Who ordered the killing of Jeffrey Epstein?

Who ordered the killing of Jeffrey Epstein?


Conspiracy Theories
Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein?
How rumors and conspiracy theories fill gaps when information voids develop.
Key points
Many rumors and conspiracy theories have circulated concerning Jeffrey Epstein's death and sex trafficking.
Gaps and holes in reliable information leave space for rumors and conspiracy theories.
People are attracted to conspiracy theories because they provide explanations for complex events.
Was Jeffrey Epstein murdered, or did he commit suicide while in prison awaiting trial? Is there a list of rich and powerful clients from his sex trafficking of children? It’s hard to find definitive answers to these questions. And the information gaps contribute to the spread of Epstein conspiracy theories.

What we know about Epstein and his death
You can actually find a lot of information about Jeffrey Epstein (see this recent summary in the NY Times and this commentary by Michelle Goldberg). We know that he was convicted of sex crimes with minors and was in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking of minors. We know that he was friends with rich, influential, and powerful people—many of whom interacted frequently with him. We know at least one person and his banks have settled civil cases concerning sexual assault of minors related to Epstein. We know that at least one victim, Virginia Giuffre, claimed to have been recruited at Mar-a-Lago. And we know that Epstein died in prison awaiting trial.

We also know that the Epstein case fits with overall conspiracy narratives. One conspiracy narrative claims that there is a set of elite people who have engaged in a long history of sex trafficking of children. This led to the Pizza-Gate conspiracy theory—a false claim that a pedophilia ring trafficked children through a particular pizza shop in Washington, D.C. Someone attacked the pizza shop, hoping to free children supposedly locked in the basement. Of course, there was no basement, and there were no children being trafficked through that location.

Conspiracy theory promoters
Conspiracy theories about Epstein have circulated for years. In spite of evidence that he committed suicide, there are claims that he was murdered, possibly to stop the release of information about clients. And the conspiracy theories about his client list have included lists of rich and powerful people–in part reflecting the fact that he interacted with those people frequently. There are also conspiracies suggesting he was a foreign agent, possibly blackmailing the rich and powerful.

Many of the people promoting Epstein conspiracy theories are now in power in the current administration. Several are involved in the Department of Justice. Before taking over these positions, these individuals promised to release the Epstein files, including the Epstein client list. In February, the current Attorney General stated that she was reviewing the client list and preparing to release it.

Holes in the released evidence
Of course, the Epstein information has always been incomplete. And the new information that has been released is also incomplete—it has lots of holes. The administration and current Attorney General now claim there was no Epstein client list. The administration released a video purporting to document that Epstein committed suicide. But the video has been edited and is apparently missing time.

article continues after advertisement

These are massive holes.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Conspiracy theories, however, love vacuums. They love to fill in the holes with rumors, possible ideas, and false information.

Information vacuums, rumors, conspiracy theories, and narratives
Even in the internet age, accurate and complete information takes time to be gathered and released. But people want answers. They want explanations. We all want to understand what is happening. Our desire for explanations and narratives can fuel the spread of rumors and conspiracy theories.

Kate Starbird, Emma Spiro, and their colleagues have studied the spread of rumors in response to crises for over a decade. Whenever there is a crisis, people search for information. When reliable information is slow to appear (as it often is), other information fills the void. Rumors and disinformation are very likely to spread when authorities are slow to release information or when they actively withhold information. When authorities withhold information, people start to lose trust in them. When people lose trust in authorities, even when they do start to release information, people may doubt the information and question its completeness. Rumors have always spread during times of crises. But the internet and social media make the spread faster and more extensive.

Rumors will be especially likely to spread when they become connected to conspiracy theories. People come to believe rumors and conspiracy theories because they provide explanations. Conspiracy theories create narratives that explain complicated events (Schopfer et al., 2023). Everyone wants to understand why something happened, and people who believe conspiracy theories are not lazy thinkers. Instead, they are working to integrate a variety of information into an explanation (Robson et al., 2024). Unfortunately, people are often working with incomplete information and possibly false rumors as they develop conspiracy theories.

Epstein Conspiracy Theories
The conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death and his sex trafficking of minors provide people with narratives and explanations. These are compelling stories. Given the lack of transparency regarding this case, people will consider these explanations. And we should always keep in mind that there are actual conspiracies in the world.

article continues after advertisement

Are the rumors and conspiracies about Epstein true? I don’t know. But I do know that the lack of transparency leaves holes in the existing information that rumors and conspiracy theories happily fill.

References

Robson, S. G., Faasse, K., Gordon, E. R., Jones, S. P., Smith, N., & Martire, K. A. (2024). People who believe implausible claims are not cognitive misers: Evidence from evaluation tasks. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 14, 275-287.

Sch;pfer, C., Abatista, A. G. F., Fuhrer, J., & Cova, F. (2023). ‘Where there are villains, there will be heroes’: Belief in conspiracy theories as an existential tool to fulfill need for meaning. Personality and Individual Differences, 200, 111900.

Spiro, E. S., & Starbird, K. (2024). Rumors Have Rules. American Scientist, 112(2), 116-119.

Starbird, K., Maddock, J., Orand, M., Achterman, P., & Mason, R. M. (2014). Rumors, false flags, and digital vigilantes: Misinformation on twitter after the 2013 boston marathon bombing. IConference 2014 proceedings.

Zeng, L., Starbird, K., & Spiro, E. S. (2016, January). Rumors at the speed of light? Modeling the rate of rumor transmission during crisis. In 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) (pp. 1969-1978). IEEE.