Was Gene Hackman on Epstein’s list?

Yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested to Fox News that we could see a full release of a “lot of flight logs, a lot of names, [and] a lot of information” pertaining to deceased socialite-pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and what’s expected to be a long, disturbing, and revelatory list of associates.

And perhaps this is nothing more than a case of especially poor timing, but with the discovery of legendary actor Gene Hackman‘s body yesterday (per the Associated Press, the 95-year-old French Connection star was found dead in his home on Wednesday along with his wife, 63-year-old Betsy Arakawa, and one of their three pet dogs, the other two of whom were found alive), some are wondering if any ties between Hackman and Epstein were ever discovered.

Was Gene Hackman on Epstein’s list?

No, Gene Hackman has never been reported as an associate of Jeffrey Epstein, per the release of court records in January 2024. Per The Independent, those records named such public figures as Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump, the latter of whom directed Bondi to review the list and information, per CTV News. Bondi, a Republican, was named as Attorney General on Feb. 4.

Major Hollywood figures that were named in the court records include Leonardo DiCaprio, Kevin Spacey, George Lucas, Cate Blanchett, Bruce Willis, Cameron Diaz, and Chris Tucker.

It’s worth noting that being named in this list does not directly imply that the person knowingly collaborated with Epstein in his nauseating crimes. The list includes such people, but it also includes those who have accused Epstein of those very crimes, the victims of those crimes, and unintentional, happenstance connections with Epstein, who worked as a financier and had an affluent social circle.

Accusers of Epstein include John Connelly, a former detective and investigative journalist who was investigating Epstein, and Vicky Ward, an investigative journalist who allegedly faced barriers from Vanity Fair when she sought to cover the Epstein case.

Per NPR, Epstein allegedly operated an underage sex-trafficking ring out of Florida and New York, which lasted approximately a decade after it began in 1994. He was first investigated around 2005, but was never prosecuted on a federal level, and served just 18 months before his release in 2009, after which he was required to register as a sex offender.

Ten years later, in 2019, he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges following an exposé by the Miami Herald. He famously passed away while in prison from an alleged suicide.

How did Gene Hackman die?

At the time of writing, a cause of death has not been released, and while reports initially said the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department didn’t suspect foul play, TMZ later reported that a search warrant from one of the Santa Fe detectives labeled the deaths of Hackman, his wife, and their pet dog as “suspicious.”

Nevertheless, the circumstances are unusual. Hackman and Arakawa were found dead in different rooms, while prescription medications were found scattered on a countertop near Arakawa. The house’s gas lines were also checked for the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning, but no problems have been found. Most pertinently, Arakawa’s body displayed signs of mummification in her hands and feet. Mummification — wherein dead tissue hardens and shrinks from what’s often dehydration — of the entire body can take several weeks to a year.

Across a career that took him from 1959 to 2004, Hackman amassed a collection of two Oscars, four Golden Globes, and two British Academy Film Awards. Welcome to Mooseport was his final film.