Famed paleontologist, Chapman lecturer appears in latest Epstein files release
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John “Jack” Horner, a paleontologist who consulted on several Jurassic Park films, visited the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch on more than one occasion and asked the wealthy financier for academic funding.
A series of email exchanges about the trips appear in the newest tranche of files released by the U.S. Department of Justice related to its criminal investigation of Epstein before he died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving minors.
Horner, a Montana State University professor at the time, thanked Epstein’s assistant in an email after visiting Zorro Ranch in August 2012 to dig for dinosaur bones.
“Although we didn’t find any dinosaur fossils, we did discover that [Epstein] has ocean front property, a nice beach with loads of shellfish,” he wrote in an Aug. 7, 2012 email. “Jeffrey and the girls were very gracious hosts as were [redacted].”
“Please give my best to Jeffrey and the girls,” Horner added.
Epstein apprised Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted associate of his trafficking ring, of Horner’s ranch visit.
“Love that,” she wrote. “Didn’t we go fossil hunting with him and Bobby Kennedy in [North] Dakota?”
Horner hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing and appearing in Epstein’s private correspondences is not, itself, a sign of association with his crimes.
But Chapman University, where Horner currently lectures and is presidential fellow, is aware of the Epstein emails involving their faculty member.
“We take these emails very seriously and are looking into the matter,” said Bob Hitchcock, a Chapman University spokesperson.
Horner did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
In a press statement, he called his visit to Epstein’s ranch “extremely poor judgment” in trying to persuade the financier to donate to DinoChicken, his project to explore manipulating a chicken’s DNA to unlock dormant dinosaur-like traits.
Horner claimed that those present during the Aug. 2012 stay included Epstein, his secretary, a ranch manager and four women introduced to him as college students.
“Nothing I observed or experienced during my short stay at the ranch indicated or suggested the conduct that came to light,” Horner stated. “That said, I regret my use of the term ‘girls’ in emails referring to the students, rather than using more appropriate language. I [now] understand the students may have been victims of Epstein, and I deeply regret that I did not realize this at the time.”
Before facing federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting a prostitute and solicitation of prostitution with a minor under 18. After taking the plea deal in 2008, he spent 13 months in county jail, a sentence criticized by victims and legal observers as lax.
A month after visiting Zorro Ranch, Horner pitched Epstein on funding DinoChicken workshop expenses totaling $8,650.
“Great,” Epstein replied on Sept. 19, 2012. “Check made to?”
Horner confirmed in his press statement that Epstein wrote a $10,000 check to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Mont., where he long served as curator.
In a social media post, Horner denies, though, having gone fossil hunting with Epstein and Kennedy in North Dakota.
Another email in the Epstein files details Horner’s return to the ranch in 2016 during a trip through Santa Fe with one of his graduate students. According to Horner, Epstein wasn’t present.
That same year, Horner claimed that pressure from Museum of the Rockies officials over his marriage to a 19-year-old undergraduate student in 2012 and subsequent divorce influenced his decision to retire.
Montana State University followed by adopting new rules in 2019 that forbid professors from having romantic or sexual relationships with undergrad students.
By that time, Horner had already joined Chapman University as a presidential fellow in 2016.
