Jeffrey Epstein's prep-school students remember their 'flamboyantly' dressed teacher
Disgraced Wall Streeter Jeffrey Epstein was arrested last week for his alleged involvement in the sex trafficking of minors. Epstein’s past, and how he made his money, remains murky, but details have continued to emerge about his history.
We do know that Epstein briefly taught at the Dalton School, a private co-educational school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in the early 1970s.
Students in his classes at the time, who wished to remain anonymous, described Epstein to Yahoo Finance as a young man who “dressed flamboyantly,” with a “thick New York accent” who was “very high energy and dynamic.”
Donald Barr, Dalton’s headmaster and father of Attorney General Bill Barr, hired Epstein to teach math and science.
“What we’ve all been wondering,” one of Epstein’s former students said, “is how did this guy get his job in the first place, without a degree.”
Epstein was without a college degree when he was hired, but Barr, thought of as “no nonsense,” saw promise in the young man who was in his early 20s at the time. Dalton’s yearbooks from 1975 and 1976 show Epstein sporting a smile.
After impressing parents and students, Epstein was able to jump from teaching the children of Wall Streeters to become a Wall Streeter himself. He left Dalton after just two years, accepting a job at Bear Stearns as an assistant to a floor trader.
Students remember Epstein telling them that his relationship with Lynne Greenberg, the daughter of Bear Stearns chairman Alan “Ace” Greenberg, helped Epstein secure his first Wall Street job. Although this was also described as “hearsay” to Yahoo Finance. It has also been reported that Epstein curried favor with Greenberg after tutoring the banker’s son.
More than 30 years later, after Epstein’s resignation at Bear and his money managing that remains shrouded in secrecy, Epstein struck a plea deal on sex crime charges with now-resigned Labor Secretary Alex Acosta with the help of law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Bill Barr joined the firm the next year, in 2009.
Epstein has come a long way from teaching calculus and coaching the Math Team. But whether Barr ultimately recuses himself from Epstein’s case or not, he might be longing for those salad days soon.
“A man with this level of psychopathy, what was he doing in a classroom with young girls?” a former student of Epstein’s asked.
The Dalton School did not respond to requests for comment.
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Calder McHugh is an Associate Editor at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @Calder_McHugh.
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