Parakeets from PetSmart: The Island Emails Nobody's Talking About

# Parakeets from PetSmart: The Island Emails Nobody's Talking About

Everyone's reading the Epstein files for the famous names. Tom Pritzker. Bill Gates. Elon Musk. The press conferences, the resignations, the cable news cycles.

Nobody's reading the grocery lists.

They should be. The logistics emails are worse than the headlines — not because they're shocking, but because they're not. The most disturbing thing about Jeffrey Epstein's island operation is how much it reads like a hotel management chain.

The Daily List

December 24, 2009. Christmas Eve. Epstein emails what he calls the "daily list" to island staff:

1. Wake at 5:30. Prepare fresh breakfast. Bake muffins. Oatmeal.

2. Lay out swimsuit and exercise items.

3. Steam, facial, massage. Fresh fruit or snack.

4. Prepare lunch. Tea, snack, run errands. Magazines. Drugstore. Food. DVDs.

5. Help with guests. Activities.

6. Massage. 6 PM light dinner.

That's the daily schedule for staff on Little St. James Island. Wake before dawn. Bake. Massage. Help with guests. Massage again. Light dinner.

It reads like a spa brochure. It was sent from [email protected] — his actual email address — on Christmas Eve. EFTA02433033.

Fresh Muffins Down

April 16, 2013. A staff member emails Epstein:

"I will be sending fresh muffins down with [redacted]. You currently have 2 steaks left on the island. Would you like new ones? Ice cream?"

EFTA02521844.

Six months later, October 25, 2013, another email:

"[Name] has baked muffins to send to LSI and will send mixture and topping for 12 more so that you can make fresh when you are there."

LSI. Little St. James Island. They had a nickname for it. And they were shipping muffin batter so the staff could bake fresh on arrival.

EFTA02297956.

The Grocery Run

May 23, 2013. Stephanie Hodges emails Karyna Shuliak — Epstein's girlfriend who would later be named a beneficiary of the Butterfly Trust:

"So there is no organic chicken or salmon. Is regular ok? No red Illy coffee beans, and no spray butter. Other than that, I have it all."

Karyna responds: "Yes, regular chicken breasts and salmon is ok. We will bring coffee and butter spray. How many butter sprays?"

EFTA02297407.

They were worried about organic chicken. On the island. The island where federal prosecutors would later document the trafficking of minors. Someone was comparison shopping for Illy coffee beans.

Parakeets from PetSmart

January 21, 2014. Epstein to island staff:

"lets get some parakeets for the birdcage., a gillete fusion razor."

Parakeets and a razor. Same email. Same breath.

Staff member Louella responds the same day:

"Talked to PetSmart personnel who specializes in birds that cages should not be made of lead copper or wood for birds tend to bite it. Ours here is wood (I think bamboo). Do you still want me to buy parakeets?"

Epstein: "buy them on the 24th lets see."

EFTA01939594 and EFTA01936518.

Three years later, January 27, 2017, Epstein emails Ann Rodriquez about maintenance issues: "Master bath door stuck, water stink. living terrace gutter right side bird cage garbage."

EFTA02367744.

The bird cage was still there. Still generating garbage. Still being maintained alongside the master bath and the living terrace.

The Amex Card

An unnamed staff member emails Epstein:

"I have my Amex! You are unbelievable! Should I use it for taxis and groceries? I still have cash you gave me on the island so I can use that first. It is so touching that you did this, I can't wait to explain to you in person."

EFTA01833995.

"It is so touching." An American Express card and cash on the island. The gratitude is real. That's what makes it hard to read.

Bella Klein, who worked in Epstein's office, submitted petty cash receipts for reimbursement in January 2015: $415 for a driving course. $390 for taxi and travel. $511.59 for food at "LSJ, PB, NY" — Little St. James, Palm Beach, New York. $60 for a driving class. $15 for a bank wire transfer fee. Total: $1,391.59.

EFTA02372842.

LSJ, PB, NY. Three locations. One expense report. The island was just another line item.

The Travel Desk

Susan Hamblin coordinated travel. In April 2013, she forwarded Boris Nikolic's flight details — Nikolic, the former Bill Gates science advisor whom Epstein named as backup executor of his will.

"Boris has booked himself on the same flight as [redacted] on Saturday morning to west palm beach."

EFTA02521844.

In May 2018, a flight alert was set: "check on flight status of Karyn. Cape Air #5984 departing at 3:30pm." That's Cape Air flight 5984, the SJU to STT shuttle — San Juan to St. Thomas. The last commercial hop before the boat to the island.

EFTA02246260.

JetBlue 403 from JFK to San Juan. Then Cape Air 5984 to St. Thomas. Then the boat. That was the route. Natalia Molotkova at American Express Centurion booked it. The tickets cost $441.80 each.

The Architect

Ramon Alonso, an architect from a firm called Radyca, was designing new structures for the island in 2018. Mood boards from Bali and Mexico. Pavilion renderings. Water features. Engineers and consultants.

Epstein reviewed the designs from the mainland: "getting on a plane will land tonight around 5. so take your time. tomorw i will go to the island and peruse it on site."

EFTA02243836.

He was still building. In 2018. After the Miami Herald investigation. After Julie K. Brown's reporting. Still commissioning pavilions with Balinese mood boards.

What the Logistics Tell You

Everyone focuses on the famous names because famous names are dramatic. But the logistics emails tell you something the celebrity documents don't: this operation ran for decades because it was professionalized.

There was a travel desk. There was a grocery supply chain with an organic preference. There was a daily staff schedule distributed via email at 5:30 AM. There was a PetSmart account for parakeets. There were Centurion-level AmEx bookings for the Cape Air shuttle. There were architects designing new pavilions with international mood boards.

This was not a guy who "made mistakes." This was an organization with departments.

The emails are mundane because the operation was mundane. Wake at 5:30. Bake muffins. Help with guests.

Ninety-two thousand documents. They emailed all of it.

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*All documents referenced by EFTA number are from DOJ releases indexed in the DugganUSA Epstein Files database (92,188 documents). Searchable at epstein.dugganusa.com.*

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*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*

*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*