An address book from the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was up for auction in Cecil County on Friday at an estimated value between $75,000 and $100,000. The book was passed upon, according to Alexander Historical Auctions, meaning there were no bids or bidding did not reach the lowest accepted selling price.
According to the auction’s item description, the 64-page book had 386 printed entries and two “childlike,” handwritten entries on the last page. The entries include names, phone numbers and addresses of many prominent figures and their spouses in industries such as real estate, law, film, fashion and more, along with a list of properties owned by Epstein.
Five names in the book are highlighted in yellow, including former President Donald Trump. Elkton’s Alexander Historical Auctions said it was unsure of the significance of the highlights but did confirm that all five names are “well-recognized financial and industrial figures.”
Of the hundreds of names, 98 bore a handwritten black check next to them. Similar to the highlighting, the auction house was unable to clarify the significance of the checks.
“This relic is a piece of criminal evidence of the highest order,” reads the description.
Auction officials did not respond to a request for comment.
After pleading guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute in 2008, Epstein was arrested again in July 2019 on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.
Epstein’s criminal charges were dismissed after he was found dead in his jail cell as a result of what investigators said was a suicide. The death has drawn skepticism from the public.
Alexander Historical Auctions said there is a “good deal of information hinting at Epstein’s sordid past” in the “Little Black Book,” saying the first entry is contact information for the front desk of an apartment building and five apartment numbers.
The address of the building was “home for years to young models, girlfriends, pilots and lawyers associated with multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,” the item description reads.
In 2004, a similar book was discovered by the FBI and used as evidence in legal proceedings, which was disclosed after Epstein’s death.
The book that was up for auction was not considered evidentiary importance when it was recovered from a sidewalk on Fifth Avenue in New York City by a musician in the mid-1990s, according to the auction house’s item description.
In 2020, while the musician was cleaning out her storage, she found the book and realized it belonged to Epstein. She assumed the book was a copy and listed it on eBay, where it was purchased by a graduate student, who has owned the book ever since.
Business Insider reported that Epstein’s two black books had a combined 1,731 names — 221 of which appear in the auctioned book but do not appear in the book that was discovered years later in 2004.
The auction house description emphasized that there is no indication that any of the individuals listed in the book — except those who were already tried and convicted — were in any way associated with crimes committed by Epstein.
___
© 2024 The Baltimore Sun
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
