James PATTERSON
his father moved out of Brooklyn. Seymour and Paula took Gary in. Often they referred to him as their third son. “Paula was a wonderful mother and homemaker,” Grossberg remembers, “despite the fact that she had a full-time job.”
Epstein, as a kid, was “chubby, with curly hair and a high, ‘hee-hee’ kind of laugh,” Beverly Donatelli recalls.* Beverly was two years older than Epstein, but thanks to his precocious tal- ents, which allowed him to skip two grades, they graduated from Brooklyn's Lafayette High School together, in 1969.
“He was advanced,” Beverly remembers. “He tutored my girl- friend and myself in the summer. He taught me geometry in just two months.”
When Beverly thinks of Epstein now, she recalls gentler times— long strolls down the Coney Island boardwalk, roller-coaster rides, stolen kisses. “That last year in school, I think he kind of loved me,” she says. “One night on the beach he kissed me. In fact, our history teacher made up a mock wedding invitation for Jeffrey and myself to show to the class. That seems pretty inappropriate now. But back
then, we all thought it was funny. Jews and the Italians, that was pretty much who went to Lafayette High School. They didn't social- ize that much. And though my mother was crazy about him, she
told me Jewish boys don't marry Italians.”
Through the haze of several decades, Beverly remembers © Epstein as a kindhearted boy and something of a prodigy—4 =
gifted young pianist as well as a math whiz.
“| was talking to my girlfriends the other day,” she says.
—————————
* Beverly Donatelli’s name, some identify changed.
ing details, and dialogue have been
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Gary Grossberg was a ye class as Epstein’s kid remains very friendly, t. frey in some time. Both
‘Jeffrey's a brilliant generous.”
Grossberg says he’s
| Florida.” As he sees it,
| was hanging around wit
Grossberg wonders,
4 cial contributed to his e
“H = € was a diamond it
_ People recognized Jeffri
:: tfor recognizing oppc
i a
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HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_022059