It was a vital doc that wasn’t included in the Epstein files: a suicide observe apparently written by Jeffrey Epstein himself.
The purported observe, which was made public on Wednesday by a federal decide in New York, was written in handwriting that seems to match different writing from the infamous pedophile.
“They investigated me for month — FOUND NOTHING!!!” the observe reads.
“So 15 yr outdated fees resulted.
“It’s a deal with to have the ability to select one’s time to say goodbye.
“Watcha need me to do — Bust out cryin!!
“NO FUN — NOT WORTH IT!!”
US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York
The observe didn’t come from the Justice Division. Nor did it emerge from a congressional investigation into Epstein, nor from one of many many lawsuits surrounding Epstein’s estate.
As a substitute, it got here in a court docket continuing associated to Epstein’s onetime jail roommate, a former police officer who was convicted of a quadruple homicide in 2023.
The cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, mentioned he discovered the observe after Epstein’s first obvious suicide try in Manhattan jail, on July 23, 2019.
That day, an official on the Metropolitan Correctional Heart discovered Epstein with a strip of orange material hanging from a bunkbed ladder and round his neck. Tartaglione wakened and known as the jail officers “when he felt Epstein land on him,” in keeping with a later Justice Division investigation into Epstein’s death.
Tartaglione and Epstein initially gave completely different accounts of that day. Tartaglione mentioned Epstein tried to kill himself. Epstein advised his attorneys and jail officers that he was not suicidal, and that Tartaglione had tried to extort him earlier by providing him safety in jail in change for cash.
Tartaglione discovered the observe within the cell someday within the following days, in keeping with a timeline included within the Justice Division’s Epstein information. The timeline says that considered one of Tartaglione’s attorneys “authenticated” the observe later, however doesn’t clarify how. Tartaglione later advised The New York Occasions he discovered the observe in a graphic novel.
Quickly after his obvious first suicide try, Epstein was transferred to a special cell with a special roommate. The roommate was moved to a different jail on August 9, leaving Epstein alone. Epstein died that evening in what authorities dominated was a suicide.
The observe ended up in Tartaglione’s case, not Epstein’s
Tartaglione first publicly disclosed that Epstein left a observe in an interview with the influencer Jessica Reed Kraus in 2025, whereas serving 4 consecutive life sentences for kidnapping and homicide. The observe was not talked about within the Justice Division inspector common’s 128-page report into the circumstances of Epstein’s demise in jail.
Tartagione mentioned he gave the observe to his attorneys. The observe ended up enjoying a job in a authorized dispute in Tartaglione’s personal felony case.
The character of the dispute is not clear from public court docket data. In an order accompanying the discharge of the observe on Wednesday, US District Decide Kenneth Karas, who oversaw Tartaglione’s felony trial, mentioned it was associated to a battle of curiosity among the many ex-cop’s attorneys, considered one of whom was in the end disqualified from the case.
Bloomberg/Getty Photos
Karas agreed to unseal the handwritten observe on the request of The New York Occasions, which argued it needs to be made public following Tartaglione’s feedback about it.
The observe’s point out of “15 yr outdated fees” seems to reference an earlier Florida investigation into Epstein, which started within the mid-2000s, over whether or not he sexually abused youngsters in Palm Seashore. The investigation culminated in a 2007 plea deal that allowed Epstein to spend a couple of yr in county jail, though regulation enforcement officers believed he abused dozens of women.
Epstein died in jail whereas awaiting trial for extra extreme fees from federal prosecutors in Manhattan. The indictment accused him of raping women as a part of a sex-trafficking conspiracy.
Different paperwork associated to Epstein’s purported suicide observe stay underneath seal. These paperwork may make clear whether or not the observe is genuine and the way it could also be related to Tartaglione’s felony case. Karas requested prosecutors and protection attorneys to suggest redactions for these paperwork by subsequent week.
These still-sealed data embody considered one of Karas’ orders concerning the battle amongst Tartaglione’s authorized staff, transcripts for hearings concerning the dispute, and a report by a lawyer whom Karas appointed to judge the potential conflicts.
In a twist, the lawyer whom Karas appointed to judge the battle for Tartaglione was Bobbi Sternheim, who later led the felony protection staff for Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
And a prosecutor in Tartaglione’s case was Maurene Comey, who was a part of the staff that introduced fees in opposition to Epstein and confronted off in opposition to Sternheim in Maxwell’s felony trial.