Jeffrey Epstein

His parents Pauline "Paula" Stolofsky (1918–2004) and Seymour George Epstein (1916–1991) were Jewish and had married in 1952 shortly before his birth.

Pauline worked as a school aide and was a homemaker.

"Paula was a wonderful mother and homemaker, despite the fact that she had a full-time job," according to a former childhood friend of Epstein's. Seymour worked for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as a groundskeeper and gardener.

Jeffrey was the older of two siblings; he and his brother Mark Grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Sea Gate, a private gated community in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

Epstein was referred to as "Bear" by his parents while Mark was known as "Puggie".

Neighbors described the Epstein family as being, "so gentle, the most gentle people".

Epstein attended local public schools, first attending Public School 188, and then Mark Twain Junior High School nearby and usually earned money by tutoring classmates.

Acquaintances considered Epstein "sweet and generous", although "quiet and nerdy", and nicknamed him "Eppy".

"He was just an average boy, very smart in math, slightly overweight, freckles, always smiling," a female friend later said.

Jeffrey Edward Epstein (January 20, 1953 – August 10, 2019) was an American financier and sex offender.

Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional life as a teacher at the Dalton School despite lacking a college degree.

Jeffrey Edward Epstein was born on January 20, 1953, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

In 1967, Epstein attended the National Music Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

He began playing the piano when he was five, and was regarded as a talented musician by friends.

He graduated in 1969 from Lafayette High School at age 16, having skipped two grades.

Later that year, he attended advanced math classes at Cooper Union until he changed colleges in 1971.

From September 1971, he attended the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University studying mathematical physiology, but left without receiving a degree in June 1974.

Epstein started working in September 1974 as a physics and mathematics teacher for teens at the Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Donald Barr, who served as the headmaster until June 1974, was known to have made several unconventional recruitments at the time, although it is unclear whether he had a direct role in hiring Epstein.

Three months after Barr's departure, Epstein began to teach at the school, despite his lack of credentials.

Epstein was known for having a charismatic personality and treating his students more like friends than their teacher.

However, he also allegedly showed inappropriate behavior toward underage female students at the time, paying them constant attention, and even showing up at a party where young people were drinking, according to a former student.

Other former students also often saw him flirting with female students.

Eventually, Epstein became acquainted with Alan Greenberg, the chief executive officer of Bear Stearns, whose son and daughter were attending the school.

Greenberg's daughter, Lynne Koeppel, pointed to a parent-teacher conference where Epstein influenced another Dalton parent into advocating for him to Greenberg.

After his dismissal from the school in 1976, he entered the banking and finance sector, working at Bear Stearns in various roles before starting his own firm.

Epstein cultivated an elite social circle and procured many women and children whom he and his associates sexually abused.

In June 1976, after Epstein was dismissed from Dalton for "poor performance", Greenberg offered him a job at Bear Stearns.

Epstein joined Bear Stearns in 1976 as a low-level junior assistant to a floor trader.

He swiftly moved up to become an options trader, working in the special products division, and then advised the bank's wealthiest clients, such as Seagram president Edgar Bronfman, on tax mitigation strategies.

In 2005, police in Palm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported that he had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter.

Federal officials identified 36 girls, some as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused.

Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.

He was convicted of only these two crimes as part of a controversial plea deal, and served almost 13 months in custody but with extensive work release.

Epstein was arrested again on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.

He died in his jail cell on August 10, 2019.

The medical examiner ruled that his death was a suicide by hanging.

Epstein's lawyers have disputed the ruling, and there has been significant public skepticism about the true cause of his death, resulting in numerous conspiracy theories.

Since Epstein's death precluded the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against him, a judge dismissed all criminal charges on August 29, 2019.

Epstein had a decades-long association with the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, leading to her 2021 conviction on U.S. federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy for helping him procure girls, including a 14-year-old, for child sexual abuse and prostitution.