From believing that the United States did not land on the Moon to thinking 9/11 was an inside job, conspiracy theories and hoaxes have plagued the internet. Live Science claims that at least 50% of people in America believe in one or more conspiracy theories.

One of these conspiracies that has covered the internet and news is that Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier, and billionaire did not kill himself while in a high-security jail unit in a Manhattan prison.

Technically, a conspiracy theory is an idea for why something happened that goes against the standard explanation for the event. The internet and social media allow for these conspiracy theories to spread like wildfire even with little to no evidence. In Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide or “murder,” many Americans wanted to believe that he would never kill himself. Insider found that 45% of Americans believed he was killed while 16% believed he died by suicide, and 39% being unsure about the whole situation. 

What was Epstein accused of?

Jeffrey Epstein was an extremely wealthy man that would bring two to three girls a day to his million-dollar home in Palm Beach and other places. He used the victims’ friends that had already known him to lure the girls into his homes, claiming that they would just have to give him a massage. In return, he would give them $200 dollars. There was much more to the massage though, with Epstein sexually abusing the young girls. “The younger the better” he would claim.

Epstein ruined these girls’ lives with little consequence. He knew many people in very high places and had an extreme amount of power to get out of trouble. When charged in Palm Beach, he had “the deal of the century” as many say, allowing Epstein to avoid federal prison. Then, the U.S. attorney’s office in New York arrested Epstein on sex-trafficking charges, giving him no choice but having to go to prison.

What is the conspiracy?

On August 10th, not even a month into his stay in prison, Epstein hung and killed himself in his cell. The internet went into a frenzy with this news and his death became a meme of whodunnit. President Donald Trump even got in on the action by retweeting a claim that the Clintons killed Epstein because he had knowledge on their family. #ClintonBodyCount and #ClintonCrimeFamily began trending on Twitter creating baseless claims that the Clinton family killed Epstein.

Epstein’s brother hired a forensic pathologist, Michael Braden, who claimed that Epstein was strangled. With this, prosecutors claim that footage of his jail cell has been lost due to technical errors, causing more claims about a cover-up. Epstein was put on suicide watch on July 23rd after being found with apparent bruising on his neck. Just six days later he was taken off suicide watch and put in a jail cell by himself. Twelve days later, Epstein was found in his cell dead and unattended, with the guards allegedly falling asleep while on watch.

With this information coming out, many people began to believe that Epstein had to have been murdered. This conspiracy theory resembles the multiple theories surrounding John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Many believed that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in killing the 35th president, accusing forty-two groups and 214 people being involved in the assassination. Americans jump onto these conspiracy theories because society is becoming even more suspicious of the government as time goes on.

Believing that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself could be seen to many as taking the easy way out of the situation. He changed multiple girls’ lives forever and got out of punishment by killing himself. Now, many of these girls and women will never have the justice they deserved. Because of this, it is easier to blame someone else for Epstein’s death.