Where the fuck is this "Epstein sex ranch" stuff coming from, and why is this the first I've heard of it?

Pete Keen

@cstross why do you think he had the plane, Charlie?

Chris Dolunt ☀️🌱⚙️📖🎲

@cstross Don't forget that Epstein had a house in New York City next door to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick said there was a "massage room" in there as well.

RootWyrm 🇺🇦:progress:

@cstross oh, yes, he had multiple locations for raping children. An apartment in Manhattan, an estate in Palm Beach, and a 7800 acre ranch in New Mexico.
All of which were known to federal AND local authorities with multiple reports of the activities going on at them.

vaneshi@bitbang.social

@cstross Yes.

The "Zorro" Ranch, he also had property in Manhattan and various other locations.

Charlie Stross

@zrail Because billionaire? It's a status symbol: if he just needed to get about in private he could easily afford a NetJets account instead (to hire a bizjet by the hour when he specifically needed one). Nobody *needs* a jet of their own except for airline operators and air show display pilots keeping antiques flying.

Al Sweigart

@cstross If you were rich and had one paedophile factory, why would you ONLY have one?

Uilebheist

@cstross Epstein Sex Ranch = ESR?
This... makes sense.

Infoseepage

@cstross The guy had a bunch of properties where known victims have said his crimes occured. His ranch and two islands seem the best locations for keeping stuff out of the public eye and body disposal. I do think murders occurred in connection with his sex trafficking. Multiple victims have spoken of threats of violence which included talk of others being murdered. The victim statements we have are from people who survived Epstein. We don't have statements from those who didn't.

Dena

@cstross for true horror, take a look at jmail.world (which took emails and formatted them as if the reader were Epstein.)

I think he outhorrors even your imagination.
(A search for "ranch" brings up more than 10K messages. I hope not all of them are *that* one.)

retech

@cstross People are willing to pay for convenience. Capitalism will always fulfil demand for profit. Morality has nothing to do with business.

Nemo

@cstross
Ah, but NetJet likely won't provide the cleaning services that man required...

@zrail

Pete Keen

@cstross (I mean yes of course but I was saying he needed it to travel between his "factories")

Kelsey Jordahl

@cstross I actively try not to read too deeply about this b/c it's so horrifying, but every time I do there are details that I am shocked that I had not heard before.

Like the girlfriend that he pulled strings for to get her into Columbia University's dental school, and then left $100 million to her in his will. Seems like kind of a big deal, but I'd never seen her mentioned in the news before.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/nyregion/columbia-epstein-dental-shuliak.html

Infoseepage

@cstross Some information on the ranch and what has been alleged by multiple victims to have occurred there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorro_Ranch#cite_note-23

Allegations of bodies keep coming up in connection with the property. It and the surrounding park lands seem a near ideal location for body disposal. He had close to 10,000 acres at one point between what he owned and leased and some of the adjacent properties are similarly large and are owned by figures named in the Epstein files.

https://sourcenm.com/2026/02/10/nm-land-commissioner-seeks-probe-into-allegation-that-two-girls-were-buried-near-epstein-ranch/

Infoseepage

@cstross There was also a large gun safe that was burgled at the property in 2018. My read of that event is that it seems likely the theft was targeted and done to remove blackmail materials.

C.

@cstross

Yes, a ranch in New Mexico, the New York townhouse, the infamous island, and a number of other places, I believe.

I haven't read much about the ranch, but the New York house has been documented, somewhat.

BashStKid

@cstross @zrail Indeed. In which case the jet was thoroughly bugged and staffed with victims, neither of which could be done if the jet was on a rental.

Angus McIntyre

@cstross I think we're about one news cycle away from learning that the fucker had a volcano base with a shark pool.

George Baily

@angusm @cstross this would imply way too much taste

DressToKILT

@cstross Alex Acosta gave h a sweetheart deal and buried the extensive indictment that the FBI had queued up because he was allegedly told that Epstein was a very well-connected intelligence asset and shouldn't be touched.

Acosta was given a cabinet position in Trump's first admin.

Him having multiple horror galleries is not surprising. He was well connected to a class of people who are utterly devoid of what most of consider basic morality.