the ubiquitous, best-selling crime writer james patterson knows a good story. the latest to capture his attention: the lurid legal saga of south florida financier jeffrey epstein. the tale of money, power and underage girls captured mr. patterson<u+2019>s curiosity enough to warrant him making a rare incursion into the world of nonfiction. the subject of his latest book<u+2014>the billionaire mr. epstein<u+2014>is a neighbor of mr. patterson<u+2019>s in palm beach, fla. before embarking on his project, mr. patterson was familiar with the headlines that scandalized the town starting a decade ago: the arrest of mr. epstein and allegations that he paid a string of high-school age girls<u+2014>allegedly dozens of them and some younger than 16<u+2014>for sexual encounters. then there was the separate federal investigation and the assembling of a star-studded legal defense team led by alan dershowitz, and in 2008, a plea deal announced. mr. epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution-related felonies and served a 13-month prison sentence with work-release privileges that let him spend much of his time outside prison. after learning of the plea agreement, some of his alleged victims filed a civil suit against the u.s. government, accusing the justice department of improperly keeping them in the dark about the deal. <u+201c>filthy rich,<u+201d> to be released monday, isn<u+2019>t a book with sensational scoops. mr. patterson and his two co-authors say they turned up nothing to suggest that any of the bold-faced names in mr. epstein<u+2019>s social network engaged in sexual misconduct. and while the book is critical of prosecutors for not pressing for a tougher punishment, it draws no firm conclusions about what drove their decision-making. the book<u+2019>s bite-size chapters, some of them mere recitations of court papers and other legal documents, shed more light on the onset of the scandal when detectives first interviewed girls about what went on at mr. epstein<u+2019>s mansion. <u+201c>filthy rich<u+201d> reproduces some of those transcripts. in one exchange: <u+201c>did jeff know anybody<u+2019>s real true age? or he didn<u+2019>t care?<u+201d> asks a detective to one alleged victim. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t think he cared,<u+201d> was the reply. <u+201c>he told me the younger the better.<u+201d> mr. patterson spoke to the wall street journal about his new book. below are edited and condensed excerpts from the interview. mr. epstein didn<u+2019>t reply to a request for comment sent to his lawyers. mr. patterson says mr. epstein also declined to be interviewed for the book. wsj: what sparked your interest in the epstein case? jp: i thought it was a really powerful story, and i thought it needed to be told. the people involved are interesting. i think that epstein is an incredibly fascinating character. wsj: what do you think was the most significant thing you discovered along the way? jp: i think a lot of focus is on the details of the police investigation<u+2026>and then the effect on the girls. we got the police interviews with six of the girls, we got that fairly late. that to me really makes the book work because all of a sudden you really get it and you feel it, and i think that<u+2019>s really important, that you feel what [allegedly] happened to these girls, that you feel the nature of what happened in palm beach. it doesn<u+2019>t become an intellectual exercise anymore. it becomes very dramatic. ...this book is as close as you<u+2019>re going to get to what could have happened if it went into court, in terms of getting out at least some of the information the police dug up that would have been in a trial. wsj: prosecutors came under fire for their plea-bargain agreement that guaranteed no federal charges. do you have a theory about why they struck that deal? jp: we don<u+2019>t know the answer to that one. that<u+2019>s the one piece of the puzzle we could not solve.the one thing we did hear a few times was that the team of lawyers epstein assembled was overwhelming. wsj: r. alexander acosta, the former u.s. attorney in miami, defended the prosecution<u+2019>s handling as the toughest treatment based on the admissible facts known at the time. after researching the case, does this ring true to you? jp: i think it<u+2019>s certainly a head-scratcher to me. if you deal with the investigation that the police were conducting, you<u+2019>d think there was more to the case than what was settled. you would think it. that<u+2019>s certainly the way it struck me. but i don<u+2019>t have everything that acosta has. wsj: what was your thinking behind the structure of the book, breaking everything down into very short chapters like an extended timeline? jp: that<u+2019>s a stylistic thing with me. i tend to do shorter chapters. i think a lot of nonfiction is actually quite boring. some is quite terrific. the standard thing is, you read the first chapter, and it<u+2019>s really riveting, and then it<u+2019>s 47 years earlier, to when <u+201c>harry grew up in some little town in mississippi.<u+201d> i mean, i<u+2019>m sorry, what happened here? i was engaged in the story and now you disengaged me. i think [those stylistic choices are] a little bit of me trying to make sure this story holds people<u+2019>s attention. wsj: what did you make of the salacious public feud between alan dershowitz and the lawyers suing over the plea deal? [[the two sides filed defamation suits against each other. the suits were settled in april with both sides withdrawing their accusations.]] jp: we found nothing other than accusations in terms of dershowitz. we found nothing negative about [donald] trump in terms of his limited involvement. we found nothing improper about bill clinton and the plane rides. [[before the allegations against mr. epstein emerged, both messrs. clinton and trump had spoken highly of him. according to a 2002<u+00a0>new york magazine article, mr. clinton had traveled with mr. epstein on his private plane.]] wsj: do you think the case says something larger about the criminal justice system? jp: clearly, the rich have the big advantage when they go to court, all rich people do. you can hire the best lawyers and it is a big advantage. presumably, that needs to be dealt with. i don<u+2019>t know if either one of the [presidential] candidates is going to deal with it. you have the ability to put together a team that is somewhat overwhelming. you have the money to do whatever investigation that you need to do. ... in general, money can do a lot of things. write to jacob gershman at jacob.gershman@wsj.com
james patterson on delving into a financier<u+2019>s scandal in <u+2018>filthy rich<u+2019> - wsj
jacob gershman