Jeffrey Epstein, a Disputed Autopsy and a Claim of Homicide

Weather: Grab those rain boots. Expect a day of showers, with a high near 70 and gusty winds in the evening.

Alternate-side parking: In effect today. Suspended tomorrow for All Saints Day.

In August, the New York City medical examiner concluded that Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, had hanged himself inside his Manhattan jail cell.

But on Wednesday, more than two months after the official autopsy ruled the death a suicide, a forensic pathologist hired by Mr. Epstein’s brother claimed that evidence “points to homicide.”

If you haven’t kept up, here’s the latest in a case that has riveted the public:

An autopsy and a conspiracy theory

Dr. Michael Baden claimed on the morning TV show “Fox & Friends” that evidence suggested Mr. Epstein, 66, may have been strangled.

[Jeffrey Epstein’s autopsy ‘points to homicide,’ not suicide, a pathologist claims.]

Dr. Baden, a former New York City medical examiner and a Fox News contributor, said Mr. Epstein experienced a number of injuries that were “extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation.”

Dr. Barbara Sampson, the city’s chief medical examiner, strongly disputed Dr. Baden’s allegations, adding that the injuries he pointed to “can be seen in suicides and homicides.”

Conspiracy theorists have speculated that Mr. Epstein may have been murdered in an effort to prevent him from ensnaring his coterie of rich and powerful friends in his legal woes.

The legal battles have just begun

Although the criminal case against Mr. Epstein ended with his death, the legal battles against his estate — assets estimated at more than $577 million — are expected to go on for months as his accusers seek justice.

In the days after Mr. Epstein’s death on Aug. 10 in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, several women filed lawsuits against his estate, claiming he used a network of Manhattan recruiters who visited dance studios to lure young aspiring performers.

And in early October, lawyers for Mr. Epstein’s estate asked a judge in the Virgin Islands, where his will was filed and signed two days before he killed himself, to allow the payment of $90,000 in fees to a New York law firm defending the estate against a half-dozen lawsuits.

Investigating possible conspirators

The federal authorities have shifted their focus from Mr. Epstein himself and are now looking into his employees, girlfriends and associates who prosecutors say helped lure girls into his orbit and organize his encounters with them, two people with knowledge of the inquiry told my colleagues.

It remains unclear whether Mr. Epstein’s alleged network of recruiters at New York’s dance studios is being investigated.

Today’s Halloween Parade

Whether you plan to join the nation’s largest public Halloween celebration or avoid it, here’s what you should know:

When: The parade begins at 7 p.m.

Where: Along Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), between Spring and 16th Street, in Greenwich Village.

If you want to march: Line up on Sixth Avenue between Spring Street and Broome Street from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Marchers should approach Sixth Avenue only from the east or south, coming up from Canal Street or over from Broome. And you must have a costume to march.

How to get there: Not by car. It’s not a good idea.

• Subway: Take the B/D/F/Q to the West Fourth, 14th or 23rd Street stations; the 1/2/3 to Houston Street, Sheridan Square or the 14th, 18th or 23rd Street stations; or the A/C/E to Canal Street, West Fourth or Spring Street (the station closest to the lineup area).

• PATH: Take the 33rd Street train to the Sixth Avenue station at Ninth, 14th or 23rd Streets.

If going to the parade is not your thing, the Parks Department has compiled a list of Halloween events across the city. Or you can watch the parade live on NY1 from 8 to 10 p.m.

Want more news? Check out our full coverage.

The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

An immigration judge granted asylum to a woman who said she had fled her country after being persecuted for testing H.I.V. positive. She can now bring her deported daughter. [Gothamist]

A New Jersey elementary school student won a $170,000 settlement after she was injured while going down a school playground slide that her family said was too steep. [New York Post]

After the latest incident of debris falling from elevated tracks in Queens, New York City Transit has said it will inspect 325,000 protective baskets across the subway system. [NY1]

Coming up today

Prepare to laugh (or scream) at the Comedians With Ghost Stories show at Caveat in Manhattan. 9:30 p.m. [$15]

Catch a screening of “Trick or Treat” as part of the film series “The Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic” at Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan. 8 p.m. [$12]

Visit the Hall of Fright and Terror as part of the Halloween Fright event at Hunts Point Recreation Center in the Bronx. 5 p.m. [Free]

— Melissa Guerrero

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: A painter of Zabar’s and Broadway’s bustle

Corey Kilgannon reports:

Monet had his haystacks, Van Gogh had his sunflowers and Mari Lyons had Broadway and 80th Street.

Like many artists who love to paint the same subject repeatedly, Ms. Lyons loved the bustling view outside her third-floor studio above the now shuttered H&H Bagels at that quintessential Upper West Side intersection next to Zabar’s.

From 1975 until she died in 2016, Ms. Lyons painted the intersection roughly 100 times. A dozen of the paintings are on display through Dec. 21 at The Writers Room, on the 12th floor at 740 Broadway, near Astor Place. Viewing is by appointment.

Ms. Lyons, who studied as a teenager with Max Beckmann, a prominent German painter, loved the vitality of the intersection and found it the perfect subject for her use of color and motion, as well as her love for the energy of New York.

She captured the constant swarm of vehicles and people, the architecture, the passing seasons. Even with her impressionistic style, one can see the models of yellow cabs evolve over the years, the different street vendors and the changing store signs as businesses opened and closed.

One of the largest paintings from her Broadway series was donated to the New York State Museum in Albany. Another — “Broadway with Zabar’s, VII” — is at the Museum of the City of New York, according to her son Charlie Lyons.

It’s Thursday — embrace your inner child and go trick-or-treat.

Metropolitan Diary: A long deli line

Dear Diary:

I lived in Brooklyn during the 1970s when I was going to college. Every Saturday morning, a classmate and I went to the local supermarket to buy groceries for the week. It was the only market in the neighborhood, and it was almost always crowded.

On one of our trips, we were waiting on the long, glacially slow line at the deli counter, where each customer was obliged to take a number from the ticket dispenser.

The woman standing in front of us announced her frustration.

“Look at this, just look at this!” she said to no one in particular. “You could just die, you could just die!”

Despite this mantra, spoken a bit more forcefully each time the woman repeated it, the line did not move any faster.

Finally, after a seventh or eighth “You could just die,” my friend leaned forward.

“Ma’am, if you should drop,” he said, “can I have your ticket?”

— Philip Brunquel

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