Epstein’s Zorro Ranch had computer rooms the ‘size of houses’ to spy on guests including Prince Andrew, victim claims
JEFFREY Epstein’s notorious Zorro Ranch had three computer rooms “the size of houses” to spy on famous guests including Prince Andrew, one of the pedophile’s victims has claimed.
Former employee Maria Farmer alleges footage would include the Duke of York’s alleged seven-day stay at Epstein’s 33,339 square foot desert estate in New Mexico in 2000.
Epstein reportedly had the warped idea of using the ranch for inseminating women with his sperm with the aim of creating a ‘master race’.
Local radio station owner Eddie Aragon has obtained architect plans, which date back to 1998, five years after Epstein purchased the property.
The plans, obtained by The Sun, reveal a huge underground floor, around 8,000 sq ft in size, which includes exercise, massage and jacuzzi rooms, later transformed into a pool area.
They also show three unusually large “mechanical rooms” on this lower floor.
Farmer claims the rooms, usually for a boiler and electrics, were packed with Epstein and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s computers and video equipment for his spying network.
She told The Sun: “All of Epstein’s residences had these mechanical rooms and tunnel systems. I know this because Epstein told me.
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“These rooms were enormous – bigger than houses. I have no idea why anyone needs so many computers in one room.
“There were pinhole cameras to record everything on every estate. The cameras were ubiquitous. You couldn’t see them unless they were pointed out to you.”
Epstein had many guests at his ranch over the years, including Prince Andrew, who allegedly vacationed there with his neurosurgeon ‘friend’ Dr Melanie Walker, whom former Zorro housekeeper Deidre Stratton described as “beautiful, young and brilliant”.
Stratton previously claimed she was tasked with looking after the royal and his guest, who asked her for tea which would make him “horny”, claiming: “She asked me to find one that would make him more horny, that he hadn’t been interested in her. I’m guessing because she understood her job was to entertain him.”
The Sun previously reached out to Walker, who has never commented on her relationship with the Duke.
The Duke also allegedly spent two days alone at Epstein’s ranch in 2001 with the billionaire paedophile’s “sex slave” Virginia Roberts, court documents claimed.
DUKE’S SECRET STAY
A manuscript written by Ms Roberts – who was 17 or 18 at the time – says he had “a really good time” and that she gave him “erotic massages,” later being paid “close to a thousand dollars” by Epstein.
Farmer, 51, worked as the in-house artist and receptionist at Epstein’s New York home in 1996 before being transferred to businessman Les Wexner’s 23-room, 10,600 sq ft estate in New Albany, Ohio, where she claims to have been abused by Epstein and Maxwell.
In January, a shareholder lawsuit was filed against Wexner, 84, and senior leadership at his old clothing company L Brands, which states Wexner, and wife Abigail, let Epstein “use their home for liaisons with victims”.
Wexner has never been criminally accused of involvement in Epstein’s sex crimes, and insists that he was duped by him and ended their relationship after the predator’s first arrest in 2007, on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
“Being taken advantage of by someone who was so sick, so cunning, so depraved is something that I’m embarrassed that I was even close to,” Wexner said during a speech in September 2019.
Aragon, who owns Albuquerque radio station Rock of Talk, spoke to Zorro’s architect and a former IT contractor, who worked on Epstein’s internet communications and security from 1999 to 2007 and provided inside photos.
He was told a six-foot naked portrait of Ghislaine Maxwell with a gold dagger in her hand had been put in the basement elevator hallway and was the first thing that any of their guests, including victims, would see on the way down to the basement, massage and pool areas.
Aragon says: “The architect called into my radio show and had been sitting on these plans for some time.
“These plans give us a firmer idea of what was going on at the ranch.
“Although the house is for sale, the brokers won’t talk to you about the ranch without you being a qualified party, which means you have to be someone with money, who can prove they can buy it in cash, that’s the only way to view the place.
“All of that in the basement feels more like a dungeon with the nebulous mechanical rooms.
“A six foot by six foot oversized portrait of Ghislaine Maxwell, with her legs fully spread, completely naked, and a golden dagger in her right hand, was dead center in the elevator hall of the basement.
“I think that was used to intimidate the young women, who were there alone and isolated.
“The contractor who supplied the photographs stated that he can’t ever get the image out of his mind, and it is one of the most bizarre things that he’s ever seen.”
The 59-year-old British socialite will face six charges at her at trial, including sex trafficking conspiracy and the sex trafficking of a minor.
She has been in prison for 471 days in New York after being arrested in July 2020.
Zorro Ranch, which has stood eerily empty since Epstein’s death, only being looked after by a few onsite staff, is now on the market for $27.5million with Sotherby’s.
For such an extensive property, it has only four bedrooms.
RANCH NOW FOR SALE
Epstein’s master bedroom, which takes over virtually the whole of the second floor, and, on the same level, there were two comparatively tiny en-suite bedrooms and a further “staff bedroom” on the first floor.
As Aragon points out, it’s understandable why underage victims have complained about feeling terrified and trapped.
“If you have 33,000 sq ft of space, you would have, say, 12 bedrooms, especially when you hear about Jeffrey Epstein talk about a baby-making ranch. What is strange is that this wasn’t built for that purpose.
“Every room, from a closet to a toilet to a bathroom, on the second floor seems to have a ‘vestibule’. Were these holding areas? Do the women bathe, then dress and get held up in the vestibule, before they visit Epstein?
“The maze of rooms, doors, vestibules, waiting areas and doors, there’s no doubt were used to maximum effect to trap and contain the victims until they were needed for Epstein’s rituals.
“There appears to be no escape, can you imagine how that would feel for young teenage girls? They must have felt so hopeless and vulnerable.”
Farmer’s younger sister Annie was allegedly introduced reluctantly by her sister to an eager Maxwell and Epstein, who coerced Annie to visit Zorro alone and sexually assaulted her at the age of 16.
She sued Maxwell and Epstein’s estate in November 2019 with the lawsuit stating: “She was alone with Epstein and Maxwell. She had no way to access a phone or other method of communication without Epstein or Maxwell knowing. She had no way of leaving.
“Annie knew she had no way of escaping Epstein’s massive estate, and attempted to escape by saying she needed to use the restroom. She was in shock, and frightened by what she was experiencing.
“She feared for her safety, knowing she was alone in Epstein’s ranch in another state and that Maxwell and Epstein were closely monitoring her activity.”