I met Leslie Wexner, CEO of the Limited Inc., for the first time in 1987 at a Christmas party he threw for his employees at their home office in Columbus, Ohio. I was sixteen at the time and my mom had been working for The Limited for a couple of years. She asked me to come with her and I agreed, I was a teenager and there would be free food after all.
I was raised in a lower middle class neighborhood in the inner city. I had never seen anything like The Limited's home office, it was gigantic and opulent. It looked like something straight out of Miami Vice. The design and decor were ultra modern, minimalistic.
Les was a stickler for details, the grounds were meticulously landscaped. He even bought black swans (which was an interesting but obtuse metaphor for what would come later) for the ponds on the property because they matched the building. In Columbus Les was both a celebrity and a business tycoon. Rumor had it his multi car garages all had giant turn tables in them because he didn’t like to back up his cars. He would pull in forward, flip a switch and the car would revolve 180 degrees.
"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides." –André Malraux
I was in the company cafeteria, on a balcony overlooking the crowd below and felt a presence behind me. Les was standing there with a huge bodyguard behind him. He introduced himself and we chatted for a short moment, just pleasantries, then he descended the staircase and started mingling with the crowd. I didn’t even realize he was the owner of the company until my mom told me later.
Les was also known locally for being a kind and generous man. Back then he had only just begun his philanthropic work that eventually transformed large areas of Columbus and especially New Albany, Ohio into what they are today. The Limited, Inc. was an amazing company to work for at that time. Business was booming in the eighties and early nineties. The company launched several other divisions -- Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body works, Lane Bryant, just to name a few.
The Limited gifted company stock to their employees on work anniversaries and had an employee stock purchase plan that allowed you to buy stock with each paycheck. There were several warehouse workers there who had become millionaires from the company stock but continued to work anyway.
I applied for a job at The Limited and was hired in 1989, shortly after I graduated high school. The goal was to use the job to pay for college. I began as an order picker in the distribution center and worked my way through several other positions over the next six years. The Limited was a wonderful place to work at the time. Employees were given a turkey for Thanksgiving, hams and a Christmas bonus every year.
"Secrets, silent, stony sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned." –James Joyce, Ulysses
Company parties were catered by some of the best restaurants in Columbus. Les also joined us every quarter for, “quarterly briefings” which were basically a mixture of pep rallies for the employees and dog and pony shows for the shareholders, recapping the company’s performance and plans/goals for the next quarter.
One thing I remember about Les was his consistent behavior. He was always a kind, soft spoken, and highly driven individual. Although Les married in 1993 and started a family there was always a pretty persistent rumor amongst the employees that he was gay. Few people cared or even gave it much thought. It was clear that his business was his life and meant everything to him.
A few months ago I watched the Epstein documentary, Filthy Rich and was shocked to hear of Les’ potential involvement in Epstein’s web of pedophelia. I felt the same initial reaction as I did during the early days of the Bill Cosby and Michael Jackson allegations. I didn’t want to believe it.
According to wikipedia, Jefferey Epstein had become Les Wexner’s “financial manager” in 1987. This was right around the time I met him for the first time at that Christmas party. The thought of that made me shudder. I, by no means, knew Les well but did have enough interactions with him over the years to feel as though I had a good sense of who he was. It's astonishing to think about how close to the epicenter of this I was without even realizing it.
This world is either a disturbingly dark and sinister place under a very thin veneer that everyone naively accepts as "reality' or there’s more to this story. I, personally, believe that the pedophelia is only one particularly heinous part of Epstein’s larger game. I believe he was an absolute master of gaining the trust of billionaires and other very powerful people, digging up their secrets (whatever they might be) and holding those secrets against them for money and favors.
No matter what the nature of their relationship was, Epstein reportedly received (with or without Wexner’s knowledge) almost a half a billion dollars from L Brands, formerly The Limited Inc., between 1987 to 2007. According to the documentary, Wexner also gifted Epstein the multimillion dollar mansion in Manhattan that had become the epicenter of his operation.
Epstein strikes me as a particularly dangerous kind of sociopath who left a wake of destruction wherever he went. Because of his own personal wealth and influence that wake was enormous. He would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Amongst the scores of serial pedophiles who associated with Epstein there are sure to be others who were keeping different kinds of secrets.
What were the nature of these secrets?
As so often is the case, the world may never know.
(Gif sourced from Giphy.com)
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Wow, that is really interesting! We just watched that documentary as well. Since it was Netflix I thought it was going to be slanted very much one particular way. I was interested to see that they showed how Epstein was rubbing elbows with everyone on both sides of the aisle. I think you are right, this is going to go much deeper than we ever imagined. It reminds me of a documentary my wife and I watched a while ago called Children of the Snow I think it was. Nasty stuff!
Thanks! I haven’t heard of Children of the Snow. I really hope this phenomenon isn’t a widespread as the rumors make it out to be.
It was about some kidnapping and murders of kids down in Oakland county back when I was younger. Late 70's I think. If I recall, one of the suspects at the time was a guy who had a private island up off the North West coast of Michigan. Nasty stuff in the vein of Epstein.
That's horrible. There were always those rumors circulating about kidnappings and such in the 70's but it really didn't get much media coverage. I remember groups of children who would go around our neighborhood, selling magazines door-to-door. A big van used to drop them off a few times a year. Their clothes would be ragged and it looked like they hadn't slept. I found out later many of them were either kidnapped or runaways and forced into selling those subscriptions. The "bosses" would put them to work in a different part of the country and wouldn't allow them to have any cash. In the days before cell phones they were pretty much helpless unless they wanted to try to make a break for it. It's strange to think that went on, and was allowed to. The authorities had to know about it. I found a story here that mentions it. They present it like it was voluntary but a majority of the crews in our area were all underage.
Yes, I saw the documentary and I remember asking myself that very question: what secret was Epstein keeping from Les Wexner for him to give him so much money and a mansion worth billions of dollars? He was almost his executor, his sponsor, because after that, Epstein had the power he needed for all his misdeeds! Not to mention that many of the girls were brought to the mansion with the excuse that they were Victoria's Secret models. Sometimes the rot can be close by and we don't even notice the flies. Maybe you were too young to notice or the facade was so good that everyone was fooled. Super interesting this post, Eric! Very good.
He had established a reputation on Wall Street in the early 80’s for making rich people richer and they say one of Wexner’s friends connected the two of them. Thanks Nancy! I’m glad you enjoyed this.
Wow. It astounds me how kind and generous many company founders are. There is often a veneer of mystery and “those people” when all most folks know about the person is the saucy things that appear on the news. Thank you for a kind article Eric. I hear you, it is a strange world that recent “deaths” are revealing to us.
Les really was kind. I find it hard to believe he would knowingly do anything to jeopardize his business. Thanks for your comment, Lydon, and I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
I think I have ha that name before, maybe because of that product name called "fifth harmony". Well he's a great man but it's just they've can't avoid rumor people do pass about successful people
I’m not familiar with fifth harmony. What kind of product was it?
Hello dear friend @ericvancewalton good afternoon I have not seen the documentary, without a doubt I am going to see it and I am very interested in the subject, what an incredible story, it is incredible the things as they happen, one never really knows who you are talking to.
I loved your post, thank you very much for letting us know all these details
have a great afternoon
Thanks! It was a very eerie feeling to think that all that was happening right under our noses. I hope you're having a good week!
Hi Eric ... how are u doing .. It's very interesting your experience working with Les Wexner in the past. Sometimes there is another side to someone that we don't know even though all this time that person looks very perfect. Have a nice day, Eric
Hi Eliana, It's been a quick week. I've been dedicating at least half of each day on the new manuscript so the time is flying by. I hope you've been well! Thank you.
This is exactly why there has been so little progress in the trials.
The records have been unsealed but I've always thought that certain people named in those records will be protected. I think they will very likely pick and choose who is prosecuted. The ultra wealthy very rarely suffer repercussions.
Did you ever see anything about El Chapo paying Hillary Clinton a bribe?
I am wondering how connected that island is with that scenario and why the El Chapo trial was sealed from he public after that info
No, I didn't hear about that. Has anyone found a connection between El Chapo and Epstein? If Epstein's list of "clients" are as influential as people say it is we will likely never even know a fraction of the story.
All I could find online was this connection between the two....https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/the-26-year-old-lawyer-who-represented-epstein-and-el-chapo.html
Closer than I expected... This is similar to what I remember reading I will trying to source the article I read from mentoned the case being sealed after a bribe from El Chapo to Clinton was sourced in the evidence.
@ericvancewalton, Life, World, Secrets and in a way everything is Two Faced Phenomenon.
Have a peaceful time ahead and stay blessed always.
Good point! Maybe there's a different reason the Romans created the god Janus. Thanks, stay blessed @chireerocks!
Welcome. 🙂
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