Palm Beach Post-USA TODAY NETWORK
A man who was incarcerated in the same prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York where Jeffrey Epstein died claims there was “just no way” he could have hung himself. He made this statement in response to the Trump administration concluding that there was no evidence that anyone assisted in Epstein’s suicide.
Many doubts persist
Despite releasing 11 hours of surveillance footage “from the common area of the Special Housing Unit (SHU) where Epstein was housed at the time of his death,” numerous doubts still remain about the claims made in the report published by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice. After claiming the surveillance footage outside Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell was “full raw” and unedited, forensic experts concluded that the video had been “modified,” most likely using Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, according to an investigation conducted by Wired.
Professor Hany Farid, a digital forensics and misinformation expert at UC Berkeley, even went so far as to tell Wired, “If a lawyer brought me this file and asked if it was suitable for court, I’d say no. Go back to the source. Do it right.”
The conspiracy theories aren’t going away
Now, adding more fuel to the conspiracy fire, is former Colombo crime family mobster Michael Franzese. Franzese claimed in an interview with Ashleigh Banfield on NewsNation that he “served time in the exact cell where Epstein was later held” and in which he would eventually die.
“Well listen, you know, I spent seven months on that tier and in those cells and the first thing I have to say, there’s just no way you are able to commit suicide,” Michael Franzese told Banfield. “There’s just no way. There’s just no way to hang yourself. There’s nothing from the ceiling, there’s nothing from the– you’d have to be a midget and work really hard to try to hang yourself, and I don’t think you’re gonna accomplish it at that point.
“You know, as far as the cameras being off, I haven’t experienced that. I did eight years in prison and I haven’t experienced cameras being broken and a perfect storm of correctional officers not walking those cells. They walk in and they look in on you all the time. As a matter of fact, you know, sometimes it’s embarrassing to go to the toilet because they’re walking past you and looking in the cell constantly.
“So I’ve said this from day one, I do not believe it was suicide. I can’t talk about what happened to him, but I don’t believe it was a suicide because you just couldn’t physically do it. It would be almost impossible to do it.”
Michael Franzese also pointed out to Banfield, “Not only would you not have the privacy, I don’t understand how you would be able to do it. You have to hang yourself from something. There’s nothing on the ceiling that you can hang a bed sheet on. The bed is not that high. I mean, you’d have to try to lay down on the floor in some way because Jeffrey Epstein was a fairly big guy.”
He also added that if Jeffrey Epstein was on suicide watch, as has been reported, “They watch you very, very closely. Trust me on that. So I just can’t buy it. I cannot buy it, I’m sorry.”
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother raises questions
Mark Epstein, Jeffrey’s brother, echoed what Franzese said, telling Chris Cuomo of NewsNation last week, “When [FBI director] Kash Patel came out with that statement, I laughed at how stupid it was.” He would go on to cite a pathologist who did the autopsy on his brother and another doctor who was present at the autopsy who said it looked more like a homicide than a suicide.
Mark Epstein has also claimed in the past that federal authorities buried videos proving the his brother didn’t commit suicide in prison. He pointed to the numerous coincidences: cameras weren’t recording, prison guards were asleep, orders from prison psychologists that he have a cellmate (he didn’t), and that Jeffrey was supposed to be constantly monitored (he wasn’t), as being extremely suspicious. Also, no photo was taken of the Epstein’s body when he was found, EMTs at the scene and hospital staff were not interviewed, and the 911 call made from the prison has never been released.
Jeffrey Epstein’s brother has also claimed the late convicted sex offender had dirt on Donald Trump and the Clintons, but it has been covered up. “‘If I said what I know about both candidates, they’d have to cancel the election.’ That’s what Jeffrey told me in 2016,” he claimed.