How did a Vershire man come to possess the address book of infamous pedophile, international financier and friend to the world’s most powerful people Jeffrey Epstein?

Why, eBay, of course. 

Five years ago, Christopher Helali saw the book for sale online and took a gamble, spending a few hundred bucks on the off chance the artifact was the real thing.

When the “little black book” filled with the contacts of the world’s most notorious sex criminal arrived in Vershire, Helali picked it up at the post office and opened it in gloves and a mask, careful not to leave fingerprints. Though at the time the veracity of the document remained in question, Helali himself was quickly convinced.

“Within a few moments, it was very much apparent that this was a legitimate item,” he recalled. He was in possession of the only known, publicly held object of its kind.

A general manager of an international law firm, a sometimes investigative journalist and the international secretary of the American Communist Party, Helali had long been interested in Epstein and what his story said about global power and politics today.

“I subscribe to the theories that there’s much more to the story than just a depraved and degenerate rapist and sexual predator,” Helali, who also serves as the elected high bailiff of Orange County, said in an interview in August. 

Christopher Helali, of Vershire, pictured with an address book previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein. Photo courtesy of Christopher Helali

In private life, Epstein entertained the rich and famous in his Manhattan townhouse — often called the borough’s largest — and on his private Caribbean island, Little Saint James. 

The first cracks in the billionaire’s mysterious facade appeared when police in Florida began investigating Epstein for sexually abusing underage girls in 2005. He later pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

For more than a decade after, Epstein continued his life of luxury. But in 2019, he was charged federally on allegations he trafficked minors for sex, drawing international attention. He died in a New York jail cell the following month, and his death was ruled a suicide, though conspiracy theories abound about the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death. 

The little black book arrived in Vershire the year after, and Helali began contacting Epstein experts, like the Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown; Brace Belden, co-host of the popular leftwing podcast TrueAnon; and reporters at Business Insider. 

In 2021, Business Insider produced a documentary short on Helali’s find and their successful effort to confirm its authenticity through forensic analysis. The book was first discovered on a Manhattan street in the 1990s, according to the documentary, and the woman who picked it off the sidewalk eventually put it up for sale online around the time of Epstein’s most recent arrest. 

Another little black book dating to the early-to-mid-2000s has drawn FBI attention and was published in redacted form by Gawker in 2015. But Helali said his version contains more than 200 additional names, expanding the scope of what’s known about Epstein’s network. Among those figures are actress Morgan Fairchild, investor Carl Icahn and former New Republic publisher Martin Peretz.

As a document, the book tells a story. A picture of an inner and outer circle emerges. Some names feature 10 phone numbers, according to Helali, and the book includes codes to buildings and hand-scribbled marginalia. There’s a list within the book of masseuses, but the names are coded, he said. 

“Donald Trump’s entry in this book is enormous, for example, and his name is highlighted,” Helali said. “I think that shows a layer of relations that the current president wants to distance himself from.”

An address book formerly owned by Jeffrey Epstein, which has been digitally redacted, contains the contact information of President Donald Trump. Photo courtesy of Christopher Helali

Trump has said publicly his friendship with Epstein ended some 20 years ago, before Epstein’s legal troubles began, and that the two had a falling out.

Helali plans to use the book for his own reporting. Currently, he’s focused on one name he said is within Trump’s sphere, someone whom other journalists indicate was an associate of Epstein.

“There’s some more depth to what we can uncover, and I hope that we can continue to learn more,” he said. 

Epstein has become a fixture of American political discourse and the public imagination since his arrest and death in 2019, but attention has ratcheted up since Trump took office a second time. Since then, Democrats — and even some Republicans — in Washington have pushed for release of the government’s investigatory files on the disgraced billionaire financier, which are expected to contain mention of Trump. 

But Epstein is far from a partisan issue, and his network spanned political parties and even continents — former President Bill Clinton was a known associate. Prior to Trump’s second term, some Republicans similarly called for the release of the so-called Epstein Files, and the financier’s real crimes and dealings play into the popular rightwing conspiracy theory QAnon. 

“This is not only bipartisan,” Helali said. “This is the elite of the world.”

To Helali, the importance of the Epstein case is in understanding how a web of important  political leaders, academics, economists, financiers and intellectuals found themselves in the orbit of a man engaged in such sinister crimes. That is not to say all those who knew Epstein were complicit in his criminality, he emphasized. But current and former U.S. presidents, a former Israeli prime minister, a member of the British royal family and a Saudi Arabian prince have all been connected to the disgraced billionaire. 

“These are ultimately people involved in public life who are engaged in this activity, and they should be held accountable for what’s going on,” Helali said. “We need to understand as the public: What’s going on behind these closed doors? What’s going on on a private island where young girls are being trafficked?”

Having studied and photographed the address book, Helali has tried to sell it to no avail. There’s been no shortage of interest in the artifact, which an auction house valued at $75,000 or more, but interested buyers fear the book could be seized by the government, Helali said, or that they themselves could become subject to public dissection by theorists. 

Besides a dress jacket, few other objects owned by Epstein have ever been auctioned off. 

For now, Helali remains in possession of the book. And he thinks it’s possible that makes him a target. He said he’s regularly stopped at the border while traveling, though that may be because of his political activities.

“I think that certainly it hasn’t helped my situation, and it’s added even more questions,” Helali said of owning the little black book. “But in any case, I mean, I don’t think that there’s anything necessarily wrong with or illegal about, you know, having possession of an item that helps us with our work.”

While the subject of Epstein and his connection to the halls of power has gone quiet in the daily news cycle since this summer’s fever pitch, the saga sustains a perennial appeal for Helali and others like him. They believe there’s more going on behind the scenes than what most people imagine. To them, it’s clear, as long as you pay attention: In Epstein, the most far-fetched of conspiracies crystalize — if not in verifiable fact, then at least in circumstantial evidence. 

“The vast networks of financial interests, intelligence interests, and the military aspects that intersect with the media, with powerful people who can shape narratives and can shape people’s perceptions” all join together in the Epstein tale, Helali said. “What it ultimately raises the specter of is what people sometimes refer to as the deep state.”