© Reuters / Eduardo MunozThe Fox News electronic ticker in New York shows the news about Jeffrey Epstein after he was found dead in his cell
Photos shown on CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday show the inside of Epstein's cell, following his death in August. In them, multiple bedsheets have been fashioned into two nooses. A note on the sex offender's bed gripes about the conditions at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC).
Photos of Epstein's body show a thin, bloody line across the middle of his throat. According to former New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Baden, who observed the autopsy, the wound is more consistent with murder than suicide.
"This noose doesn't match the ligature furrow mark. It's wider than this," Baden told 60 Minutes. "Most hangings, especially free hangings, the ligature slides up to beneath the jawbone, the mandible. Here it's in the middle of the neck."
Epstein's neck was fractured in multiple places, including the hyoid, a small bone near the Adam's apple. "I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging," Baden said, adding, "Going over over a thousand jail hangings, suicides, in the New York state prisons over the past 40, 50 years, no one had three fractures."
His injuries also included bruised wrists, an abrasion on the arm, a muscle injury to the shoulder, an injury to the back of the neck, and a cut on the lip. However, it is unclear if any of these injuries were inflicted by hospital staff trying to resuscitate Epstein.
New York's chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson, ruled Epstein's death a suicide in August, and stands by that decision. However, that ruling did little to quiet speculation that the millionaire sex offender was murdered. Epstein's connections to the rich and powerful - including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and British Prince Andrew - would likely have been brought up during his trial, leading some to believe that these people had strong motive to silence Epstein.
Epstein had pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing and trafficking multiple girls as young as 14. Back in 2008, a sweetheart deal with Florida prosecutors saw Epstein skate on similar charges, serving just 13 months in a minimum-security facility.
Speculation was further stoked when it was revealed that security cameras at the MCC allegedly malfunctioned on the night of Epstein's death. In addition, two prison guards who were supposed to check in on the high-profile prisoner every 30 minutes have been charged with conspiracy and falsifying records, after it emerged that they slept through their shift on the night.
Only one prisoner at MCC, Philadelphia mobster Louis Turra, has succesfully committed suicide in the last 40 years. Judge Richard Berman, who presided over Epstein's sex trafficking case, said in November that it was "unthinkable" that an inmate as high profile as Epstein could die behind bars without guards noticing.
Epstein was the only defendant in his case. With his death, the case is shut and the alleged victims denied closure. However, some of the alleged victims still carry on with civil cases against the deceased pedophile's estate.
The world is less one less pedo