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.
Val Kilmer, who died last year, expressed interest in visiting Epstein, “since I know how unpleasant the circumstances are,” the actor wrote in a September 2008 email, “and that people become shy sometimes when they should be reaching out.”
At the time, Epstein was serving a 13-month sentence for solicitation of a minor.
Val Kilmer
Mark Humphrey/ The Associated Press
Kilmer hoped Epstein was “allowing this to let you grow,” he wrote, and signed the email, “God bless, Val Kilmer.”
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.
Kilmer’s correspondence with Epstein spanned many years; the two reunited as late as December 2017.
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.
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.
Jeffrey Epstein appears with two girls or young women at a movie set on the ranch that previously was owned by designer Tom Ford.
Courtesy U.S. Department of Justice
The sex offender’s 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 “truth commission.”
‘A little reunion’
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.
He rose to prominence as an actor in the 1980s and ‘90s, 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.
A spokesperson for his estate did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s not clear how Kilmer and Epstein became connected, but Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, asked another man in an email in 2004 whether they would have time to meet with Kilmer on a trip to Los Angeles.
Kilmer in 2009 told a filmmaker he wouldn’t be around New Mexico a certain week but urged him in an email to “check out the ranch” and to give his “regards to jeff.” The email was forwarded to Epstein.
Kilmer reached out to Epstein the following year, writing, “hope to see u in NYC or in new Mexico,” and the two occasionally went back and forth about whether they were in New Mexico.
Epstein was included in an email Kilmer sent to several people in 2011 announcing he was selling off pieces of his ranch, “accepting these modern times,” to which Epstein responded, “lets catch up.”
The two reconnected in December 2017, less than two years before Epstein’s arrest, when they were both in Palm Beach, Fla.
Epstein invited Kilmer to lunch in Palm Beach, and appeared to suggest they had met at his ranch earlier: “as you may recall like in stanley new mexico.”
Kilmer invited Epstein to his show that night at a small comedy club — “a guaranteed hour and a half of pure joy and not just cause I wrote produced directed and starred in it,” Kilmer wrote.
“Gee how the hell have you been after all this time?” Kilmer asked Epstein.
Epstein asked Kilmer to meet for coffee before or after the show, as “I prefer no crowds,” but he changed his mind a few messages later, and the two planned, as Kilmer put it, “a little reunion” before the show.
“Just me tonite I will leave the entourage,” Epstein wrote, planning to attend alone.
After Epstein followed up that night, thanking Kilmer for his “kind hospitality,” Kilmer said he’d “love to come by and visit and catch up for a bit tomorrow.”
It’s not clear from the emails whether the two met again.
Neighbor Ford
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.
Maxwell in a 2004 email invited Ford to Epstein’s ranch — by helicopter.
“I am here at the ranch, 2 mins from you by helicopter. Do you want me to come and pick you up for coffee,” Maxwell asked in the email.
Ford responded the same day in all-caps, calling it “GREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU” and saying he and his partner would “LOVE TO GET TOGETHER.”
“WE 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,” Ford wrote, signing the email with his late partner, Richard Buckley.
Epstein tried in 2011 to get Ford’s updated contact information “to invite [Ford] to see Peter Mandelson when he’s in town,” Epstein’s staff relayed to one another by email, referring to the British politician.
Epstein appears surrounded by girls or women whose faces are redacted at Tom Ford’s Cerro Pelon Ranch in New Mexico.
Courtesy U.S. Department of Justice
Ford’s Cerro Pelon Ranch included a set used for Western films. Epstein visited the property in August 2015, writing that his friend was filming “a big western this week,” in Galisteo.
The film would be at Ford’s ranch “next to mine,” he wrote to someone whose name was redacted, inviting them to fly down to watch the filming. He told Joi Ito, then the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, the set was “next door, tom fords.”
The filming appeared to be an Amazon pilot called Edge, based on a schedule contained in the Epstein files and images in the U.S. Justice Department files.
If the series took off, he told Ito, in his typo-strewn style, “they will move to mine and build a big saloon, barber shope and i hope brothel.”
Undated photos in the Justice Department files show Epstein with some girls or young women at Ford’s movie set.
Pursuing Redford
It’s not clear if Epstein was ever successful in meeting with Redford, who maintained a home in Santa Fe for decades.
He pressed several sources for the contact info in 2013, including former Gov. Bill Richardson, who knew Redford.
“Jeffrey would like you to please tell Gov. Richardson to let Bob Redford know that he is flying to Santa Fe from New York on April 25th and if Bob would like a ride, he is more than welcome,” Epstein’s assistant wrote to Richardson’s aide.
When Epstein asked entertainment publicist Peggy Siegal for Redford’s contact info the same year, and she asked whether Epstein knew him, he said yes — claiming he had taught Redford’s daughter, which couldn’t immediately be confirmed.
Epstein had begun his career as a math teacher at the elite Dalton School in New York City.
Moreover, Epstein wrote, “he is good friends of bill richardson, former gov and great friend of mine in new mexicol.”
Gov. Bill Richardson holds a news conference with actor, filmmaker, environmentalist and supporter of the arts Robert Redford at the state Capitol in May 2009.
Jane Phillips/New Mexican file photo
Later in April, Richardson’s aide passed along an invitation from Redford to Epstein.
“Via the Gov, Mr. Redford thanks Jeffrey for his kind offer, but he won’t be in NYC at the time. Mr. Redford would like to invite Jeffrey to dinner at his Santa Fe home when he returns to Santa Fe in early June,” she wrote.
“lets do a richardson robert redford lunch or dinner,” Epstein wrote to his assistant in July of that year.
Later that month, Richardson’s aide wrote, “The Gov. spoke with Robert Redford, but Redford doesn’t want to do lunch unless the Gov. goes.”
Scheduling didn’t appear to work out for a meal that month.