, scientists, artists, and some of the world's most powerful oligarchs and political leaders—people like Prince Andrew, Ehud Barak, and Donald Trump.

5/ Shortly before Epstein’s mysterious death in August 2019, the book appeared in dark corners of the internet, with almost every phone number, email, and home address entirely visible. @LelandNally got his hands on a copy. bit.ly/2SGz22b

6/ In all, @LelandNally made close to 2,000 phone calls. He spoke to billionaires, CEOs, bankers, models, celebrities, scientists, a Kennedy, and some of Epstein’s closest friends. He also spoke with normal people who had at some point worked for Epstein.

7/ One of the first calls he made was to Melania Trump’s personal cell phone. It went to voicemail.

Shortly after, he got a call from someone who claimed to be with the FBI, which suggested right away that the numbers were, in fact, real. So he kept going.

8/ Bobby Slayton, a comic who calls himself “the pitbull of comedy” told @LelandNally that Epstein was a “giant comedy fan” who liked “anything controversial or politically incorrect”:

@LelandNally 9/ Suzy Shuster, an Emmy-winning sportscaster currently at the NFL Network, detailed an uncomfortable encounter with Epstein from decades ago:

10/ Sometimes, @LelandNally would call a number that had changed hands over the years. Brooklyn resident Elijah Hutch, a 22-year-old aspiring music producer, for instance, has the old cell number for Muffie Potter, a legendary socialite and wife of plastic surgeon Sherrel Aston.

11/ People still get Hutch’s number mixed up. “They’ll text me about some dinner I went to or how it was great seeing me with so and so,” he says, “and I’m always just respectful man and just let them know, ‘Hey, man, I think Muffie gave you the wrong number.’”

12/ One close friend of Epstein told @LelandNally a very weird story about Donald Trump: Apparently, he has a tendency to abruptly leave restaurants before eating (?!)

13/ Somewhere around the 50th call, @LelandNally reached Stuart Pivar, an art collector, scientist, and a founder of the NY Academy of Art who said he was Epstein’s "best pal for decades." The interview was very odd. We published it in its entirety here: bit.ly/2EyZWpt

@LelandNally 14/ Another friend, Julie (not her real name), an actress, met Epstein in the early ’80s, before his fame and fortune. She described the relationship between Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s “right-hand woman,” as a toxic codependency.

15/ Julie says that Maxwell helped run his “sexual production line”: “She needed to be essential for him, [recruiting girls] is how she kept her place, she had value for him…she ran his house.”

16/ Out of all of the names in the book, a phone call with a woman named Tracey (not her real name), @LelandNally writes, “was by far the most difficult of the entire experience.”

@LelandNally 17/ Tracey told @LelandNally that Epstein groped her during a visit to his New York townhouse. She was there, she thought, to talk about funding for a screenplay she was working on. After the incident, she refused his money and fled out the door.

18/ Tracey thought about speaking out when the first round of allegations against Epstein became public, but she decided not to, out of fear for her safety.

19/ @LelandNally’s #longread, which delves into Epstein’s screwed up world and the people in it, is worth reading in full. But the short of it is, the little black book is seemingly a reflection of Epstein’s bizarre desire to collect human beings.

20/ As for Epstein’s death, his contacts are just as confused as the rest of us. Almost everyone @LelandNally spoke with who knew Epstein expressed doubt over his suicide. As one source put it, “There’s definitely people closer to this story that don’t think he killed himself.”

21/21 Read more about @LelandNally’s epic deep-dive into Epstein’s little black book here: bit.ly/2SGz22b