COMPLETE STATIC READING EDITION

The black book and the flight logs

A butler’s “holy grail,” a pilot’s handwriting and what a name in either one means

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The book

About a thousand contacts and a butler’s circles.

The “little black book” is a contact directory kept by Epstein’s household, with names, homes and phone numbers of politicians, royals, models, scientists and socialites. His former butler Alfredo Rodriguez kept a copy, circled names he thought were important and called it the “holy grail.” In 2009 he tried to sell it for $50,000 to someone who turned out to be an FBI agent and went to prison. [1][3]

Gawker published it in 2015. Many people listed say they barely knew Epstein or that the entry came from Maxwell’s social life. Rodriguez’s circles show what he thought; nobody knows his criteria. [1][2]

What we can’t tell you. Being in an address book means someone had your number.

The sources

  1. Vanity Fair: How a black book of Epstein’s contacts was made public, Jul 2019 ↗

    The story of the butler’s “holy grail” and the journalist who published it.

  2. Gawker: Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book, 23 Jan 2015 (archived) ↗

    The first full publication of the contact book, from the butler’s copy. Archived.

  3. Palm Beach Post: Epstein’s ex-butler sentenced for trying to sell “holy grail” book, 18 Jun 2010 ↗

    Report on Alfredo Rodriguez’s 18-month sentence.

The logs

A pilot’s record, with gaps.

The best-known logs were kept by pilot David Rodgers and cover flights from the 1990s into the 2000s. They list passenger names or initials and airports. Bill Clinton appears on 26 legs in 2002 and 2003 on foundation trips; Donald Trump on several flights in the 1990s, by a prosecutor’s count at least eight. Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz and many others appear too. [1][3]

Pilot Larry Visoski testified at Maxwell’s trial that he flew Clinton and Trump and never saw sexual activity on board. The logs are incomplete: other pilots and aircraft existed, many passengers are listed only by initials or as “female,” and helicopter trips to the island are poorly recorded. The plane was nicknamed the “Lolita Express” by tabloids; the logs alone cannot show what happened on board. [2][1]

What we can’t tell you. No log puts Clinton or Trump on a flight to the island. That is a fact about the surviving logs, not proof about every trip.

The sources

  1. Gawker: Flight logs put Clinton, Dershowitz on pedophile billionaire’s sex jet, Jan 2015 (archived) ↗

    The first wide publication of pilot David Rodgers’s logs. The headline overstates what a log shows.

  2. CNN: Epstein pilot testifies at Maxwell trial, 30 Nov 2021 ↗

    Sworn testimony of pilot Larry Visoski on famous passengers, as reported by CNN.

  3. Justice Department: Attorney General Bondi releases first phase of declassified Epstein files, 27 Feb 2025 ↗

    The department’s release of about 200 pages, most already public, handed first to invited influencers at the White House.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE

The claims, rated.

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