The is a Mother Jones article from a few years ago that went into the depths of this dark story.
"But the part I for one hadn't heard before was the very end; the part about his fascination with a book called, "The Man from ----.".
During one of our last conversations, Julie mentioned, in throwaway fashion, a diary entry she had stumbled upon about a book recommendation from Epstein. Summarizing for me, she explained that she'd asked Epstein why he had so many girls around.
"I asked him why he was like this," she recalled, "and he said to me to read some book ... .He told me it influenced him to become wealthy."
The book was The Man From ----., an obscure 1965 James Bond ripoff written by Theodore Mark Gottfried under the pen name of Ted Mark.
It's about a con man who travels the world under the guise of being a "sex researcher" in order to spy for the US government. The novel begins with protagonist Steve Victor in Damascus for the kickoff of an "extensive survey of Arab and Oriental sex practices."
There he is approached by a US diplomat and invited to the embassy. In short order, Victor is recruited to spy for the US government.
"Julie didn't know what the book was about, but she remembered the conversation well.
"It was one of the last things we talked about ... .He said to me, Read this book, and that will help you understand,'" Julie told me. "I never read it and don't think I ever will."
more in the last few paragraphs of the article... that book was apparently what his life became.
