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Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Yahoo
Bill Clinton reportedly sent Jeffrey Epstein note for birthday album
Donald Trump apparently isn't the only president that sent a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. 'The biggest name in the album' was Bill Clinton, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The ex-president's letter appeared alongside nearly 50 others, including other prominent celebrities and executives. Last week, the Journal reported that Trump had authored a 'bawdy' letter to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after he was arrested on federal sex-trafficking charges. The letter was included in an album Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell compiled on the occasion of his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump has sued Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters and the newspaper's publisher Dow Jones for libel and slander over the reporting. In Thursday's article, the Wall Street Journal provided additional details on the album, including names of some of the nearly 50 people who wrote to Epstein. They reportedly include billionaire investor Leon Black, fashion designer Vera Wang, billionaire media owner Mortimer Zuckerman, billionaire former Victoria's Secret owner Les Wexner, attorney Alan Dershowitz, model scout Jean-Luc Brunel and billionaire former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It also includes the British ambassador to the United States and Labour party politician Peter Mandelson in a section titled 'friends'. Epstein's former co-workers, Alan 'Ace' Greenberg and James 'Jimmy' Cayne, who he worked with at the investment firm Bear Stearns in the 1970s, also sent letters. The New York Times confirmed the Wall Street Journal's reporting on Thursday evening. 'The professionally bound birthday book had multiple volumes and included a table of contents,' the Journal reported. According to the newspaper, Clinton's note to Epstein read: 'It's reassuring isn't it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.' A Clinton spokesperson declined to comment to the Journal, instead referring the paper to a previous statement from the ex-president, saying he had cut ties with Epstein more than a decade before his arrest and was not aware of Epstein's crimes. Trump's letter to Epstein was far from the only note that was sexual in nature, according to documents the Journal reviewed. It describes a poem signed by Black that read 'Blonde, Red or Brunette, spread out geographically / With this net of fish, Jeff's now 'The Old Man and The Sea'', and a note from Wexner that included 'a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman's breasts'. Spokespersons for Black and Wexner declined the Journal's request for comment. A letter from Wang suggested Epstein star on The Bachelor. Wang did not respond to the Journal's requests for comment. And a note from Myhrvold promised photographs from a recent trip to Africa: 'They seemed more appropriate than anything I could put in words.' The images included 'a monkey screaming, lions and zebras mating, and a zebra with its penis visible', the Journal reported. A spokesperson for Myhrvold told the Journal the former Microsoft executive did not recall the submission, only knew Epstein as a donor to scientific research, and that he 'regularly shares photos of and writes about animal behavior'. The letter from Mandelson 'included photos of whiskey and a tropical island', the Journal reported. Mandelson referred to Epstein as 'my best pal' in the note. A spokesperson for Mandelson declined to comment to the Journal. As for the relationship between Trump and Epstein, the Times found that at least once before, Trump had written Epstein an admiring note. 'To Jeff — You are the greatest!' reads an inscription in a copy of Trump's book Trump: the Art of the Comeback, which belonged to Epstein. The message, reviewed by the Times, is signed 'Donald' and dated 'Oct 97' – the month the book came out. The Times also reviewed a previously undisclosed photo of Trump and Epstein with the singer James Brown. It is not clear where the photo was taken. Brown frequently performed in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where Trump owned the Taj Mahal casino. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
16-07-2025
- New York Times
Everyone's Obsessed With True Crime. Even Prisoners Like Me.
In the early aughts, when I was waiting on Rikers Island to be tried for murder, I had to watch what everyone else in the communal day room was watching on TV: shouts of 'Jer-ry! Jer-ry!' and announcements that 'You are not the father.' After I was convicted, in 2004, and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison, TV would occupy even more of my time. Prisons do get cable: Normally, the population pays via things like fund-raisers and the profits from visiting-room vending machines. At Clinton Dannemora, a maximum-security prison near the Canadian border, I bought a 13-inch television from the commissary, and it felt like a privilege to watch what I wanted, alone in my cell. In Attica, where I transferred in 2007, we had the Oxygen channel, on which everyone would watch reality shows like 'Bad Girls Club.' I enjoyed all the gossiping and scheming on 'Big Brother' and 'Survivor,' and when I put an ad on a dating website for prisoners I listed 'The Bachelor' as my favorite show. The women who wrote to me related. I eventually married one. Her name was Danielly, and she watched a lot of true crime. It made her so paranoid that she hung a bell inside her front door to alert her to intruders. Once, while she was visiting me, I noticed her peering behind us — she had recognized another prisoner from an episode of '20/20.' This happens to me now too: I'll be in the mess hall or the yard and recognize someone from a true-crime show. He'll be scooping oatmeal or exercising, and I'll remember the re-enactment of his crime, the bludgeoning or the burying. In 2016, I transferred to Sing Sing. By then, Oxygen had shifted from reality shows to true crime; the channel's logo was even redesigned to resemble police tape. It would soon be airing a seemingly nonstop run of shows like 'Buried in the Backyard.' For a few years I was transferred to a smaller prison in the Catskills, where we didn't have in-cell TVs — but when it closed and I landed back in Sing Sing, I found that true crime had come to dominate what felt like every station. NBC American Crimes ran reruns of 'Dateline,' 'American Greed' and 'Lockup,' which I once heard described as 'prison porn.' (It's strange to walk down the tier, look through the bars of someone's cell and see a TV turned to 'Lockup' — an inside look at prison for someone who is already inside a prison.) Merit TV had 'Crime Stories With Nancy Grace.' As I write this, Court TV is running a marathon of 'Interview With a Killer.' More than half of Americans now watch true crime, according to one YouGov poll. (The F.B.I. reports that between 1993 and 2022, meanwhile, the rate of violent crime in the United States fell 49 percent.) We watch those shows in here, too. As true crime exploded in popularity, the demand for fresh content had producers searching for stories to tell, exhuming murder cases from years and even decades ago. This is how Danielly eventually found herself watching a true-crime show about me, a drug dealer in prison for killing a rival. Some watch with the prison hierarchy in mind. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
San Francisco Chronicle
02-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area radio legend denies diverting GoFundMe donations to pay daughter's legal bills
Bay Area radio personality Ronn Owens has denied using donations meant to assist with his mounting medical expenses to pay off his daughter Laura Owens' legal bills. 'Laura has not received, requested, or accessed any of the GoFundMe contributions, and none of them have been — or will be — used for her legal matters,' the former KGO on-air host wrote in a Facebook post shared on Sunday, June 29. A GoFundMe campaign was launched by friends and family on New Year's Eve to help Owens overcome financial challenges from his ongoing struggle with Parkinson's disease and other 'health battles.' As of Tuesday, July 1, Owens has raised more than $129,000 of his $140,000 goal. Though he is listed as the beneficiary, many have grown skeptical after Laura was indicted in an unrelated high-profile paternity case in May. '(S)ome individuals have made defamatory claims suggesting the fund was created to support my daughter, Laura, and her legal expenses,' Owens wrote over the weekend. 'Those claims are completely false and deeply hurtful.' Laura faces seven felony charges, including fraud and perjury, tied to a 2023 lawsuit during which she claimed she had become pregnant with twins after meeting Clayton Echard from Season 26 of 'The Bachelor.' The reality TV star denied the allegations, stating that their sexual interactions didn't involve intercourse. Though Laura later said she had a miscarriage, officials eventually learned that she had fabricated evidence, including altering an ultrasound image. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges. 'Let me make it clear that I stand with Laura 100% and am disheartened by the online efforts to discredit us both,' Owens wrote. The former radio host was a fixture on Bay Area airwaves for five decades, and retired in 2021 just before KGO discontinued its longtime news-talk format. He has since been open about his financial and physical hardships online. Owens reupped his fundraising efforts last month by resharing the link to his GoFundMe campaign, noting that it 'remains a crucial source of support.'
