Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / Jeffrey Epstein's Former NYC Town House Used To Be A School (5/21/26)

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Jeffrey Epstein's Former NYC Town House Used To Be A School (5/21/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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  Speaker 1: So we have an article today from the Miami Herald
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  and it is by an author named Madeline Mahr, and
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  it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein's New York mansion
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  and how it used to be a school. Well, I
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  haven't read the article yet. We're going to read it together,
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  so I don't have any details to share with you
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  until we do that. But if it's anything like the
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  rest of the stuff that comes out of the Herald,
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  we know that we have a good article on our
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  hands here. As we're all aware, the Miami Herald was
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  at the forefront of breaking the Jeffreys Epstein story from
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  the beginning, you know, digging into this story to make
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  to make sure that it was put into the public view.
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  So I think that the Miami Herald deserves a lot of.
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  Speaker 2: Credit, and especially Julie Brown. Julie K.
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  Speaker 1: Brown deserves so much credit, folks. Make sure that you
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  give her the love she deserves. Make sure you check
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  out her work when it pops up, and you know,
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  follow her on Twitter whatever it may be.
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  Speaker 2: But she's very courageous.
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  Speaker 1: She's a very courageous woman, and she's did great work
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  here as a journalist. And I highly highly respect the
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  work that she has done, because we all know how
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  critical I am about journalists.
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  Speaker 2: But at the same time, I'm always willing to give.
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  Speaker 1: Credit where credit is due because it's hard work. I
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  understand how hard it is to be a journalist, how
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  hard it is to, you know, facilitate these stories and
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  make sure that you're really focused on what's going on.
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  I understand that it's a difficult job, especially when you
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  have outside forces attempting to make you quit, like Julie K.
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  Brown dealing with Jeffrey Epstein's people and private investigators and
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  you know, the whole flip. So I think it's important
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  that we recognize Julie Brown as probably the most influential
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  independent journalist of the year in my opinion, in this
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  host's humble opinion, she is definitely the most influential journalist
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  of the year because of her work with this story.
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  All Right, so we're gonna jump right in. If you'd
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  like to contact me, you can do that at Bobby
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  Kapuci at ProtonMail dot com. That's Bobby c ap U
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  c CI at ProtonMail dot com. My replies might be
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  a little bit slow today because I am I'm going
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  to the mountains in a little while to do some climbing.
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  See how that works out with a broken finger. But
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  I haven't been climbing in about a week and I'm
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  jones in big time. So if you email me and
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  I don't email you back right away today, that's that's
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  the reason I'll be out of service.
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  Speaker 2: So all right, let's jump right into this article.
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  Speaker 1: And it was originally published by the Miami Herald, but
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  that's behind the paywall. So the Herald Sun also published
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  it and that is not behind the paywall. So that
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  is how I'll share it with you. That way, you
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  can check out the article yourselves headline sad and disgusted.
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  Before it was Jeffrey Epstein's mansion, it was my school campus.
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  It was a post I never expected to see on
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  my high school alumni facebook page back in July twenty
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  and nineteen. Oh, excuse me before I go any further.
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  The author is Madeline mar It was a post I
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  never expected to see on my high school alumni facebook
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  page back in July twenty and nineteen. A picture of
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  birth a birch Wotham School with the New York Times
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  headline the fifty six million dollar mansion at nine East
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  seventy one Street, where Epstein allegedly abused girls. The photo
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  was of a nineteen thirties era Beaux Arts limestone building
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  on Manhattan's upper east Side. The majestic oak doors I
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  walked through almost every day from seventh to twelfth grade
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  looked almost identical to the one in my worn out
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  yearbooks from my memories. So that's got to be kind
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  of chilling, right. You go to this school and then
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  you know later on in life the school is bought
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  by this rich psychopath and he uses it to turn
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  it into a house of hers. Epstein had just been
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  arrested on suspicion of sexually trafficking underage girl. My Miami
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  Herald colleague Julie K.
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  Speaker 2: Brown was all over this story for so long.
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  Speaker 1: She sat a few desks away while digging up the
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  full scope of Epstein's sweetheart deal for pleading guilty in
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  two thousand and seven to a reduced Florida state felony
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  prostitution charge, and how the deal was engineered without the
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  knowledge of his victims. Until the arrest, I had no
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  idea this predator lived at least part of the time
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  inside the former home of our alma mater alumni in
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  my Facebook check didn't appear to have known either. Below
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  a post, former students flooded the comments section appalled that
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  their old school was now a crime scene. Pretty crazy
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  how that works out, Huh. Imagine you went to this
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  school and then you know, you moved away or whatever,
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  and of course you never really thought about your school
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  again for the most part. I mean, you did the
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  times you had with your friends in high school blah
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  blah blah blah blah blah blah. But the building itself,
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  I mean, I never really think about the building from
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  high school. Of course, the memories from high school are
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  some of the best memories ever. But it still must
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  be kind of crazy. It's really sickening to think about
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  this happening in a place where, despite a fair bit
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  of turmoil, I have had many happy memories. I feel
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  ill every time it crosses my newsfeed. I just can't
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  believe the horrors that building has witnessed, sad and disgusted
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  on so many levels. Incredible, isn't it where we all
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  spent our formative years. The last I had heard after
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  I'd graduated in nineteen eighty five was four years later
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  the twenty one thousand square foot building had been sold
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  to the limited CEO leslie H. Wexner for thirteen point
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  two million dollars. Wexner apparently spent very little time there
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  before basically handing the mansion over to his financial advisor,
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  Pedophile Epstein for a song in nineteen ninety six. And
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  we all know that he wasn't charged for that place.
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  And we all know when he moved in, Wexner already
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  had a camera system set up and a whole media room,
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  the whole flip folks. When Epstein moved into the Moguls Digs,
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  they certainly did not resemble a staid schoolhouse. Architectural Architectural
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  Digest featured the forty room home on the cover in
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  December of two thousand and five. Architect Thieri de Spahn
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  and interior designer John Stephanitis all but gutted the place,
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  using Russian palaces as their inspiration, preserving the central spire
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  staout the central spiral staircase as the anchor. That staircase
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  where intrepid, read misbehaving students slid down the railing, irritating
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  the receptionist on the ground floor. To no end, had
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  we had cell phones. In that era before the selfie,
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  those marble stairs would have been Instagram central, and of course,
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  the stately entrance also remained intact. Those fifteen foot high,
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  arched oak doors where we hung out after class, avoided
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  teachers and swap. Siggi's images living forever on the Internet
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  show investigators prying open those same doors with a crowbar
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  before reportedly reportedly uncovering naked pictures of young girls. Seeing
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  that scene a picture taken by a neighbor on the
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  same block, felt like a kick to the gut, as
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  if hearing an old friend had passed.
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  Speaker 2: I could get that.
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  Speaker 1: I could get that too, because I know if my
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  high school ended up a place like this, it would
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  make me a bit sick.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you think about it.
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  Speaker 1: You spent some of the best years of your life
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  in high school, hopefully, and you know your formative years,
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  like she says in the article, and you look back
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  on stuff like that fondly, right, you want.
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  Speaker 2: To look back on that and have a memory.
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  Speaker 1: And I drive by my old high school on a
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  regular basis, pretty much every single day, and every time
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  I drive by my high school, a little smile creeps
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  on my lips.
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  Speaker 2: Now imagine you went to this.
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  Speaker 1: School, how the feeling would probably be a lot different
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  now that you know what occurred afterwards in this place.
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  I know it would give me a different feeling, that
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  is for sure. And then the widely circulated clip of
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  Prince Andrew cheerily waving goodbye back in twenty ten to
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  a young woman as she exits. Then the Royal shuts,
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  the now infamous doors, the images of every floor and
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  every corner of the former birch Wotton building. We Birchees
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  have memories of will forever be tainted by horrific, grotesque
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  images of this disgusting man, wrote burch Alum on their
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  Facebook page. Someone else added the ironic twist that now
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  convicted sex offender Bill Cosby lived for so many years
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  at Number eighteen across the street for a time, unreal
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  and right next door to them. Not that he's connected
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  to any of this, I don't think anyway. My old
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  boss Howard Lutnick from Cannor Fitzgerald, he is Jeffrey Epstein's
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  next door neighbor.
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  Speaker 2: Too bad.
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  Speaker 1: I was never invited over to old Howie Lutnick's house
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  for any dinner, huh. I for one choose to remember
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  the building the way it was when it was in
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  vision by Herbert N. Strauss, the Macy's air who commissioned
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  it in the nineteen thirties but died before its completion.
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  Between nineteen sixty two and nineteen eighty nine, it was
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  home to Birch Wathon, founded by in nineteen twenty one by.
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  Speaker 2: Luis Burch and Edith Waftin.
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  Speaker 1: Over the years, the school's alumni included broadcaster Barbara Walters,
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  novelist Judy Krantz, and book publisher Alfred Noff. Junior student
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  life was chronicled in the birch bark Our School paper.
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  After the sale to Wexner, Birch Wathton combined with the
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  Lenox School to create Birch Watton Lennox in a new location.
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  I won't allow myself to wrap my head around what
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  Epstein reportedly did with our former campus, including inserting a
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  female doll into a chandelier, hanging a mural of a
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  prison scene starring Epstein himself, and displaying those famously framed
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  eyeballs of injured soldiers. No, just no, don't forget the
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  picture of Bill Clinton, and don't forget the picture of
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  Gilanne Maxwell ma'am. Despite its vast size, the building that
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  housed birch Wat Alwaton, a private K two school of
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  a few hundred, it felt like the home it was
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  built to be. Unfortunately for athletic types, that meant there
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  was no gymnasium or athletic field, but having Central Park
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  as your playground awesome. No theater either, We had to
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  make do in some kind of parlor or sitting room.
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  Our science lab was in the attic. We ate lunch
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  in the windowless cafeteria in the basement. According to records,
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  it used to be a laundry room and fittingly, a
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  wine cellar. Birchees did fizzed in Central Park less than
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  a block away. In colder months, we were busted to
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  a nearby athletic center as upperclassmen. During lunch, we'd roam
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  Madison Avenue, pop in for snacks at the long gone Cabetaria,
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  tell secrets outside the Frick Art Museum, and lawyer around
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  Ralph lorenz opulent boutique. Despite the notoriety that Epstein brought
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  to the building, fun the fun running wild in New
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  York City, Memories of many alumni remain resolutely intact. Hey, look,
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  I get that again. When you go to high school,
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  it should be a great time. It should be a
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  time filled with memories, building great friendships, et cetera, et cetera.
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  And for these people, you know, the knowing that that
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  this building was used for what it was used for
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  after is a bit disheartening for them, right, But you know,
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  it's really disheartening. And what's really gross. These people are
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  worried about their memories of their building. And I understand that.
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  But the girls who were molested inside of that building,
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  their memories are going to be something completely different. Their
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  memories are going to be something completely darker. Their memories
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  are going to be something that haunt them forever. Would
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  volunteer to take over the property and transform it into
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  a transitional home shelter for victims or trafficking, offered one
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  from our group. Beautiful idea, But Manhattan real estate has
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  a short memory. Neither historians nor experts think Epstein's crimes
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  will affect the palatial building's worth. Because of the several
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  lawsuits against the Epstein estate, it could be some time
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  before the mansion is liquidated, The Post recently reported in July.
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  Before his death in jail, and while he was seeking
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  release on bond, Epstein offered to put up the home
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  as well as its private jets, as collateral to guarantee
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  his appearance at trial. With that in mind, it is
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  possible that the estate could sell the property and simply
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  hold the funds as part of the total estate to
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  be dealt with as the legal battles play out, said
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  New York City historian Tom Miller. Either way, it appears
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  almost certain that the mansion will continue to be used
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  as a single family residence. Here's hoping the new residents
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  keep the stairway at least, well, not one of those
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  pieces that give us new names or anything like that,
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  none of that. But what it does is again, it
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  adds context, shows us a little bit about the building,
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  adds a little bit more to it, you know. And
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  it's it's crazy to think that all of this was
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  occurring in the middle of Manhattan, like this, a block
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  away from Central Park, right in the hub of the
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  upper crust of society. But like we've discussed, the people
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  in New York City, the upper crusters in New York City,
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  they don't care.
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  Speaker 2: They'll accept Jeffrey.
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  Speaker 1: They would have accepted Epstein back again, after his second arrest,
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  if he got out. They do not care, folks, because
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  they do not care about regular people. We are disposable
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  to them. Their whole entire life revolves around consolidating their power,
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  increasing their wealth, increasing their ability to control. And that's
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  all people like Jeffrey Epstein care about at the end
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  of the day. And the people who have protected him, well,
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  they're just as bad. They're just as culpable for his actions, folks.
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  Speaker 2: All Right, if you'd like to.
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  Speaker 1: Contact me, you can do that at Bobby Kapuci at
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  protonmel dot com. That's bobbycap You c c I at
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  ProtonMail dot com and