Since Jeffrey Epstein was charged with sex trafficking and sex-trafficking conspiracy early last month, the tone of public interest in the story has turned conspiratorial, a shift that was magnified tenfold following the sex offender’s jail-cell suicide reported on Saturday morning. Considering the horrid and bizarre details, the high-society company that Epstein kept — including two presidents and a member of the royal family — and the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center’s failure to keep him safe following a reported suicide attempt in July, close observers of the story are having a hard time waiting for all the facts to come in to start drawing conclusions. Politicians, reporters, and pretty much everyone else on Twitter are responding to Epstein’s death, reaching for conspiracy and convincing — if unfounded — theories on how it might have happened.
