Jeffrey Epstein was a few months into a 2008 jail sentence in Florida when he received a sympathetic message from a movie star who lived near Pecos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Val Kilmer, who died last year, expressed interest in visiting Epstein, \u201csince I know how unpleasant the circumstances are,\u201d the actor wrote in a September 2008 email<\/a>, \u201cand that people become shy sometimes when they should be reaching out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the time, Epstein was serving a 13-month sentence for solicitation of a minor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Val Kilmer<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n Kilmer hoped Epstein was \u201callowing this to let you grow,\u201d he wrote, and signed the email, \u201cGod bless, Val Kilmer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Epstein, a financier who owned the sprawling Zorro Ranch in Stanley from 1993 until his death in 2019, attempted to court not only scientists and politicians in New Mexico, but also celebrities, according to files recently released by the U.S. Justice Department.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kilmer\u2019s correspondence with Epstein spanned many years; the two reunited as late as December 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Epstein also leveraged his connections to try to meet with actor Robert Redford, a longtime Santa Fe resident who also died last year, and visited movie sets on a Santa Fe County ranch that had belonged to fashion designer Tom Ford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n None of the celebrities is accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, who was charged with federal counts of child sex trafficking in 2019 and died soon after his arrest in a New York jail cell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Jeffrey Epstein appears with two girls or young women at a movie set on the ranch that previously was owned by designer Tom Ford.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n The sex offender\u2019s Zorro Ranch, now owned by a prominent Texas businessman and politician, has come under scrutiny in recent months, with the New Mexico Department of Justice reopening a criminal investigation into any potential criminal activity at the property, and a legislative subcommittee initiating a \u201ctruth commission.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kilmer lived in New Mexico for nearly two decades, first at a ranch in Tesuque and then on a nearly 6,000-acre ranch along the Pecos River.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He rose to prominence as an actor in the 1980s and \u201890s, with roles including Iceman in Top Gun, Jim Morrison in The Doors and Doc Holliday in Tombstone. He suffered for years from throat cancer before his death last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A spokesperson for his estate did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not clear how Kilmer and Epstein became connected, but Epstein\u2019s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, asked another man in an email<\/a> in 2004 whether they would have time to meet with Kilmer on a trip to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kilmer in 2009 told<\/a> a filmmaker he wouldn\u2019t be around New Mexico a certain week but urged him in an email to \u201ccheck out the ranch\u201d and to give his \u201cregards to jeff.\u201d The email was forwarded to Epstein.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kilmer reached out to Epstein the following year, writing, \u201chope to see u in NYC or in new Mexico,\u201d and the two occasionally went back and forth<\/a> about whether they were in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Epstein was included in an email Kilmer sent to several people in 2011 announcing he was selling off pieces of his ranch, \u201caccepting these modern times,\u201d to which Epstein responded, \u201clets catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The two reconnected in December 2017, less than two years before Epstein\u2019s arrest, when they were both in Palm Beach, Fla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Epstein invited Kilmer<\/a> to lunch in Palm Beach, and appeared to suggest they had met at his ranch earlier: \u201cas you may recall like in stanley new mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kilmer invited Epstein to his show that night at a small comedy club \u2014 \u201ca guaranteed hour and a half of pure joy and not just cause I wrote produced directed and starred in it,\u201d Kilmer wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGee how the hell have you been after all this time?\u201d Kilmer asked Epstein.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Epstein asked Kilmer to meet for coffee before or after the show, as \u201cI prefer no crowds,\u201d but he changed his mind a few messages later, and the two planned, as Kilmer put it, \u201ca little reunion\u201d before the show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cJust me tonite I will leave the entourage,\u201d Epstein wrote, planning to attend alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After Epstein followed up<\/a> that night, thanking Kilmer for his \u201ckind hospitality,\u201d Kilmer said he\u2019d \u201clove to come by and visit and catch up for a bit tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not clear from the emails whether the two met again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fashion designer Tom Ford owned property called Cerro Pelon Ranch near Galisteo, several miles down N.M. 41 from Zorro Ranch, from 2001 to 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maxwell in a 2004 email invited Ford to Epstein\u2019s ranch \u2014 by helicopter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI am here at the ranch, 2 mins from you by helicopter. Do you want me to come and pick you up for coffee,\u201d Maxwell asked in the email<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ford responded the same day in all-caps, calling it \u201cGREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU\u201d and saying he and his partner would \u201cLOVE TO GET TOGETHER.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWE ARE MOSTLY IN TOWN BUT WOULD LOVE TO COME OUT TO SEE YOU. WE BOTH HAVE TERRIBLE FEAR OF HELICOPTERS SO WE WILL HAVE TO DRIVE,\u201d Ford wrote, signing the email with his late partner, Richard Buckley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Epstein tried<\/a> in 2011 to get Ford\u2019s updated contact information \u201cto invite [Ford] to see Peter Mandelson when he\u2019s in town,\u201d Epstein\u2019s staff relayed to one another by email, referring to the British politician.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Epstein appears surrounded by girls or women whose faces are redacted at Tom Ford’s Cerro Pelon Ranch in New Mexico.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n Ford\u2019s Cerro Pelon Ranch included a set used for Western films. Epstein visited the property in August 2015, writing that his friend was filming \u201ca big western this week,\u201d in Galisteo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The film would be at Ford\u2019s ranch \u201cnext to mine,\u201d he wrote<\/a> to someone whose name was redacted, inviting them to fly down to watch the filming. He told<\/a> Joi Ito, then the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Media Lab, the set was \u201cnext door, tom fords.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n Mark Humphrey\/ The Associated Press<\/span>
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\n Courtesy U.S. Department of Justice<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n\u2018A little reunion\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Neighbor Ford<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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\n Courtesy U.S. Department of Justice<\/span>
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