Thinking about the Epstein Case
Given the fall-out from the Jeffrey Epstein case, more than a few Americans have dusted off their old copies of Mario Puzo's The Godfather, since it tells a number of stories about the dark side of the American Dream. The Godfather Vito Corleone leads an intriguing double-life, on the one hand as a gangster involved in gambling and prostitution—and, once in while, murder—and as a family- man with an inviolable sense of loyalty to family members and friends from the Old Country who get into trouble with corrupt Establishment types.
One person he tries to help is Johnny Fontane, an actor who has fallen afoul of the American film-producer Jack Woltz. Puzo tells the reader that Woltz behaves ruthlessly toward even underage girls who want to star in his films. The Godfather's consigliere Tom Hagen has to meet Woltz to discuss Fontane's role in a movie, and experiences first-hand Woltz's ruthlessness.
A woman with a beautiful, underaged daughter has an appointment to meet Woltz. He takes the girl into his office and rapes her. Puzo describes the shock Hagen feels when the traumatized daughter comes out of the office, and the visibly triumphant mother leads her away. You can practically hear her saying to herself, "My daughter has a part! We'll be rich!"
Many Americans read this and can hardly believe that such things occured in our great land, when in fact, they have been going on, all along. Responsible Americans must recognize this truth when applying reason to the Jeffrey Epstein case. They have to restrain themselves amidst the moralistic hue-and-cry that always follows these revelations.
As long as people like Woltz and Epstein, or Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt, for that matter, can rely on the lure of money and fame to turn girls inside-out, such things will happen. No one ever finked on Hefner, but the guy never lacked for pretty girls willing to pose nude. Playboy even held yearly profiles of college girls who posed nude. The girls never talked about what went on in the Playboy Mansions and Clubs. They didn't need to. The magazine lay-outs said it all. Adolescent boys across America sighed enviously over the liberties the guys at the clubs enjoyed.
And we haven't even mentioned the enablers yet, the parents and guardians. Underaged girls don't just turn up at the Epstein Mansion ready to have fun. Sometone has to bring them, then take them home again. The parents or guardians communicated the terms of the arrangement. Documents in the form of contracts, whether handwritten letters or formal documents composed in the office of the family attorney, would formalize the relationship. Nowadays, nobody with half a brain delivers a child to a complete stranger without some king of a contract.
I have read that further indictments in the Epstein case are unlikely. It is just as well, since they will only humiliate people guilty of nothing more than chasing the Almighty Dollar. Another generation of Americans have learned a bitter lesson over how far people will take that pursuit.