A Maxwell Mess In Manchester – Ghislaine Maxwell’s Bad Taste

Matthew Steeples

3 years ago

A Maxwell Mess In Manchester – Ghislaine Maxwell’s Bad Taste 1

WORLD EXCLUSIVE – We reveal pictures never seen before inside Ghislaine Maxwell’s £5.4 million Manchester-by-the-Sea hideaway that show her and her errant hubby’s appallingly bad taste in the decorating department and share an image of the convicted sex trafficker’s super-sized “party shower” where goodness knows what went on

Whilst the croaked taxi driver turned sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Paedo Islands’ went on the market this week for £94.5 million, this morning a reader of The Steeple Times supplied us with previously unseen internal photographs of Ghislaine Maxwell’s £5.4 million Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts “colonial estate.” She and her now estranged husband Scott Borgerson lived there from June 2016 until circa December 2019 and now for the first time, we can reveal their nothing-but-naff decorating choices.

Though the mainstream media featured images of the house – which sits on a plot of 1.49-acres and is called ‘The Phippen-Smith House’ (but is more commonly and anonymously just known as ‘301 Summer Street’) – when it came up for sale in February, what they did not point out was that those pictures were of the property when it was sold to the duo through an LLC by agents Compass in June 2016 for £1.8 million.

Convicted criminal Miss Maxwell – who has variously shown her decided deviancy by faking photos and using pseudonyms including ‘Jennifer Ellmax,’ ‘Jen Marshall,’ ‘Janet Marshall,’ ‘Mrs Scott Borgerson’ and just plain old ‘G’ – and her not even known to her family husband since 2016 until her arrest in July 2020, most certainly used 301 Summer Street as one of their main residences. The mucky madam had sold her New York townhouse for £11 million in April 2016 and retained her Belgravia, London mews house until April 2021.

Featuring 15 rooms, 5 bedrooms, 5.3 bathrooms, 8 fireplaces and now extending to a total of 6,113 square feet after the secretive couple added several tasteless extensions resembling portacabins, the internal style of the property is now anything but respectful of the architecture of a building originally constructed in Salem, Massachusetts in 1660 and relocated and re-erected on its current site in 1930.

Little is known about what Borgerson and Maxwell got upto when they lived together at 301 Summer Street, but in July 2019, tittle-tattling neighbours told tales about the crib to The Sun on Sunday.

The first “pal, who did not want to be named,” gossiped to the paper:

“Ghislaine was always very polite and well dressed – she was definitely living there for a while. I thought her and Scott were husband and wife – they seemed really happy together… They were very friendly. When I found out what she’d been accused of I was shocked.”

“Upstairs they had two kids’ bedrooms with toys everywhere and I thought they were their kids but I found out they were Scott’s from his previous marriage.”

“I only saw her in sweat pants one time – the other times she was all done up looking good.”

“They had two dogs there, they were like hunting dogs and they were fierce. One time they came out of nowhere and I thought they were going to kill each other. Maxwell came out of nowhere too and calmed them down.”

“The house did have one unusual feature – a huge shower. It had Wi-Fi so they could control it from their phones, a steam unit, the whole nine yards. It was like a party shower. You can imagine what they got up to in there.”

One is simply left asking of this shower (pictured for the first time ever below): Did alleged Belgravia bathroom bonker Prince Andrew visit and try the contraption out and, if so, what on earth did the randy royal get upto in it?

301 Summer Street in pictures seen for the first time today – That the sitting room of the current Mr and Mrs Borgerson’s house has a gun above the fireplace is somewhat creepy given Rebecca Borgerson’s allegations about her now ex-husband being “verbally and physically abusive.” The furnishings in the room, equally, are somewhat curious – the “prison orange” sofa being especially relevant given where Ghislaine Maxwell now finds herself.

***301 Summer Street in pictures seen for the first time today –*** One of the 5.3 bathrooms at 301 Summer Street features a shower the size of a studio flat. It is quite the contrast to the bathroom at Miss Maxwell’s former Kinnerton Street home where Virginia Roberts Giuffre claims she was forced into sexual relations with the Duke of York in 2001 – a room which we were able to prove she talked nonsense about when she claimed the bathtub “too small for any activity whatsoever” when we exclusively published photographs of it in January this year. Of this bathroom, in July 2019, a “pal” and neighbour told ‘The Sun on Sunday’: “The house did have one unusual feature – a huge shower. It had Wi-Fi so they could control it from their phones, a steam unit, the whole nine yards. It was like a party shower. You can imagine what they got up to in there.” It has not been confirmed as to whether Prince Andrew ever got to try this particularly opulent shower area out.

Then & Now – How Maxwell and Borgerson have changed ‘The Phippen-Smith House’ – Images from the June 2016 listing and images from the February 2022 listing

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – The entrance elevation of 301 Summer Street from its driveway in 2016 (left) and in the latest listing imagery in 2022. The building does not look especially well kept or maintained in either image.

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – Supposedly vegan Ghislaine Maxwell and her beefy husband Scott Borgerson relocated the house’s kitchen into a space that the previous owners had used as a sitting and dining area and moved a window to accommodate a very large Sub Zero Wolf type oven. Their menacing choice of black and white tiling most certainly wouldn’t appear to more ‘homely’ cooks such as condescending cakebaker Dame Mary Berry DBE, cocaine crackpot The Honourable Nigella Lawson and “let’s be havin’ ya” yeller Delia Smith CH CBE.

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – The original kitchen may have been somewhat like that seen in the home of Hyacinth Bucket’s in the 1990s BBC series ‘Keeping Up Appearances,’ but the Borgerson-Maxwell version can only be surmised as having a “clinically cold look.”

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – A dining room with somewhat strange wallpaper in 2016 has been redecorated in a style that looks more like an office where Ricky Gervais might feel at home. The painting on the right-hand wall perhaps might have some kind of connection with Ghislaine Maxwell’s charity Oceana and her supposed number one passion (other than sex trafficking minors), the oceans.

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – Surprisingly, Maxwell and Borgerson did actually brighten up the hallway and staircase area of the home with a fresh white look. Again, however, one is left asking what strange extra-curricular activities the oars on the walls might have been used for.

***Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – Mr and Mrs Borgerson plainly liked the ‘vomit green’ colour in this room and made few changes here.***

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – The previously traditionally styled master bedroom, however, got a full-on makeover and extension and sliding doors that’d look more suited to a residence in the oligarch hideout that is One Hyde Park.

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – What Americans call a ‘deck’ and what Brits might term a ‘terrace’ was subjected to a complete B&Q style makeover by Mr and Mrs Borgerson. The garden beyond now looks like a totally neglected wilderness. Mate of royals and TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh MBE most certainly would be less than impressed.

Then in 2016 and now in 2022 – Maxwell and Borgerson tore off the traditionally appropriate colonial-style detailing at the rear of 301 Summer Street and plonked on what looks like a portacabin. Good taste and respect for architectural heritage and this couple most definitely are not in unity.

The Names, Dates & Numbers – Ghislaine Maxwell, Scott Borgerson and Jeffrey Epstein and The Phippen-Smith House, 301 Summer Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Cape Ann, Essex County, Massachusetts, MA 01944, United States of America

26^th March 2022 – A beady-eyed reader supplies The Steeple Times with the current listing brochure for 301 Summer Street complete with up-to-date imagery of the house. It shows how Borgerson and Maxwell well and truly have made an utter mess of what was a previously charming residence.

March 2022 – The real estate website Realtor.com suggests the house to currently be worth a significantly lower sum and estimates its value at just £2.45 million ($3.235 million, €2.945 million or درهم11.88 million).

February 2022 – 301 Summer Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea is listed for sale for £5.368 million ($7.295 million, €6.443 million or درهم26.791 million) by Campion And Company. The firm, however, do not include a public listing of the property on its site and they do not include any current photographs of the house.

29^th December 2021 – Ghislaine Maxwell is found guilty on five out of six of the charges she had faced. Her husband was not present for the verdict and left his wife to face being sent down alone and with just her brothers and sisters to support the by now convicted child sex trafficker.

29^th November 2021 – Ghislaine Maxwell goes on trial at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Her husband did not attend on a single day of that trial.

Mid to late 2020 – Ghislaine Maxwell’s “secret husband” goes off radar, but is seen occasionally “looking glum” and walking their “medium-sized pet dog” in Manchester-by-the-Sea. He had previously been seen walking the pooch in Boston in 2019.

2^nd July 2020 – Ghislaine Maxwell is arrested at Tuckedaway.

In the weeks after her arrest, as she unsurprisingly unsuccessfully sought bail, Maxwell claimed via her lawyers that the “majority of her assets” had been transferred into a “trust controlled by her husband and another unnamed party.”

In documents submitted to the courts, they put her their worth at £17.1 million ($22.5 million, €20.5 million or درهم82.6 million) and suggested: “For Ms Maxwell to flee, she would have to abandon her spouse. She will not isk destroying the lives and financial well-being of those she holds most dear to live as a fugitive during a worldwide pandemic.”

Going further, they added: “In fact, every action Ms Maxwell has taken from the time of Epstein’s arrest up to the time of the first bail hearing was designed to protect her spouse… from harassment, economic harm, and physical danger. If Ms. Maxwell were to violate her bail conditions, which she has no intention of doing… she would be leaving her spouse…with virtually nothing.”

In a letter to Judge Alison J. Nathan, Mr Borgerson added: “The person described in the criminal charges is not the person we know. I have never witnessed anything close to inappropriate with Ghislaine. Quite to the contrary, the Ghislaine I know is a wonderful and loving person… I believe that Ghislaine had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes.”

13^th December 2019 – Ghislaine Maxwell purchases Tuckedaway, 338 East Washington Road, Bradford, New Hampshire, NH 03221 for £787,953 ($1,070,750, €945,752 or درهم3.93 million) via Jennifer Johnson and Margaret Weathers of Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty. The house had been listed at a price of £879,000 ($1.195 million, €1.055 million or درهم4.389 million) in March that year and sold previously for £773,000 ($1.050 million, €927,000 million or درهم3.856 million) on 15^th December 2017.

Mid-late 2019 – Maxwell is said to have “fallen foul” of locals and left Manchester-by-the-Sea. An alleged sighting of her in Los Angeles followed in August 2019 when she was snapped at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Los Angeles, California. The photographs were proven to be fake as advertising on hoardings in the background had never been at that location. Her associate Leah Saffian, whose dog appeared in one of the images, has never explained her role in this skulduggery.

10th August 2019 – Jeffrey Epstein dies by supposed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York. He had previously supposedly attempted suicide on 23rd July 2019 whilst sharing a cell with alleged quadruple killer cop Nicholas Tartaglione.

6th July 2019 – Jeffrey Epstein is arrested after his private jet lands at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey.

15^th June 2019 – The Cash & Rocket Rally ends in Monte Carlo. Miss Maxwell was clearly especially keen to avoid being photographed. She was subsequently not seen again in public until her trial commenced on 29^th November 2021.

13^th June 2019 – The mucky madam sets off from London on the car rally in an Alfa Romeo with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s wife Annette (known as ‘Nettie’ to her chums). They travel first to Paris and then go via Geneva to Monte Carlo.

12^th June 2019 – Maxwell and Borgerson are named in court documents concerning a case between Tidewood LLC and John Appel, Katherine Rive and Curtis Hollingsworth regarding a property dispute concerning their shorefront access. In due course, on 11^th March 2020, judgment was found in favour of the plaintiff.

6^th June 2019 – Ghislaine Maxwell is last seen in public in London at an event hosted by Julie Brangstup and her ‘charity’ Cash & Rocket at Bibendum, South Kensington. The Steeple Times’ editor Matthew Steeples dined at the same restaurant on that particular evening, but the media’s focus was primarily on other attendees including the socialites Paris Hilton and Caroline Stanbury and the daughter of the asset stripping disgrace Sir Philip Green, Chloe Green.

During this particular London visit, Miss Maxwell met with her six living siblings Anne, Kevin, Isabel, Christine, Philip and Ian to remember her late pension pot plundering father on 10^th June 2019 on what would have been his 96^th birthday. She also supposedly went to Buckingham Palace for tea with the man who subsequently paid £12 million ($15.8 million, €14.4 million or درهم58.2 million) to a woman he supposedly never met (but emailed Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-lover about), Prince Andrew.

30^th June 2016 – The Phippen-Smith House is sold to Tidewood LLC, a limited liability company controlled by Ghislaine Maxwell’s “secret husband,” for £1.802 million ($2.450 million, €2.164 million or درهم8.998 million). The couple are said to have spent £1.8 million ($2.5 million, €2.2 million or درهم9.2 million) on renovations in the years since that included the installation of many security cameras. During the purchase process, Maxwell is said to have used the pseudonym ‘Jennifer Ellmax.’

April 2016 – Ghislaine Maxwell sells her Upper East Side, New York townhouse for £11 million ($15 million, €13.2 million or درهم55.1 million) and “disappeared.” She had originally bought that property in 2015 for £12.4 million ($16.9 million, €14.9 million or درهم62.1 million).

Date unknown in 2016 – Scott Borgerson marries Ghislaine Maxwell. She eventually revealed she was married to her until then “secret husband” in court in December 2020 to the surprise of the world and her own brothers and sisters even.

20^th June 2015 – Rebecca Borgerson files for divorce from her then husband. She cited “irreconcilable differences.” The couple had married in 2001 and had two children together.

15^th June 2014 – Scott Borgerson is charged with the assault and domestic battery of his then wife Rebecca Borgerson.

2014 – Ghislaine Maxwell meets her future husband at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland whilst married to his then first wife.

What A Tangled Web They Weave… Mr & Mrs Scott Borgerson’s curious love lives – Ghislaine and Scott certainly know how to choose them… Not…

Incarcerated sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell with her since dead ex-lover and associate Jeffrey Epstein (left). The latter died by apparent ‘suicide’ on 10th August 2019 in prison awaiting trial whilst the latter took up with submarine pilot Scott Borgerson, supposedly married him in 2016, but curiously did not tell her very own siblings of this union until after her 2020 arrest.

Whilst his now estranged wife Ghislaine Maxwell – whom he didn’t even bother to turn up to support at her December 2021 trial and whom he supposedly dumped in a telephone call to her prison around the same time – is very clearly known for her deviancy and use of pseudonyms, Scott Borgerson, it seems, also likes to change his look to avoid detection. During their time together, Maxwell (AKA ‘Mrs Scott Borgerson’) settled two separate lawsuits with Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Sarah Ransome, who each claimed she coerced them into sex acts with Jeffrey Epstein, under confidential terms.

Scott Borgerson is a man who could certainly go under the radar given he has most definitely altered the way he looks multiple times over the years. Clearly, this is a trait he shares with his wicked second wife. The couple’s live-in ‘houseboy’ and dog walker in 2015, Rasmus Alpsjö, spoke of their “secretive nature” in March 2022 and claimed Mr Borgerson to be a “militant,” “scary” and “intimidating” man who once told him he’d teach him “how an alpha male treats a dog.”

The cowardy custard and “famous for namedropping” former CEO of CargoMetric’s first marriage to a lady named Rebecca broke down in 2014. The couple had married in May 2001 in Palm Beach, Florida and had two children together, but in court papers Rebecca Borgerson alleged her Missouri born husband to have a “history of alcoholism, physical and verbal abuse, and extreme controlling nature.” The first Mrs Borgerson claimed also that her now ex-husband once told her: “Don’t make me beat you in front of the children.” Their divorce was finalised in December 2015.

Since his current wife – whom he tellingly tended to describe more simply as a “partner” to anyone who enquired in the years prior when asked – was taken into custody on 2nd July 2020, Scott Borgerson briefly “went to ground” and after briefly writing supportive letters then “avoided” her entirely. He was seen walking one of their dogs, a Vizsla named Captain Nemo, in Manchester-by-the-Sea and spotted out shopping and driving a Tesla and a cabriolet Mini, but now it seems he’s gone and got himself entangled a yoga enthusiast and journalist called Kris McGinn Straub. Of this blonde mother, who is currently getting divorced and “covers and photographs food and cultural trends for the 133-year-old local newspaper the ‘Manchester Cricket,’” it has been amusingly observed: “She has an ass that could crack open a walnut.”

The Cape Ann seaside home owned by Mr and Mrs Scott Borgerson stands above a rocky outcrop looking out to sea. It has a plaque on it that reads: “The Phippen Smith House, 1660. House originally at 9 Elm Street in Salem, deconstructed here in 1917 and reconstructed on its current site in 1930.”

Since they purchased it in 2016, the couple have made significant alterations including the addition of a first-floor extension. Current listing photographs clearly show, however, that the external condition of the building has significantly been allowed to decline in recent months and indicate a garden that is an overgrown wilderness.

Manchester-by-the-Sea was known more simply as ‘Manchester’ until 1989 when its town council decided to change its name to avoid confusion with the much larger city of the same name. The eponymous 2016 film starring Casey Affleck as a “grief stricken loner” who gets himself involved in a bit of a messy familial situation is apt given current resident Scott Borgerson comes across as just such in the wake of his current wife’s much deserved incarceration.

Then & Now – How Maxwell and Borgerson have changed ‘The Phippen-Smith House’ – Images from the June 2016 listing and images from the February 2022 listing

The Names, Dates & Numbers – Ghislaine Maxwell, Scott Borgerson and Jeffrey Epstein and The Phippen-Smith House, 301 Summer Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Cape Ann, Essex County, Massachusetts, MA 01944, United States of America

What A Tangled Web They Weave… Mr & Mrs Scott Borgerson’s curious love lives – Ghislaine and Scott certainly know how to choose them… Not…

A Maxwell Mess… Further imagery from the current sale listing illustrating the bad taste of Miss Maxwell and her errant husband