Tag Archives: Suicide

THE SUDDEN (SUSPICIOUS?) DEATH OF U.S. PRESIDENT WARREN G. HARDING

One hundred years ago, on August 2nd, 1923, Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, suddenly died in a San Francisco hotel room. He was 57 years old. Immediately—due to no autopsy insisted upon by the ironclad demand from his wife, Florence Harding, and the fact that his body was embalmed one hour after death—suspicious rumors of foul play circulated. Conspirators came in many forms. Corrupt politicians, scandal cover-ups, quack physicians, and foreign operatives. But the most sinister accusation of all was Harding being intentionally poisoned by his wife.

The official cause of death released in press statements by the attending doctors was a “probable cerebral apoplexy”. In other words, President Harding had a stroke, a fatal brain event. There was no mention of any toxicity through poison nor any suggestion of a chronic cardiac condition, a heart attack.

Harding’s body was returned by train to Washington, DC, lay in state for two days, then was transported again by train to his hometown of Marion, Ohio where he was entombed in a marble crypt. His wife, Florence, died the following year of kidney failure and came to rest beside him. As the years passed, the truth of the Harding Administration emerged. It became known as America’s most scandalous presidency.

Extramarital lovers, illegitimate children, political corruption, cronies, bribes, payoffs, and even suicides emerged that painted a black mark on Harding’s history. The persistent suspicion of cover-up in his death failed to go away. Today, there’s a consensus as to what really happened in Harding’s death. We’ll get to that conclusion but, first, let’s look at who Warren Harding was, how he got to the White House, and how he came to die in that San Francisco hotel room.

Warren Gamaliel Harding was born on November 3rd, 1865—the year the Civil War ended—on his grandfather’s farm near Blooming Grove, Ohio. His father was a small-town physician with a small practice that earned little money. His mother was a devoutly religious homemaker with eight children to care for, including Warren who was the oldest. Harding was an average student but a very strong boy with even stronger work ethic.

Following grade school, Harding attended Ohio Central College graduating in 1882 with a B.S. degree (which grounded him as a later politician). Here he  gained experience editing and publishing the college paper. After college, Harding worked at various jobs such as a barn painter, a railroad laborer, and a horse team driver. It was in Marion, Ohio where Warren Harding got his first business break.

Harding had saved enough money to purchase a failing newspaper in Marion. He parlayed it into a profitable venture in which he wore all hats—reporter, editor, and publisher. These roles allowed Harding to get well connected and form the “Marion Gang” whom he nepotistically took with him through his political career, including placing some of these friends and allies in high-ranking service jobs in the United States federal government. That was to come back and haunt him.

In the late 1880s, Warren Harding met Florence Kling at a community dance. He became smitten with Florence who was the daughter of a banker and Marion’s richest man. Amos Kling did not approve of Warren Harding and warned Florence that Harding “would never amount to anything”. He refused to speak to Harding.

Florence Harding went to work in their newspaper business. She also got active in his political ambitions. “The only things I know are publishing and politics,” Florence was quoted as saying. She was especially good at politics.

History—now one hundred years after Harding’s death—records Harding to be an excellent speaker, very personable with a great memory for people, a driven man, but not too bright. Florence was smart, and she used her intelligence to make connections and pave roads for Harding to travel as he moved up the Ohio political ladder.

Warren Harding served as an Ohio State Senator from 1900 to 1904. From then to 1906 he was the Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, and in 1910 he ran as Ohio’s Governor but was defeated. Harding went back to the paper industry but in 1915 he entered federal politics and won a seat as a Senator for the State of Ohio. This opened doors in Washington.

The Republican national convention was deadlocked in the 1920 presidential selection race. Ultimately, the delegates chose Warren Harding as a compromise candidate. He went on to represent the Republicans as a moderate in the November 1920 presidential election. Together with running mate Calvin Coolidge, they won a landslide victory over the Democrats.

Warren G. Harding was inaugurated as the 29th United States President on March 4th, 1921. He ran on the slogan “Return to Normalcy” which fit his leadership style. America was only two years past the end of WWI and the public longed for a return to pre-war normal. The country was in a financial recession with what many Americans thought was unnecessary ties still with foreign countries.

Harding focused on a protectionist America by lowering taxes, increasing foreign tariffs, and getting the country out of the League of Nations process that dynamited Woodrow Wilson’s presidency. In one year after taking off, the country rebounded and began prosperity never seen before. It was the Roaring Twenties.

Warren Harding was a hands-off president. He appointed people he thought he could trust into high office and let them loose to do their jobs. His error was not holding them accountable and, given human nature, even his closest friends began to abuse their positions for personal gain.

Harding’s other error—his vice and weakness—was womanizing, drinking, and gambling. Rumors put him having secret tunnels under the White House where he would smuggle his girls in and ply them with illegal alcohol. (Remember, this era was the start of Prohibition.) Harding’s poker games were legendary as well as a well-known fact that he supported mistresses and had at least one illegitimate daughter. Warren and Florence were childless.

Among the brewing political and criminal crises was what’s known as the Teapot Dome Scandal. This involved an oil-producing region in Wyoming that held reserves set apart for the U.S. Navy. Harding had appointed his close Marion Gang friend, Albert B. Fall, as Secretary of the Interior who oversaw the federal lands at Teapot Dome and had the power to award oil production contracts. Fall pocketed hundreds of thousands of payoff money for preferential treatment. This scandal (among others), which Harding knew about, had the potential to have President Harding impeached.

It was under this stressful black cloud that Warren Harding departed Washington on his “Voyage of Understanding” cross-country train and ship tour in June of 1923. Members of Harding’s staff observed his health rapidly deteriorating. A once vibrant man with the world’s best handshake was notably nervous and privately conferring with advisors about how to diffuse the runaway in the Marion Gang.

“I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends… they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor at night,” Harding said to one aide. To another, “If you knew of a great scandal in our administration, would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly, or would you bury it?”

President Harding’s tour took him across the west and up to Alaska. He spoke before hundreds of thousands of common folks in places like St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, Helena, and Spokane. He went to a small Alaskan village called Metlakatla, then did a by-stop in Vancouver, Canada before heading straight for San Francisco and checking into the Palace Hotel with an extensive entourage including the future president Herbert Hoover who was his Secretary of Commerce.

Harding’s health had been going downhill since leaving Washington. The stress of his job and unfolding issues gave him a malady then diagnosed as neurasthenia which is an overly nervous condition where the sufferer is unable to relax. Compounding this condition, including non-recognizing many presenting symptoms of bad physical health, was the president’s personal doctor.

Charles E. Sawyer was part of the Ohio Gang. Sawyer wasn’t a trained physician. He was an odd, self-taught homeopath who prescribed plants and birds and rocks and things (not sure about sand and hills and rings) as substitutes for accepted medical practices. But Sawyer was a likable, down-homey Oh-Hi-Yo officially forehead-stamp-approved by Mrs. Harding who saw Sawyer as a 1920s genuine guru teaching them a better way.

Harding also traveled with a real doctor—Joel T. Boone. Dr. Boone knew Harding was critically ill and telegrammed ahead from Alaska to San Francisco, having two of the country’s leading cardiology specialists standing by. These were Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, the president of the American Medical Society, and Dr. Charles Cooper, the leading cardiac surgeon in the USA.

Dr. Boone knew what was happening.  President Harding was presenting these symptoms:

  • Severe abdominal and thoracic pains as in a crushing weight on the chest
  • Pain radiating down both arms
  • Shortness of breath
  • Dyspnoea at night
  • Nausea
  • Severe bouts of indigestion
  • Off and on fever—chills & sweats
  • Exhaustion after little energetic effort
  • Foul acetonic breath

Dr. Boone knew President Harding was suffering congestive heart failure and likely experienced a series of myocardial infarctions where his enlarged heart muscles were quickly failing. Boone knew Harding’s heart was likely to stop, and that he would suddenly die.

That happened at 7:20 pm on August 2nd, 1923. President Harding was in his hotel suite with his wife and two nurse care aids. Florence was reading a favorable column in the Saturday Evening Post. Harding remarked, “That is good. Go on.”

Florence continued when, with only a shudder and not a sound, the President of the United States stiffened, laid back on the bed, and instantly died.

President Harding’s staff came into the room. That included Herbert Hoover and Doctors Sawyer, Boone, Wilbur, Cooper, and another cardiac expert, Hubert Work. These medical practitioners debated the primary cause of death.

They knew the American public would immediately want to know what happened to their Commander-in-Chief and be assured nothing illegal, conspirator, or dark was behind the president’s sudden and unexpected death—especially when the official reports released to the following press during the Voyage of Understanding assured that Warren Harding was a man fit to competently hold office and guide the nation.

The doctors knew, under the circumstances, that no conclusive cause of death could be established without a complete and thorough autopsy. To this, Florence Harding was fiercely opposed. As Doctor Wilbur put it in his notes written the next day, “We shall never know exactly the immediate cause of President Harding’s death since every effort that was made to secure an autopsy was met with complete and final refusal by Mrs. Harding.”

Knowing that the public must be notified of the president’s death as soon as possible and that they would demand to know what happened—what the true cause of death was—the team of five physicians signed this statement:

Realizing their rush to judgment without medical evidence (and strongly suspecting a myocardial infarction or a heart attack), they released this second statement twenty minutes later:

Stroke of Cerebral Apoplexy. Myocardial Infarction. Let’s look at what these medical terms mean.

So how did the 1923 American public and folks over the last one hundred years go from accepting that President Warren G. Harding died of natural causes to a conspirator suspicion that he was murdered—possibly by his wife?

I think a few reasons. One is the president’s staff poorly handled the president’s health information. One day the president was strong as an ox. The next day he died.

There was no autopsy. His body was embalmed an hour after death. And this was through an ironclad order from the wife, Florence Harding, who knew full well of her husband’s infidelity and unwinding scandals.

Note: I cannot find anything in historical notes to determine if there was a San Francisco coroner having jurisdiction and the authority to hold the body while an independent autopsy was done. Or if any other authorities like the SF police were notified.

The other factor was the collective doctors’ stick handling of the “probable cause of death.” They were aware of the public backlash for knowing how serious the president’s medical condition and the perception of them not being seen to do something about it and prevent his death, but they first wrote it off as an unpredictable and unpreventable stroke, not a preventable heart attack. From Dr. Wilbur’s notes:

“In the aftermath, we were belabored and attacked by the newspapers antagonistic to Harding, and by the cranks, quacks, antivisectionalists, nature healers, the Dr. Albert Abrams electronic-diagnostic group, and many others. We were accused of starving the president, overfeeding him to death, of assisting in slowly poisoning him, and plying him to death with pills and purgatives. We were accused of being abysmally ignorant, stupid and incompetent, and even of malpractice. We were said to have forced our way to Harding’s bedside “through political pull and for political reasons.”

But the craziest theory of them all came from a book written by Gaston B. Means in 1930 titled The Strange Death of President Harding. Means claimed that Florence Harding murdered her presidential husband with poison. Without a shred of evidence, Means suggested two motives. One was because of her husband’s cheating. The other was to save him the embarrassment of the scandals. Gaston Means, by the way, went to jail over a con job in scamming the Charles Lindberg baby homicide case.

One hundred years have passed since United States President Warren G. Harding passed. There’s no doubt Harding had a fatal heart attack. That’s life, but the fallout from living the presidential life sucks. Here are lines from Herbert Hoover while dedicating a memorial to President Harding:

We saw him gradually weaken not only from physical exhaustion but from mental anxiety. Warren Harding had a dim realization that he had been betrayed by a few of the men whom he trusted, by men whom he believed were his devoted friends. That was the tragedy of the life of Warren Harding.

DID JEFFREY EPSTEIN REALLY KILL HIMSELF

On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Edward Epstein—a 66-year-old American mega-millionaire and registered sex offender powerfully connected to presidents and royalty—died in his prison cell at the Special Handling Unit of New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. The coroner ruled the death a suicide but, shortly, the publicly-exposed mass of improprieties surrounding Epstein’s custody control and supervision within the detention facility raised a massive foul play speculation. Many properly wondered, “Did Jeffrey Epstein really kill himself?”

It wasn’t just the crazy conspiracy theorists who wondered if Epstein truly committed suicide. There were just too many suspicious circumstances to ignore. Switches in cellmate placements. Epstein left unchecked for nearly eight hours before his death while under a suicide watch. Security cameras on his cell being disabled. Guards “asleep” at their station. Falsified records. No cell search for contraband. A blatant disregard for prison policies and procedures set in place to prevent such a death. Plus, the horde of high-profile people Epstein had dirt on.

Then, there’s the autopsy review by America’s high-profile forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, who said Epstein’s broken neck bones could not have been caused by a self-inflicted, ligature hanging. In Baden’s opinion (who performed more than 20,000 autopsies in his 45-year career), it was far more likely Epstein was a homicide victim than a suicide statistic.

On June 27, 2023, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), through its Office of the Inspector General (OIG), released a 128-page report on the Jeffrey Epstein in-custody death investigation. Before dissecting the report and reaching a conclusion, let’s review who Jeffrey Epstein was and the facts leading to his sudden and unnatural death.

Putting it bluntly, Jeffrey Epstein was an enormous con man and an extreme pervert. He was born in Brooklyn in 1953 and completed high school with skipped-grades but never sought a college degree. That didn’t stop him from getting a physics and math teacher’s position at the prestigious Dalton School in Manhattan. Epstein was quickly fired for inappropriate behavior towards underage female students.

Epstein reinvented himself as a banker. Given credit where credit is due, Epstein functioned at a near-genius level with figures. He worked his way toward the top of Bear Stearns but was “dismissed” for regulatory violations.

He went on his own, founding International Assets Group which specialized in money recovery for extremely wealthy clients. He once called himself a high-level bounty hunter. Because he excelled at this job, he quickly acquainted himself with some of the richest people in the world as well as those socially and politically elite.

In 1987, Jeffrey Epstein joined Towers Financial Corporation as a “consultant”. By 1993, Towers imploded in one of the biggest Ponzi schemes America had ever seen with over $900 million in today’s value simply gone. Epstein escaped unscratched and went on to an even bigger venture.

He founded J. Epstein & Associates in 1988. Its cover was to manage assets of clients with a minimum of $1 billion net worth—an exclusive club at the least. In 1996, he changed the name to the Financial Trust Company with a new headquarters in the U.S. Virgin Islands tax-shelter haven. Another venture was Liquid Funding Ltd. which was a novel and clever debt-repo service partnered with Bear Stearns that collapsed in the 2008 financial meltdown.

Through these years, Jeffrey Epstein amassed an unknown pot of wealth. Personal properties included a Manhattan mansion, one in Palm Beach, Florida, a New Mexico ranch, and an exotic island getaway called Little Saint James in the Virgin Islands. It was here that some of the sinister sexual seductions with underage girls took place.

Jeffrey Epstein surrounded himself with the elite of the elites. Tarred by the Epstein brush were people like Prince Andrew of the British Royal Family, U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro, financial titans like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Rupert Murdoch, and celebrities such as Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Michael Jackson, Alex Baldwin, a host of Kennedys, and the beat goes on.

The Epstein sex scandals surfaced in 2005. The Palm Beach conducted a 13-month undercover investigation on Epstein that brought in the FBI because of its international scale. Eventually, sixty young females gave evidence of being sex-trafficked through Jeffrey Epstein, his properties, and his female co-conspirator, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell (who is now serving 20 years for sexual offenses against minors).

One of the sworn allegations was that Epstein had 12-year-old triplet girls flown in from France who he sexually assaulted and had them returned the next day. Other girls came from Brazil, the Soviet Union, and across Europe. These minors were facilitated by Maxwell through her contacts in Jean-Luc Brunel’s MC2 Modeling Agency.

Epstein was arrested in Palm Beach in July 2006 on child abuse charges. These serious allegations were plea-bargained down to one count of procuring a minor and one count of soliciting a prostitute. It was called the “sweetheart deal of the century by the U.S. Attorney General who eventually had the prosecutor fired for agreeing to an Epstein guilty plea resulting in 18 months of open custody.

Meanwhile, Epstein went back to work as a money-maker and a kiddie-diddler. Then the civil suits started, and the criminal investigation continued. He was again arrested by the FBI for sexual offenses against minor girls, this time in New York after returning from Europe. That was on July 6, 2019. He was denied bail and sent to the Special Handling Unit (SHU) at the Metropolitan Correction Center (MCC) operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBP). Epstein remained there for 35 days until he died on August 10.

To understand what led to Jeffery Epstein’s death, it’s vital to know the chain of events that occurred to allow this to happen. This timeline is clearly laid out in Chapter 3 of the DOJ-OIG report titled Timeline of Key Events. Here is a summary.

September 21-24, 2018 — The FBP at MCC contracts to have their video surveillance system updated from analog to digital recorders.

March 17, 2019 — Resources for video upgrades are temporarily reassigned to other work leaving the recording portion half-finished. Livestream cameras are operational for real-time surveillance but cameras in the Special Handling Unit (SHU), including those near Epstein’s future cell won’t record.

July 2, 2029 — A New York federal grand jury indicts Epstein on child sex trafficking charges. A warrant is issued.

July 6, 2019 — Epstein is arrested at a New Jersey airport as he returns from France. He is incarcerated as a pretrial detainee at MCC. The news stories are viral and he is assigned to the SHU for protection from other inmates.

July 8, 2019 — Epstein is arraigned and pleads not guilty. The MCC Chief Psychologist routinely interviews him and finds no evidence of suicidal thoughts.

July 10, 2019 — Guards report Epstein appears “distraught, sad, and a little confused”. A specific suicide risk assessment is done, and the MCC administration assigns Epstein a suitable cellmate as a safety precaution.

July 11, 2019 — Epstein is re-evaluated as a suicide risk. The psychologist minimizes the potential and orders weekly follow-ups.

July 18, 2019 — A federal judge denies Epstein bail even though he offered a $100 million surety. The judge found Epstein “a danger to the community and a flight risk.”

July 23, 2019 — At 1:21 am, guards hear a commotion coming from Epstein’s cell. Epstein was on the floor, semiconscious, with an orange bedsheet strip around his neck. There are notable skin injuries on Epstein’s neck. The cellmate says he woke up hearing Epstein in distress. Epstein said the cellmate tried to kill him. Epstein is moved to the Psychiatry Unit and placed on a suicide watch, alone in a cell.

July 24, 2019 — Epstein is removed from the suicide watch after another psychiatric assessment but is still left alone in a cell at the Psych Unit.

July 25-29, 2019 — Daily interviews are done. Epstein emphatically denies having suicidal tendencies and states he does not remember how he received injuries to his neck.

July 30, 2019 — Epstein is transferred back to the SHU and placed in a cell visible from the guard station. MCC administration orders that Epstein be assigned a new cellmate. A suitable candidate is found and housed with Epstein.

August 2, 2019 — MCC administration concludes its investigation into the suspected Epstein suicide attempt on July 23 and determined they cannot conclusively categorize it as a suicide attempt.

August 8, 2019 — Epstein has a private meeting with his lawyers and updates his will. The prison staff is not aware of this change.

August 9, 2019 — Epstein’s cellmate is moved out at the request of the U.S. Marshals and taken to an out-of-state facility. Epstein is once again alone.

August 9, 2019 — Over two thousand pages of evidence in proceedings against Ghislaine Maxwell are unsealed. They contain very damaging evidence against Epstein, and they receive international media attention. Epstein meets with his lawyers. He then makes an unauthorized phone call to an unknown person.

August 9, 2019 — The last known bed check on Epstein happens at 10:40 pm.

August 10, 2019 — Guards begin breakfast service at 6:30 am. They find Epstein semi-suspended with his buttocks 2 inches from the floor with his legs straight out. A torn prison sheet is noosed around his neck and tied to the upper bunk ladder. Epson is unresponsive. Resuscitation fails, and he’s taken to the morgue.

August 11, 2019 — The New York City Coroner’s Office autopsies Epstein and rules the death a suicide caused by hanging.

June 27, 2023 — The DOG-OIC report titled Investigation and Review of the Federal Prison’s Custody, Care, and Supervision of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, New York is released. They concluded there were “numerous and serious failures by MCC New York staff including multiple violations of MCC and BOP policies and procedures” that included falsifying records to cover up the lack of supervision on the night of August 9/10. The report upheld a suicide ruling and made eight recommendations to minimize a re-occurrence of the Jeffrey Epstein event.

—   —   —

That’s the timeline of what led to Epstein’s death. Let’s deal with the highlights before wrapping up with the biggest issue of all—that the autopsy findings allegedly support a homicide ruling over a suicide.

Cell Search — The BOP has a policy of ongoing cell searches to locate contraband or items that an inmate could use to harm themselves or others. The report found no record that Epstein’s cells had ever been searched and that he had an excess of bed linens that he could use to make a hanging ligature.

Cell Checks — The last recorded cell check on Epstein was at 10:40 pm on August 9. He was found at 6:30 on the 10th. Checks are to be made hourly so that’s eight checks in a row that were missed. This is what the two night-shift guards falsify. However, they were caught by their own cameras.

Faulty Cameras — The conspiracy crowd made a lot of media and internet noise over the “disabled” cameras. The DOJ/OIG report takes a deep dive into this issue in Chapter 6. They found nothing intentional had been done to sabotage the cameras. Every camera aimed at Epstein’s cell was in proper working order except they were only on livestream mode. The recorders had never been updated. Typical bureaucratic inefficiency.

The only recorded video, though, was crucial. That was the camera with both Epstein’s cell door and the guard station in the viewfinder. It was clear evidence that no one had gone near Epstein’s cell door from 10:40 pm until 6:30 am. It was also clear that both guards in the recording never moved from their station during the same time. Apparently, they were asleep. Later, they were convicted of falsifying the bed check documents.

The Cellmates — The report does not name either of Epstein’s cellmates, but it does detail every move, the reasons for the move, and the concern the MCC administration staff had about a suitable watch person being with him at all time.

The Previous Suicide Attempt — The report overrules the MCC finding that there wasn’t sufficient evidence of a clear earlier suicide attempt. The OIG investigation notes this was a huge red flag and Epstein’s supervision should have been done accordingly.

The Ghislaine Maxwell Documents — This was the proverbial straw that broke Epstein’s back. He knew his case was hopeless and that he’d be spending the rest of his life in jail. It was now just waiting a suitable moment for him to hang himself. He found it on the night of August 9/10 when he was alone and unsupervised.

The Will and the Call — Both events seem suspicious, but the report lets the BOP and MCC off light here. There is no way prison officials could know what was going on in a meeting between Epstein and his attorneys. And there is no way to know what was said in a 27-minute private call that happened around 9:00 pm on August 9th despite that Epstein was supposed to be under outgoing call monitoring. He was using an unauthorized smuggled smartphone that should have been discovered if he’d ever had a cell search.

—   —   —

So, let’s deal with the autopsy and the controversial broken neck bones. Dr. Kristen Roman, M.D. was the prosector (a person who dissects bodies.) She was a very experienced forensic pathologist employed by the New York City’s Medical Examiner Office. Her report’s final diagnosis is very clear, and the coroner has never deviated from it. Rather than paraphrase it, see the image below

 

The “broken neck bones” referred to by the news media through Dr. Michael Baden (who was hired by Jeffrey Epstein’s brother to second-guess the suicide ruling) are not bones at all—certainly not true neck bones like the thoracic and cervical vertebrae that make up the upper spine. Dr. Roman refers to “fractures of bilateral thyroid cartilage cornuae and left hyoid cornua”. These two anatomical features are soft cartilage in the throat—one supports the tongue, and the other supports the thyroid gland. They are almost always damaged or “fractured” in ligature hangings.

Let’s go to the source of this “broken neck bone” trouble. Dr. Baden gave an interview to Fox News on October 30, 2019. Here’s a Fox News quote from that show. 

Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy is more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicide, Dr. Michael Baden reveals. 

He noted that the 66-year-old Epstein had two fractures on the left and right sides of his larynx, specifically the thyroid cartilage or Adam’s apple, as well as one fracture on the left hyoid bone above the Adam’s apple, Baden told Fox News. 

“Those three fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation,” Baden, who is also a Fox News contributor, said. 

While there’s not enough information to be conclusive yet, the three fractures were “rare,” said Baden, who’s probed cases involving O.J. Simpson, President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, record producer Phil Spector, New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, and many others. 

“I’ve not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case,” the 85-year-old medical legend told Fox News.

There are three things wrong with the Baden/Fox release.

  1. Given credit to Dr. Baden for correctly identifying the hyoid and thyroid cartilages, it was Fox News that sensationalized them as a broken neck. ie – this couldn’t have happened in a suicide hanging so it had to be a murder.
  2. Dr. Baden is out-of-line stating the hyoid and thyroid cartilages fractures are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and are more consistent with manual strangulations.
  3. Dr. Baden infers that he was physically present at the autopsy as an independent observer hired by the Epstein family.

Let’s examine these issues.

Dr. Roman’s autopsy report is very clear. She was the one who examined the body, and her findings are conclusive. She refers to the fractured hyoid and thyroid cartilages and never refers to them as neck bones or a broken neck as in vertebrae fractures. She clearly concludes Epstein hung himself with a torn bedsheet and no one else was directly or indirectly involved in intentionally causing his death.

In Chapter 7 of the OIG report titled Conclusions and Recommendations, the investigators deal with the Baden interview and his statement that fractured hyoid and/or thyroid cartilages rarely occur in suicide ligature suspensions. They interviewed Dr. Roman who contradicted Dr. Baden confirming that these fractures often occur in cases like the Epstein death. She pointed out that the ligature was a wide bedsheet fragment and not a small-diameter cord like the electrical connection on the C-PAC machine found in Epstein’s cell.

Dr. Roman explained the mechanism of the ligature and how the forces worked in this case. Because the fabric and the tied knot were wide, they created an upward furrow that was evident on Epstein’s neck. She stated the force was at the right location and would have exerted sufficient pressure in his suspended position to cause the cartilage fractures—she would have been surprised if the fractures hadn’t occurred.

The pathologist also commented in the OIG report that there was nothing on Epstein’s body to indicate defensive wounds usually seen in violent homicide deaths. There was no bruising except for the ligature location and what’s known as petechiae in the eyes which are small red dots or blood vessel ruptures caused by the circulation interference. Furthermore, there was no debris in his fingernails associated with a fight, and no contusions on his knuckles.

Nowhere in Dr. Roman’s autopsy report and interview with the OIG investigation does she confirm Dr. Baden being at the autopsy. This (in my experience as a homicide investigator and coroner) is highly unlikely. Autopsies, especially forensic autopsies like performed on Jeffery Epstein, are carefully controlled. Only those absolutely necessary may attend.

There would be no value in Baden being there. If he were contracted by the family for a review, he would be supplied with the entire material including photographs, documents, and whatever exhibits had been processed. Baden gave his Fox interview two months after the autopsy. By then, the entire autopsy results would be in and supplied to the family, ergo to Baden.

There’s one more reason that Baden probably wasn’t in that autopsy suite. He’s a publicity-seeking narcissist, and it’s well-known he’s never seen a camera or a mic he didn’t like. Anytime there’s a high-profile death, information processors like Fox News look for sensational sources. Dr. Michael Baden is on their speed dial.

And there’s a credibility issue over the suicide vs homicide conclusion in the Jeffery Epstein postmortem examination. Dr. Kristen Roman received her M.D. in 1999 and was board-certified as a forensic pathologist in 2004. When she autopsied Epstein, she had 15 years of operational experience with the New York Medical Examiner Office as an active prosector. Roman had nothing to gain by not being candid on the Epstein file.

You might want to read this Intelligencer article titled Why You Might Not Want to Believe Michael Baden, Celebrity Pathologist, on Epstein’s Death.

By Jeffrey Epstein committing suicide, he cheated dozens of innocent victims out of justice. It’s a travesty that this travesty developed into the widespread social mockery meme, “… and Epstein didn’t kill himself.”

DID MARILYN MONROE REALLY COMMIT SUICIDE?

No movie star lived on after death like Marilyn Monroe. She was far more than a bleached-blonde bombshell with a voluptuous frame and a lusty voice—she intuitively knew her craft. Born in poverty as Norma Jean Mortenson (aka Baker) to a mentally unstable mother, Marilyn Monroe rose to Hollywood glamor, fame, and idolization beyond what few ever reach. Tragically, by the time she died at age thirty-six, her performing career had spiraled into the same abyss that her personal relationships and head space were already in.

Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Beverly Hills bed at 3 a.m. on Sunday, August 5, 1962. The scene (at the time) suggested nothing suspicious—no foul play or culpable act, that is—and the toxicology results from her autopsy proved she’d succumbed to a lethal dose of prescription drugs. The coroner ruled her death as “probable suicide” but, like the deaths of other uber-celebrities, many people mumbled murder. Monroe’s death was reinvestigated in 1992 by the Los Angeles District Attorney who came to the same conclusion — “probable suicide”.

“Probable” is not in the official vocabulary of today’s coroner-speak. Neither is “possibly”. Everywhere in the civilized world, coroners are mandated by legislation to rule classifications of death as being in one of five definite categories: Natural, Homicide, Accident, Suicide, or Undetermined. Now, nearly sixty years later, an impartial look at Monroe’s case facts indicate her death classification definitely was not natural and cannot conclusively be classed as an accident or a suicide.

Does that mean Marilyn Munroe’s death was actually a homicide?

On the day of her death, many people were in Marilyn Monroe’s company. None reported any immediately implied threat or perceived action from Monroe that suggested an imminent danger of suicide, nor any behavior that was outside of her already troubled mental state of manic highs and depressive lows. She’d a history of emotional instability that, today, would likely be classified as Bipolar II Disorder, and she was under the continual care of a general physician and a psychiatrist. Monroe was no stranger to prescription pharmaceuticals, specifically anti-depressants and sleeping pills, but she was a relatively light alcohol drinker.

Marilyn Monroe had a difficult year in 1961. She worked very little due to health issues. Besides her emotional imbalance and substance dependency, she underwent surgery for endometriosis (uterus ailment) and a cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), then suffered a painful attack of sinusitis. Her stress level soared from a lawsuit with 20th Century Fox where they sued Monroe for breach of contract—her erratic behavior led to delays in filming, disputes with cast and crew, then finally a stop of production.

On Saturday morning, August 4, Marilyn Monroe met with her official photographer and discussed an upcoming Playboy deal, then kept a massage appointment, a meeting with her publicist, talked with friends on the phone, and signed for deliveries for her house renovation. She was visited by her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, in the late afternoon for a scheduled therapy session. Greenson left around 7 p.m. and reported no alarming behavior, however he ensured that Monroe’s housekeeper, Eunice Murray, would be staying overnight.

Marilyn Monroe retired to her bedroom around 8 p.m. The last person to have contact with Monroe was actor Peter Lawford who invited her to a Hollywood party. He reported that in their phone conversation Monroe sounded tired—sleepy—as under the influence of drugs. After their call, Lawford became alarmed and phoned back to the house where he got Murray. She assured him everything was fine with Monroe.

At 3 a.m. on Sunday morning, Eunice Murray woke and noticed light coming from under Monroe’s bedroom door. Sensing something not right, Murray tapped on the door. There was no response, so she tried the handle and found it locked, which she stated was unusual.

Now alarmed, Murray phoned Dr. Greenson who instructed her to go outside and look through the bedroom window. She did and observed Marilyn Monroe lying facedown on the bed, covered in a sheet, and clutching a telephone receiver in her right hand.

Greenson arrived at approximately 3:20 a.m., broke the window with a fireplace poker, and climbed in. Immediately, he could tell Monroe had been dead for some time and it was pointless to call an ambulance or attempt resuscitation. Greenson phoned Monroe’s physician, Dr. Hyman Engelberg, who arrived at around 3:50 a.m. Engelberg examined Monroe by removing the phone receiver and rolling her over, officially pronouncing death. At 4:25 a.m. they notified the LAPD.

The attending detective agreed with the two doctors that there was nothing to indicate foul play and the death was most likely a drug overdose. The detective photographed the scene and recorded the “pill count” of the pharmaceutical vials on Monroe’s nightstand. Dr. Engelberg noted a vial containing twenty-five capsules of the barbiturate Nembutal that he’d prescribed two days earlier was empty. Vials with other prescriptions appeared in order including one containing the sleeping sedative Chloral Hydrate.

Marilyn Monroe was autopsied on the morning of August 6 by pathologist Dr. Thomas Noguchi who would later be known as “Coroner To The Stars” for his many postmortem exams on celebrities. His original autopsy report for Marilyn Monroe is on the public record and can be downloaded.

Noguchi is very clear in his report, and in many subsequent interviews, that he found no evidence of physical trauma—specifically needle marks—on Monroe’s body. Based on his observations and those of Drs. Greenson and Engelberg regarding Monroe’s rigor, livor, algor, and palor mortis conditions, he felt reasonable to estimate her time of death between 8 and no later than 10 p.m. the previous night. Noguchi found no natural cause of death and waited for the toxicology report before forming his final conclusions.

The tox screen was done by the LA County Coroner’s laboratory and released on August 13. The results concluded Monroe’s blood contained 4.5 milligrams (percent) of Nembutal and 8.0 milligrams (percent) of Chloral Hydrate. Her liver contained 13.0 milligrams (percent) of Pentobarbital. Blood ethanol (alcohol) was absent.

Noguchi was satisfied the combination of Nembutal and Chloral Hydrate levels in Monroe was sufficiently high to cause her death through respiratory and central nervous system failure and he knew the Pentobarbital stored in her liver was simply indicative of someone who had long exposure to barbiturates and developed a “tolerance”. Noguchi certified the cause as “acute barbiturate poisoning due to ingestion of overdose” but he was reluctant to rule the classification as “suicide”. Though Noguchi was certain no evidence existed to suggest the death was an intentional homicide, he was uncomfortable with there being no clear evidence that Monroe intended to take her own life.

There were no immediate threats, no suicide note, no warning behavior, and not all the Chloral Hydrate pills were consumed, not like the Nembutal.

It might be an accidental OD, Noguchi thought, and he was troubled by the fact Monroe had been prescribed the amounts of Nembutal and Chloral Hydrate at the same time—her physician had to have known they’d be lethal if mixed a large quantity.

Noguchi was under pressure—political pressure, if you will—from the elected Chief Coroner of Los Angeles County to shut down media speculation that there might be more to Monroe’s death than a sad case of a despondent star intentionally extinguishing her light. The Chief and Noguchi reached a temporary compromise that they’d say Monroe’s death was a “probable” suicide.

Noguchi didn’t go so far as to insinuate negligence by Monroe’s caregivers might be the smoking gun, yet he requested a “psychological autopsy” to investigate Marilyn Monroe’s mental state leading to her death. Without clear evidence of an intentional suicide, the pattern of Monroe’s behavior was crucial in corroborating a suicide rule.

This statement was issued by LA County Chief Coroner Theodore J. Curphey. It’s an addendum to Noguchi’s final autopsy report:

Following is the summary report by the Psychiatric Investigative Team which assisted me in collecting information in this case. The team was headed by Robert Litman, M.D., Norman Farberow. Ph. D., and Norman Tabachnick, M.D.:

‘Marilyn Monroe died on the night of August 4th or the early morning of August 5th, 1962. Examination by the toxicology laboratory indicates that death was due to a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs. We have been asked, as consultants, to examine the life situation of the deceased and to give an opinion of the intent of Miss Monroe when she ingested the sedative drugs which caused her death. From the data obtained, the following points are the most important and relevant:

Miss Monroe suffered from psychiatric disturbance for a long time. She experienced severe fears and frequent depressions. Mood changes were abrupt and unpredictable. Among symptoms of disorganization, sleep disturbance was prominent, for which she had been taking sedative drugs for many years. She was thus familiar with and experienced in the use of sedative drugs and well aware of their dangers.

Recently, one of the main objectives of her psychiatric treatment had been the reduction of her intake of drugs. This has been partly successful during the last two months. She was reported to be following doctor’s orders in her use of drugs; and the amount of drugs found in her home at the time of her death was not unusual.

In our investigation, we have learned that Miss Monroe had often expressed wishes to give up, to withdraw, and even to die. On more than one occasion in the past, when disappointed and depressed, she made a suicide attempt using sedative drugs. On these occasions, she had called for help and had been rescued.

From the information collected about the events on the evening of August 4th, it is our opinion that the same pattern was repeated except for the rescue. It has been our practice with similar information collected in other cases in the past to recommend a certification for such deaths as a probable suicide.

Additional clues for suicide provided by the physical evidence are:

(1) the high level of barbiturates and chloral hydrate in the blood, which, with other evidence from the autopsy, indicate the probable ingestion of a large amount of drugs in a short period of time;

(2) the completely empty bottle of Nembutal, the prescription for which was filled the day before the ingestion of drugs; and

(3) the locked door which was unusual.’

Now that the final toxicological report and that of the psychiatric consultants have been received and considered, it is my conclusion that the death of Marilyn Monroe was caused by a self-administered overdose of sedative drugs and that the mode of death is probable suicide.

– Theodore J. Curphey, M.D. Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner for the County of Los Angeles, August 13, 1962.”

There’s that word “probable” again.

In my time as a police officer and coroner, I’ve attended many drug overdose deaths. Some were clearly suicides, backed-up by recorded threats and present notes. Some were accidents by misadventure, usually mixed with alcohol. And some were undetermined—not shown to have a definite intent by the decedent to take their own life.

I’d say some of the undetermined deaths were probably suicides—if I could say it. But a coroner doesn’t have the legal option to say “probably”. There’s a long-held court ruling called the Beckon Test that states a death can only be classified as a suicide if it can be determined that the individual knew the consequences of their actions would end in death and intentionally carried them out. There is a high standard of proof required for a finding of suicide as the ruling states:

“In most legal cases the test to be satisfied is a balance of probability. But a determination of suicide can only be made where there is clear and convincing evidence. There is to be a presumption against suicide at the outset and one must be certain beyond a high degree of probability that the death was a suicide. Where one cannot be absolutely certain, the death must be classified as undetermined.”

Based on my death investigation experience, there are three points about Marilyn Monroe’s suicide ruling that bother me.

First, in all the polypharmacy overdoses I’ve seen where suicide was obvious, the deceased downed the whole darned stash. They wanted to end it all and get it done.

In Monroe’s case, Dr. Engelberg prescribed her 50 caps of 500 mg Chloral Hydrate on July 31 as a refill for a previous Chloral Hydrate order on July 25. She was taking 10 per day. At her death scene, there were still 10 Chloral Hydrate caps left in her bedside vial. 40 were gone and, at a rate of 10 per day from July 31 till August 4, the pill count is right in order.

In the toxicology world, the effects of drugs are rated on a range scale of Therapeutic, Toxic, and Lethal. In the Lethal range, the substance is given a value called LD50 where it’s expected that 50 percent of the population would be expected to die from the drug’s effect at a certain point based upon the drug’s milligram blood content per the kilogram weight of the person.

Marilyn Monroe’s autopsy report recorded her weight at 117 pounds or 53.2 kilograms. The Chloral Hydrate level in her blood was determined to be 8.0 milligrams (percent) based on her weight or 80 parts per million (ppm). Looking at my toxicology scale from my coroner days, I see that Chloral Hydrate has a Therapeutic range to 30 ppm and an LD50 value at 100 ppm, so Monroe was 20% under the Chloral Hydrate lethal bar.

Looking at her barbiturate blood content from the Nembutal, it’s recorded to be 4.5 mg (percent) or 45 ppm. My chart says the barbiturate Pentobarbital, which is what’s in Nembutal, has a Therapeutic range to 12 ppm and an LD50 at 40 ppm. So, Monroe was only 12.5 % over the average barbiturate lethal threshold, not taking into account that she was a very “tolerant” user.

However, the combination of Chloral Hydrate and Nembutal was deadly, and this had to be known by Dr. Engelberg when he ordered Monroe’s prescription. This brings me to my second point.

A physician has a professional duty of care to their patient, especially when prescribing medication to a person with Monroe’s mental history. I find it irresponsible, actually negligent, that Dr. Engelberg failed to ensure Monroe no longer had Chloral Hydrate in her possession when he issued her a prescription for 25, 1500 mg caps of Nembutal four days later, knowing her supply of Chloral Hydrate wasn’t exhausted based on her prescribed consumption.

My third point deals with the “rescue” issue.

This very much applies to the Beckon Test. Intentional overdoses as attention-getting devices are common and always rely on the person’s backup plan that someone will intervene. This was part of Monroe’s previous overdose episodes as noted in the “psychological autopsy” report. And they referenced Monroe’s locked door as being unusual.

I think the locked door issue is completely negated by the fact that Monroe was found with her telephone receiver in hand. This was stated by Eunice Murray, Dr. Greenson, Dr. Engelberg, and corroborated by the investigating detective who verified they reported this to him and suggested she was phoning for rescue—which was her pattern—but was overcome.

If I were the coroner ruling on Marilyn Monroe’s death classification, I’d be legally bound to consider how the facts apply to the category parameters.

A natural cause determination is completely eliminated by the autopsy and toxicology evidence. Monroe clearly died as the result of a drug overdose.

Despite kooky conspiracy theories that Bobby Kennedy snuck in and injected Marilyn Monroe to cover up her alleged affair with President Jack or that mobsters Jimmy Hoffa and Sam Giancana knocked her off to keep from ratting them out, no sensible person can make a case that Monroe was intentionally murdered. But a homicide ruling doesn’t just apply to murder. The definition of homicide is “the killing of a human being due to the act or omission of another”.

I believe Dr. Engelberg was professionally negligent in his duty of care to Marilyn Monroe. He had to know—certainly ought to have known—that he was treating an emotionally unstable patient with a history of suicide attempts through polypharmacy. By giving Monroe a potentially lethal amount of barbiturates and not ensuring her chloral hydrate was gone, Engelberg effectively signed her death warrant.

However negligent Engelberg may have been, though, my suspicion falls short of the burden necessary for establishing a homicide classification.

That Monroe accidently died from a self-administered overdose is a distinct probability but, again, the Coroners Act and court precedents won’t allow me the liberty to rely on probabilities regarding suicide. I have to come to a clear conclusion based on facts.

Setting aside the locked door and phone receiver in hand—these two negate each other—I must defer to one other glaring fact. There were still 10 caps of Chloral Hydrate left in her pill vial. Marilyn Monroe was a very experienced and tolerant prescription pill user. She knew exactly what she was taking, what their effects were, and she failed to down her whole darned stash which is always proof of a polypharmacy overdose suicide.

So, deferring to the Beckon Test, I have to presume against Marilyn Monroe’s suicide classification from the outset and must be satisfied beyond a high degree of probability that her death was a suicide—I must be certain—and I can’t—because no clear evidence exists that Monroe’s death was an intentional act to end her own life. It may well have been an unfortunate, un-rescued accident (which I suspect), but I can’t support that classification through the facts.

Therefore, I find Marilyn Monroe’s death classification as Undetermined.