Zorro Horror

One thing conspicuously missing from the files, however, is the surreal fact that on July 2, 2008, two days after Epstein began serving his Florida prison sentence, a company called Zorro Trust won the Oklahoma state Powerball lottery, in the amount of $85 million. The trust opted for a one-time cash payout that amounted to $29.3 million, after taxes.

There are few serious news stories connecting this win to Epstein. Having been a reporter in big newsrooms for a decade, I can tell you why. It’s because plausible deniability is built into the way the Oklahoma blind-trust lottery laws shield the identities of the winners. At the time, Oklahoma was one of only a handful of states that allowed lottery tickets to be purchased in the name of a trust whose owners would by law remain anonymous to the public. Even a freedom of information act request from a reporter would not be enough to compel the state to reveal the names of the individual or individuals behind the trust — only a court order can do that.

My investigations lead me to believe the winning ticket in July 2008’s Oklahoma Powerball was, indeed, Epstein’s Zorro Trust, and not, you know, some other Zorro Trust. Sources familiar with operations at Zorro Ranch tell me Brice Gordon bought the ticket — and, yes, they are too scared to let me use their names. We do know the winning ticket was purchased at a Stripes convenience store in Altus, Oklahoma, a town of 18,000, near an Air Force base — and a mere six-hour drive from Stanley, New Mexico. Gordon and his wife Karen co-managed the Zorro Ranch. They are both former soldiers in the New Zealand military. My sources here in New Mexico tell me they both used to prowl in Santa Fe and Albuquerque for underaged girls to bring to the ranch, and that they hosted large “sex parties” where the girls were raped by multiple people who were often in disguise. The Gordons inherited at least $2 million when Epstein died, and have since disappeared from the public eye.