A rumored 'suicide note' allegedly written by Jeffrey Epstein and discovered by his former cellmate has been made public after being locked in a courtroom vault for five years. The note, found by Nicholas Tartaglione—a former police officer serving a life sentence for murder—had been sealed as part of an unrelated legal dispute. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas in White Plains, New York, ordered its release after The New York Times petitioned to unseal it and other documents in a case involving Tartaglione.
Few people knew of the note until Tartaglione mentioned it on a podcast last year. He claimed he found the note in a book in his cell after Epstein was discovered on July 23, 2019, with a strip of bedsheet around his neck. The scribbled messages are harrowing and difficult to decipher in places. 'They investigated me for a month – found nothing!!!' the note reads. 'It is a treat to be able to choose the time to say goodbye. Watcha want me to do – Bust out cryin!!' The note concludes with 'NO FUN,' underlined, and 'NOT WORTH IT!!'
In interviews from a federal prison in California, Tartaglione recounted finding the note. Before his death, Epstein had been moved to a different part of the jail and briefly placed on suicide watch. Tartaglione said he found the note tucked into a graphic novel in his cell. 'I opened the book to read, and there it was,' he claimed, describing it as a piece of yellow paper ripped from a legal pad. His lawyers had handwriting experts examine the note to ensure he did not write it himself.
Epstein's brother Mark has long claimed Jeffrey was murdered and the death covered up. An expert hired by Mark to attend the autopsy said the death looked 'more consistent with homicidal strangulation.' Documents have shown that prison guards failed to conduct required checks on the night of Epstein's death, and the camera system in the unit was down. Guard Tova Noel reportedly slept on the job, browsed furniture online, and searched 'latest on Epstein in jail' less than an hour before his suicide.
