A massive mansion, two private beaches, three personal office bungalows, helicopter pads, a yacht, an elaborate, doorless sex temple, a cultish looking sundial with seating for twenty, construction vehicles, an ambulance and an inexplicable underground ventilation system.

These are all features of Jeffery Epstein’s private Virgin Isle. It’s like something straight out of a Bond film. And Epstein himself was not so unlike a Bond villain: a swaggering bourgeois socialite with a mysterious fortune, a strange connection to government intelligence, a history of sex offenses and surrounded by very dark, condemning rumors of child sex rings.    

Except, Epstein, his island and the sex empire he ran are not works of fiction — they are all too real. As are the young girls he was so often seen boarding boats and planes with. Some of whom, witnesses say, couldn’t have been older than 16.

Up until now, though, Epstein’s island has remained an enigma; a place that people could only peer at through binoculars and wonder. But in the wake of Epstein’s arrest, and the FBI raid of the island, that private place is not so private any more. And thanks to one youtuber, now, you can take an HD drone tour of Jeffery Epstein’s freak island.

“I have been running surveillance in one way or another … for 22 months,” Rusty Shackleford tells me, over which time this vigilante filmmaker has been tailed, chased and had his life threatened. Masked men on jet-skis have stalked him, Epstein’s own helicopter has buzzed his boat and people online have sent him numerous death threats.

But this is the kind of thing that Shackleford says he lives for.

“Any second they spend chasing us is a second they aren’t doing something horrible and evil,” he says. “Exposing the Truth is the only way forward.”

I do not know whether Rusty Shackleford is his real name, but it’s probably safe to assume it isn’t. It is however his YouTube handle, the name you can search for his videos under, and it’s the alias I interviewed his as — so it’s how I’ll refer to him in this article.

“The entire island is strange, as is everything and everyone on it,” Shackleford says. “The closer you look the more fake facets or hidden doors or curious structures start popping out.”

He isn’t exaggerating, either. Shackleford has over 70 videos on his channel, all of Epstein’s strange private island. And the more of them you watch, the more of that place you see, the more questions that seem to pop up: what’s with all the cultish iconography and art? Why is there so much underground ventilation? Why are there so many people still on the island? What was this place to Jeffery Epstein?

The mysteries abound.


Jeffery Epstein's "temple." Screenshot courtesy of Rusty Shackleford.

Take for example, the pinnacle of his private island paradise: an elaborate blue and white temple situated at the highest point of the island, on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It is a concrete structure, with big wooden doors and windows on three sides, looking out at the sea. Outside there is a fire pit, a large patio and benches scattered about. Until recently, this building also had a gold dome and two golden owls adorning its roof (which were blown off by a hurricane).

It’s a strange building at first glance — and it gets even stranger upon closer inspection.

“The large ‘wooden door’ on the temple is merely a fake painted illusion, as are the sections above and below the windows,” Shackleford points out. And he’s right. “He also signed ‘JE’ in the false depth perception.”

A doorless temple, painted to look like it has an entrance? Why? What on Earth could that be used for?


The fake "door" on Epstein's "temple." Screenshot courtesy of Rusty Shackleford.

According to employees on the island, that “temple” was either one of two things: 1) a work out room/gym for Mr. Epstein to get his swol on, or 2) an acoustically balanced piano room where the classically trained Epstein would go to tickle the keys of some baby grand for fun.

“The Temple being a gym or an ‘acoustically balanced piano room’ are absurd and absolutely not the case,” Shackleford says. “This thing had small mattresses inside, marble mosque[-like] interior walls and hardwood floors. None of which screams ‘acoustics’ or ‘heavy weights dropping.’”

Epstein also had three separate offices on the island, which he reportedly used on different days. There is a weird massive sundial (not far from the temple) which, until recently, was surrounded by brightly covered benches — as if meant for people to gather around. FBI agents reported finding hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of naked women (some troublingly young) scattered around his mansion and offices. There is an ambulance (which seems very out of place) as well as a large concrete mixer and a construction roller.

And strangest of all, is the inexplicable ventilation system. All around the island there are vents and fans and hidden doors. To many, it seems as if there is an underground structure of some kind hidden beneath the island surface, safe from the prying eyes of Rusty Shackleford.


Epstein's island mansion. Screenshot courtesy of Rusty Shackleford.

Some of Epstein's suspiscious island equipment. Screenshot courtesy of Rusty Shackleford.

The sundial (after the benches were removed). Screenshot courtesy of Rusty Shackleford.

Part of the inexplicable ventilation system. Screenshot courtesy of Rusty Shackleford.

According to Shackleford and locals, it was no secret what was happening on that island. Many locals called it “Orgy Island” or “the Island of Sin” and local air traffic controllers told Vanity fair that they would see Epstein flying into St. James airport as often as twice a month with girls that looked like they could be in high school. And on nights when the island was raging, port sources said that girls would be ferried onto and off of the island by the literal boatload.

“This whole thing is aided and compounded by the fact this whole [Virgin Islands] area is lawless as all hell,” Shackleford says, describing the Virgin Islands as the “Wild West.”

“The power company, the [Department of Planning and Natural Resources], local ‘police,’ banks, literally the entire government infrastructure is corrupt bottom to top. Anyone not directly involved in something illegal is being paid to look the other way,” he says.

Which was something corroborated by a local air traffic controller, who told Vanity Fair that he and his coworkers would regularly see Epstein getting off his helicopter and onto his plane with “children” — well after he became a registered sex offender in 2011.

“It was like he was flaunting it,” the anonymous employee said. “But it was said that he always tipped really well, so everyone overlooked it.”

The videos of Epstein’s island raise a lot of questions that can make the imagination run to some dark places. And there’s a lot we still haven’t seen.

What’s certain though, is that Jeffery Epstein wasn’t doing all this just by/for himself. The strange amenities of “Orgy Island” were not built for one single man — they are clearly designed to accommodate large groups. And some of the people who associated with Epstein (riding on his planes, or helicopters and even having visited that island) are some of the biggest names in politics and power: Prince Andrew (the Duke of York), former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, former POTUS Bill Clinton, and even the current POTUS, Donald Trump, who once considered Epstein a close friend.

“I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy," Trump said, according to New York Magazine. “He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

“This character is the cornerstone of the biggest scandal in American history,” Shackleford says seriously. “And the fact is, that this guy is essentially a nobody compared to who he is connected to.”