Where is Ghislaine Maxwell?

For the record, I’m 99.9% sure that Jeffrey Epstein’s death was a suicide.  If you were going to murder Epstein in prison, why would you do so in a way that would automatically generate more conspiracy theories?  Why not poison him, for instance?  What some people are calling conspiracy (like Epstein being taken off suicide watch and the jail employees not checking on him) sounds more like everyday incompetence to me.  Jails are underfunded, overcrowded, and usually staffed by people who just want to finish up their shift, collect their pay, and go home.  As for Epstein, he was facing the prospect of going from having his own private island to being a prominent pedophile in prison.  He had every motive and opportunity to take his own life and that appears to be just what he did.

Far more interesting than the question of whether Epstein committed suicide is the question of just what exactly has happened to Ghislaine Maxwell.  Ghislaine Maxwell is the socialite who allegedly procured Epstein with most of his underage girls.  Maxwell was just as rich and socially connected as Epstein (there is a famous picture of her smiling at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding) and it’s been three years since anyone’s been sure of where she is.  The general assumption was that she’s somewhere in Europe but, according to the Daily Mail, she’s actually been living with her boyfriend in a mansion in Massachusetts.

Or has she?  According to Business Insider, Scott Borgerson (the tech CEO who the Daily Mail described as being Maxwell’s boyfriend) says that he is not dating Maxwell, that he hasn’t seen her in years, and that he wishes everyone was as concerned with the oceans as they are with his “former friend.”

So, where is Ghislaine Maxwell?  One that most Americans don’t know about this case is that Maxwell is the daughter of the infamous Robert Maxwell.  Maxwell was a shady Czech-born British businessman and media mogul who briefly served as a Labour MP.  After Maxwell’s own mysterious death, it was revealed that he used a number of fraudulent business practices to inflate his own wealth and that he was also probably an intelligence agent for at least some of his life.  (Interestingly, the same allegations have been made about Jeffrey Epstein.)  It’s easy to imagine a scenario in which Ghislaine Maxwell is using her father’s old connections to hide out from the legal authorities.

It’s easy to imagine that Ghislaine is in a former KGB safehouse somewhere in Romania.  It’s just as easy to imagine that she’s hiding in a mansion in Boston.  Maybe she’s in the witness protection program.  Maybe she has an island of her own.  It’s easy to imagine.  In fact, it’s probably too easy.  This is why conspiracy theories are so attractive.  They provide easy answers to complex questions.

Jeffrey Epstein’s Dead

Jeffrey Epstein is dead.  Right now, his death is being reported as a suicide.  Undoubtedly, there are a lot of powerful people who are breathing a sigh of relief this morning.

When someone like Jeffrey Epstein dies, the natural impulse is to say, “Good riddance” and maybe to mourn that he didn’t suffer more.  What is often forgotten is that Epstein couldn’t have done what he did if he didn’t have powerful people protecting and enabling him.  From what little came out before Epstein death, this scandal sounded like it had the potential to be an American Profumo Affair.

Now that he’s dead, expect to see all those stories and investigations pushed to the side.

 

Everything’s Coming Up Blago!

Here’s the latest political rumor: President Trump is thinking about commuting Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison sentence.

The former governor of Illinois has been in federal prison since 2012.  He was convicted of soliciting bribes for political appointments.  Specifically, he was best known for not only trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder but also for being stupid enough to allow himself to be recorded while doing so.  After Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office (and just imagine how corrupt you have to be to be too corrupt for Illinois!), he appeared as a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice.  He didn’t do well on the Celebrity Apprentice but, during his brief time on the show, Donald Trump made it clear that he did like him on a personal level.

One of the funny things about Blagojevich is that he was initially elected governor as a reformer.  In 2002, Blagojevich ran as the hope and change candidate and attacked “politics as usual.”  After he was first elected governor, many people expected that Blagojevich would be the Illinois politician who challenged Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination.  Of course, two years into his term as governor, Blagojevich was overshadowed, both in Illinois and nationwide, by Barack Obama.

Normally, the chance of Blagojevich getting any president to agree to commute his sentence would seem to be close to zero.  (Obama not only refused to do it but also went out of his way to deny having ever been allied with Blagojevich.)  However, with Trump, I think Blagojevich’s chances probably jump to 50/50.  Trump is going to do whatever he wants to do.

If Trump does commute Blagojevich’s sentence, I’m sure there will be the usual outrage.  But does anyone outside of a few political junkies and pundits actually remember Rod Blagojevich?  It’s been ten years since he was first arrested for trying to sell Obama’s senate seat.  In today’s world, ten years might as well be a century.

Below is what Blagojevich looks like today.  As you can tell, 7 years in federal prison have turned him into actor William Devane.  If Rosland Capital ever needs a new spokesman, they know where to look.

 

 

Andrew Golden Is Dead

Drew Grant in 2008

Last night, news broke about an accident that occurred on a highway in Independence County, Arkansas.  One car drifted into oncoming traffic and collided with another car.  Both drivers were killed.  The driver of the second car was a 33  year-old resident of Missouri named Drew Douglas Grant.

It’s the type of thing that happens nearly every day.  What made this accident national news was that before Drew Grant was known as Drew Grant, he was known as Andrew Golden.  In 1998, Golden and his friend Mitchell Johnson were responsible for what was, at the time, the 2nd most deadly school shooting in U.S. history.  After Golden pulled a fire alarm at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, he and Johnson ambushed and shot 15 people.  4 students and one teacher died.

At the time, Mitchell Johnson was 13.  Andrew Golden was 11.

Andrew Golden in 1998

Because of their age, Johnson and Golden were tried as juveniles.  Convicted of five counts of murder, Johnson and Golden were imprisoned until they each reached their 21st birthdays, at which point they were released and their criminal record was officially wiped clean.  Johnson and Golden became the only two living mass murderers who were not incarcerated.

Can someone who did something terrible as a child be reformed and go on to be a productive adult?  That is a question that haunts the juvenile justice system.  After his initial release, Johnson continued to get into trouble with the law and spent even more time in prison on drug and theft charges.  (Johnson is currently free and living, under probation, somewhere in Texas.)  Andrew Golden, on the other hand, changed his name and, with the exception of one time when he attempted to get a concealed weapon permit under his new name and failed to disclose that he had spent time in prison, kept a low profile.

If you go on YouTube, you can find a 2008 disposition that Golden gave in a civil case.  For two and a half hours, Golden was asked about the shooting and his life afterwards and most of his answers consisted of replying, “Not that I remember.”  When asked to describe the day of the shooting, Golden claimed that Johnson approached him before school and, while holding a pocket knife, threatened to kill Golden and his father unless Golden helped with the shooting.  When asked why he didn’t run away or make any attempt to warn anyone when Johnson supposedly ordered him to enter the school and pull the fire alarm, Golden can only shrug and say that he doesn’t remember.  Golden, who was considered to be an excellent marksman even at the age of 11, also claimed that he only started shooting to try to warn everyone the teachers and students about what Mitchell was planning.  Despite having fired nearly every fatal shot, Golden insisted throughout the disposition that he only fired his gun in the air and at a wall.  Watching the disposition, it is evident that Golden was not ready or willing to take responsibility for his actions in 2008.  Had that changed by 2019?  Was Golden even capable of making that type of change?  Who can say?

Andrew Golden is dead, the victim of an accident that appears to have been as random as his actions in 1998 were deliberate.  If his death brings some sort of peace to those who he hurt, good.