Jeffrey Epstein's New Mexico Ranch Sought Private Military-Grade Communications Network — With Help From a Neighbor

Federal documents, FCC records, and property filings reveal an unusual technical relationship between Zorro Ranch and the adjacent San Cristobal Ranch, established as federal investigators closed in

THIS IS THE HARD-NEWS VERSION OF THE ESSAY I PUBLISHED EARLIER TODAY. I felt the material deserved a dispassionate, serious treatment as well as the more personal one. To read the longer version, click here.

Please note, a correction was made on 3/8/2026. I mistakenly wrote that Henry Singleton was a fighter pilot in the first version. He was not. I was confusing him with Carl Ingwer, another WWII intelligence-adjacent guy who bought a ranch nearby, whom I’d written about in the days before.

I offer these posts freely, but your support is necessary and appreciated. Please subscribe, paid if you’re able, and share my work if it moves you. You may also leave a one-time or recurring tip in any amount. Thank you! A.

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Henry Singleton, who owned the 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch, which shared 2 miles of fenceline and, it appears, communications operations, with Jefrrey Epstein’s 7,600-acre Zorro Ranch.

In March 2016, Jeffrey Epstein was worried about his communications.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York were deepening their investigation of his activities. Epstein had already survived one conviction — a 2008 Florida plea deal widely criticized as a sweetheart arrangement — and he understood that New York, Florida, and the U.S. Virgin Islands had law enforcement establishments that had not been reluctant to pursue him. He needed a more secure operation, and he needed it fast.

The solution he pursued, according to an internal email chain now part of the Department of Justice’s released Epstein files, involved building a private microwave radio communications network at his Zorro Ranch property in New Mexico — and reaching out to the owner of the neighboring San Cristobal Ranch to share the cost.

What the records show about that relationship, and about who owned San Cristobal Ranch, raises questions that federal investigators do not appear to have pursued.

The email chain

The March 2016 emails show Epstein pressing his ranch manager, Brice Gordon, to move urgently on a major communications upgrade. Gordon told Epstein he had contacted someone named “Vito” at San Cristobal Ranch and was waiting to hear back on sharing the buildout cost. Epstein’s reply was uncharacteristically blunt: “please push. dont wait, call again.”

Gordon then contacted a counterpart at Epstein’s Little St. James island property to obtain technical specifications for the microwave system already operating there. A contractor later involved in the Zorro Ranch construction described the resulting structure as large, expensive, and of military and industrial quality.

Whether “Vito” at San Cristobal Ranch responded, and whether the neighboring property ultimately shared the cost, is not established in the documents reviewed.

What the FCC records show

Federal Communications Commission records show the system was built, licensed under Zorro Development Corp., with Gordon listed as manager. Two licenses covering a bidirectional system were issued. When the Huffines family — Texas real estate develpers and Trump allies who purchased the property and renamed it San Rafael Ranch — discontinued several other FCC licenses associated with the ranch after taking ownership, these two were kept active, in their original form, under Gordon’s name. They remain in effect.

The Huffines family has documented ties to the Trump administration. Their son Russell currently holds a position in that administration. Donald Huffines is a candidate for Texas State Comptroller.

A modem number no one else had

The communications connection between Zorro Ranch and San Cristobal Ranch appears to predate the 2016 buildout.

Epstein’s personal address book, portions of which are included in the DOJ files, contains an entry for San Cristobal Ranch that includes a modem number for the property. A review of comparable entries found no other listing in the address book that included a modem number for any other person or entity. Neighbors do not typically share modem access. Epstein, who was not short of resources, and who ran a child pornography ring that collected compromising evidence of the involvement of powerful people, was notoriously private in his communications, had no practical need to borrow or share communications with random neighbors.

Who owned San Cristobal Ranch

San Cristobal Ranch shares nearly 2 miles of fence line with Zorro Ranch along its northeastern boundary, according to Santa Fe County Assessor parcel records. At the time of the 2016 email exchange, the property was owned by the heirs of Henry Singleton. Singleton was a former OSS (CIA precursor) scientist. He is also the founder of Teledyne, and was one of the most powerful defense contractors on earth.

Singleton was alive and owned San Cristobal Ranch in 1993, when Epstein bought Zorro Ranch, and they were next-door neighbors for six years, until Singleton’s death. Epstein had Singleton’s personal contact information in his little black book, including San Cristobal Ranch’s modem number.

The nature and extent of Singleton’s relationship with Epstein, if any, has not been established in the public record. The examination of that relationship is the subject of the next installment of this series.

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This report is part of an ongoing investigative series examining financial, political, and communications networks connected to Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico operations.

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