- Jeffrey Epstein planned to use his New Mexico ranch to impregnate women with his sperm
- Epstein's vision linked to transhumanism and ideas resembling eugenics
- He funded elite scientific events, attracting prominent scientists including Stephen Hawking
Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. But before his death, Epstein allegedly hatched a deeply unsettling plan to use his wealth, property and social reach to propagate his own DNA to create a 'super race' of humans.
Over many years, Epstein confided to scientists and others that he wanted to impregnate women at his vast ranch in New Mexico, creating what some who heard the idea privately referred to as a "baby ranch". According to a New York Times report, Epstein imagined the property as a site where women would be inseminated with his sperm and give birth to his children. There is no evidence that the plan was ever carried out, and no indication that it would necessarily have been illegal.
Epstein's vision was rooted in his interest in transhumanism, a loose movement that promotes the use of technology, including genetic engineering and artificial intelligence, to enhance human capabilities. Critics have frequently compared elements of transhumanist thinking to eugenics, the early-20th-century belief that humanity could be improved through selective breeding, an ideology later adopted and weaponised by the Nazis.
Epstein pleaded not guilty to charges of trafficking girls as young as 14. Over the years, investigators and journalists documented how he exaggerated or invented his financial achievements, misrepresented the identities of his clients and overstated his role in business and science. Yet through a combination of money and persistence, he embedded himself among powerful figures in politics, finance and academia.
Courting Science's Elite
According to the NYT, he used the same techniques to insinuate himself into elite scientific circles. Among those he attracted were some of the most prominent scientists of recent decades -- the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, the theoretical physicist and author Stephen Hawking, the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, the neurologist or the genetic engineer George M Church.
Epstein offered funding, supported conferences, underwrote research and financed informal gatherings where scientific ideas were debated over expensive food and wine. Several scientists later said that the prospect of funding dulled their sensitivity to Epstein's criminal history.
He funded buffet lunches at Harvard University's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, which he helped establish with a $6.5 million donation. Conferences sponsored by Epstein were held in the United States Virgin Islands, with guests flown in and entertained on his private island. On one occasion, scientists including Stephen Hawking boarded a submarine chartered by Epstein.
The Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker said he was invited by colleagues -- including the mathematician and biologist Martin Nowak and the physicist Lawrence Krauss -- to what were described as salons and informal gatherings at which Epstein would dominate discussion.
The 'Baby Ranch'
At a Harvard session, Epstein criticised efforts to reduce starvation and expand healthcare in poorer countries, arguing that such interventions increased overpopulation. Pinker, who was present, said he challenged the claim, pointing to evidence that high infant mortality often leads families to have more children. Epstein reportedly appeared irritated, and Pinker was later told by a colleague that he was no longer welcome at Epstein's gatherings.
From the early 2000s, Epstein told scientists and business figures that he wanted to use his New Mexico property -- a 33,000-square-foot ranch outside Santa Fe known as Zorro Ranch -- as a base where women would be inseminated with his sperm. Two award-winning scientists and an adviser to wealthy individuals independently recalled Epstein describing the plan to them, at dinners and conferences between 2001 and 2006, as per the NYT report.
The idea was not confined to private conversations. One adviser said he heard about the scheme not only from Epstein himself but also from a prominent business figure at a gathering in Manhattan. All described the plan as disturbing and unrealistic.
A woman, who identified herself as a NASA scientist, said Epstein wanted as many as 20 women pregnant at the ranch at any given time. Epstein reportedly drew inspiration from the Repository for Germinal Choice, a now-defunct sperm bank that sought donations from Nobel laureates in the belief that their genes would strengthen the human race. Only one Nobel Prize winner is known to have contributed before the repository closed in 1999.
Epstein spoke openly about his interest in preserving his own body. One transhumanist associate said Epstein discussed cryonics, an unproven practice involving freezing bodies after death in the hope of future revival. According to that person, Epstein said he wanted his head and penis preserved.
Allegations Of Children And Secrecy
The question of whether Epstein ever fathered children remains unresolved. Files released by the US Department of Justice in recent months, part of a trove of nearly three million documents, contain references suggesting he may have done so. Among them is a diary entry by a woman who says she gave birth to a baby girl around 2002, when she was 16 or 17. She alleges the child was taken from her minutes after birth, in a process overseen by Epstein's former partner Ghislaine Maxwell. The claims have not been independently verified, and it is unknown what, if anything, happened to the child.
The woman's lawyers shared the diary with federal prosecutors. She later filed a civil lawsuit under a pseudonym against the financier Leon Black, alleging rape at Epstein's home. Black has denied the allegations, and the case is ongoing.
There has never been public confirmation that Epstein had children, and none are mentioned in his will. His last known girlfriend was Karyna Shuliak, whom he intended to leave his private island, Manhattan townhouse and $50m.
One undated video from Epstein's New York mansion shows a DNA paternity test on a table. An email from 2011, sent by Sarah Ferguson, congratulates Epstein on the apparent birth of a baby boy, citing information relayed by the Duke of York. Ferguson later suggested she had been encouraged to send the message and heard nothing further.
