The Black Book and the Hallows of Death

It began with an unassuming leather volume, a black address book full of names, phone numbers, and coded notes. For some it was just another relic from the world of the super-rich. For others it was the key to a network that stretched from the beaches of Florida to the palaces of Europe. Alfredo Rodriguez, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime butler in Palm Beach, kept it like an insurance policy. He knew that in this book were not only the illustrious society of the powerful but also the contours of a story that no one wanted to see told in public.

When the first investigations against Epstein began between 2005 and 2008, Rodriguez secretly secured copies. The man who served champagne daily and watched the guests at the pool suddenly understood that the world in which he worked was more dangerous than any villa could have suggested. But he did not hand the book over to the authorities, instead he tried to sell it for 50,000 dollars to attorneys for the victims. In 2011 the FBI arrested the butler, not because of his knowledge, but because of his silence and his attempts to monetize that knowledge. He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and served one and a half years in prison. Only after his release did the contents of the Black Book appear in civil proceedings, and eventually they reached the investigating authorities - Yet the public was left in the dark as to whether the original or only copies ever existed.

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI)
Date of transcription: 12/02/2009 - (We possess the unredacted version of this document, which until now has only been available to the public in a redacted form. Therefore, we are providing this complete translation of the document here.)

„ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ, born on 04/12/1954, Social Security number 453-49-9253, residing at 11349 SW 86th Lane, Miami, Florida, was interviewed after waiving his Miranda Rights at 7920 Glades Road, Boca Raton, Florida. After being advised of the identities of the interviewing agents and the purpose of the interview, he provided the following information: RODRIGUEZ worked for Jeffrey Epstein as a house manager for approximately six months between 2004 and 2005. During his employment, he obtained a copy of a black book and other documents that contained the contact information of numerous individuals. RODRIGUEZ stated that the black book contained the personal phone numbers and addresses of Epstein’s friends, business associates, and guests. RODRIGUEZ said that he had forgotten he had these items until a few months ago. He wanted to sell these documents for $50,000.00 to attorneys representing Epstein’s victims because he had been unable to work since losing his job with Epstein. During his employment with Epstein, RODRIGUEZ handled the day-to-day operations of the Palm Beach residence, including greeting guests, taking messages, and maintaining the household logbook. RODRIGUEZ did not share this information with the FBI or any other law enforcement agency, even though he knew there was an ongoing investigation, because he was afraid of Jeffrey Epstein and potential retaliation. RODRIGUEZ stated that he had provided some information to the Palm Beach Police Department in connection with the 2005–2006 Epstein sexual abuse investigation.„

In truth this question has long been answered: the FBI has only copies, it has never possessed the original. It does not lie with attorneys, and it has not vanished like so much else in this case. Our own research and networks reach deep, far beyond what has been made public so far. We have sources confirming that the complete version of the Black Book contained far more than just names and phone numbers - and that its first entries go back to 1989.

From that moment on, the story took a sinister turn. Alfredo Rodriguez died of cancer in 2015, shortly after his silence was broken. Jeffrey Epstein himself met his death in Cell 9 of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in 2019, on a night when the cameras allegedly failed and logs were full of gaps. Jean-Luc Brunel, model scout and Epstein’s old friend, was found lifeless in a Paris prison cell in 2022 - again, surveillance was disrupted on the crucial day. Steve Hoffenberg, Epstein’s former business partner and one of the few who spoke openly about the secret financial and information channels, died in 2022 alone in his apartment, officially from an “unattended death.” And in 2025 came Virginia Giuffre, the most important voice of the survivors, whose suicide in Australia shocked the public. The Black Book itself, that silent witness, remains a phantom. In the files of the civil proceedings only copies appear, sometimes redacted, sometimes incomplete, and the authorities work exclusively with duplicates. The original, whose entries act like a magnifying glass on the interweaving of power, money, and abuse, is still outside the reach of the state. Whoever looks at the Black Book today does not always see the same document - and that is precisely part of its story. The first copies come from Alfredo Rodriguez, Epstein’s butler, who secretly duplicated the original between 2005 and 2008. His versions are in grayscale, often with handwritten circles, check marks, and underlines that in the eyes of investigators look like silent warning signals. Years later the Black Book appeared again in the court records of the civil lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell - this time as tidy, cleaned PDF scans, mostly without the butler’s markings and with redacted phone numbers or addresses. The column layout remained the same, but the impression changed: more neutral, more fragmentary, almost official. That there are such different versions is not due to forgeries, but to the fact that to this day no one has ever held the original in their hands - neither the FBI nor the courts, only copies that over the years tell their own disturbing story.

“Jeffrey was not an ordinary man,” Steve Hoffenberg once said about his former partner. “He was an operation. Anyone who does not understand that understands nothing.”

To be continued .....

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