Firstly, if you’re already caught up in Jeffery Epstein murder conspiracies, as several of my coworkers are (Tim), please read this. Christine Tartaro, author of Suicide and Self-Harm in Prisons and Jails and a professor of criminal justice at Stockton University, makes a good point in an interview published today with Mother Jones. Part of the reason people find Epstein’s suicide hard to believe is because so many Americans don’t understand the current state of correctional facilities across the country. They suck. New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Epstein died, has been the subject of prisoner complaints for its torturous conditions for years.
Secondly, if you thought the whole Epstein thing had nothing to do with Dallas, read this. Over the weekend, The Daily Beast traced the twisted family tree of Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell. One of Ghislaine’s older sisters, Christine Maxwell, spearheads Special Projects for Information Resources at the University of Texas at Dallas. The board director of Chiliad Inc. made her fortune as one of the founders (along with her twin, Isabel) of Magellan, one of the first internet search engines. She’s also the author of the international bestseller The Pergamon Dictionary of Perfect Spelling. Apparently it is very helpful for people with dyslexia.
Thirdly, as to why Christine may be relevant to the whole affair, the New York Post reported yesterday that she was spotted picking up bags near the Massachusetts home of Scott Borgerson, a tech CEO who had been romantically linked to Ghislaine, leading to speculation that she might be aiding her sister.
Fourthly, if you thought the Maxwells were a crazy clan, The Daily Beast also goes down the rabbit hole of Christine’s husband’s lineage. Christine is married to the astrophysicist Roger Malina, who is a professor of physics at UTD. His father is Frank Malina, a member of Caltech’s infamous Suicide Squad (so-named because their rocketry experiments were so volatile) who is described as “an early Elon Musk type who was part of the ragtag group whose daring rocket experiments in 1930s Pasadena led to the formation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in L.A., the precurser to NASA.”
But because the FBI labeled Malina a socialist during the McCarthy era, and he was subsequently forced to flee to Paris, he is often not credited as one of the early space race pioneers. The upside is that he took up painting and launched Leonardo, a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to provide a scientific take on art.
And like father like son: Roger, as the Arts and Technology Distinguished Chair and founder of the ArtSciLab at UTD, works to create collaborations between artists and scientists.
That’s all I’ve got.
