Skip to main content

Maryland company to auction off Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘black book’

Elkton, Maryland-based Alexander Historical Auctions, known for auctioning historic letters and documents, will put a personal address and telephone book of the late Jeffrey Epstein up for bids.

The auction will be held Friday. Alexander Historical Auctions calls it “one of the most provocative criminal relics of modern times.”

The convicted sex offender’s small, plastic-bound book includes 64 pages, 368 printed entries and two handwritten notes.

The minimum opening bid is $35,000. The auction goes live, in person and online, at 10 a.m. Friday.

It is not the first time the book has been for sale. It has been put up for private sale and drew offers “in the area of $100,000,” according to auctioneer Bill Panagopulos. Those offers were rejected.

The owner prefers the book be passed on to a buyer for research, specifically uncovering Epstein’s alleged ties to foreign intelligence services or governments, Panagopulos said.

Entries in the book include contact information for private residences, aides, employees and others. Many numbers have no names, 94 of the entries have black check marks, and five are highlighted in yellow, according to Alexander Historical Auctions, which says contacts include dozens of people connected to politics, finance, real estate, film, television, law and fashion design.

The book was found in New York on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk in the mid-1990s and has been verified by forensic analysis, Alexander Historical Auctions said.

Epstein was arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors in 2019. He died in his jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019.

Alexander Historical Auctions’ other recent auctions have included Oppenheimer’s signed atomic bomb plans, Adolf Hitler’s 1926 income tax return, the Wright Brothers first company check, and Napoleon Bonaparte’s hunting rifle. The auction house has been in business since 1991 and has auctioned off more than 100,000 items.

Massachusetts court hears arguments in lawsuit alleging Meta designed apps to be addictive to kids

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts' highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state's lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users. The lawsuit, filed in 2023 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Massachusetts who use the social media platforms. “We are making claims based only on the tools that Meta has developed because its own research shows they encourage addiction to the platform in a variety of ways,” said State Solicitor David Kravitz, adding that the state's claim has nothing to do the company's algorithms or failure to moderate content. Meta said Friday that it strongly disagrees with the allegations and is “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.” Its attorney, Mark Mosier, argued in court that the lawsuit “would impose liabilities for performing traditional publishing functions” and that its actions are protected by the First Amendment.
Read Next Story