Hidden Jeffrey Epstein Suicide Note Published by U.S. Court
A controversial document purportedly written by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been released to the public by a U.S. federal judge, Reuters reports. Unsealed on Wednesday, the handwritten message contains the chilling remark:
The disgraced financier was awaiting trial for the sex trafficking of minors in New York and Florida when he was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in August 2019. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
A cellmate’s discovery
The origins of the newly released document trace back to Nicholas Tartaglione, a convicted murderer and former police officer who shared a cell with Epstein for around two weeks in July 2019.
Tartaglione claims to have found the scrawled message tucked inside a book in their shared quarters. This discovery allegedly occurred shortly after Epstein was found alive with marks on his neck in what prison officials initially described as a suicide attempt. A few weeks later, on August 10, Epstein took his own life in a separate incident.
Despite the intense scrutiny surrounding the high-profile inmate’s death, the document remained entirely hidden from federal investigators. The New York Times recently revealed that the paper was completely absent from the millions of Justice Department files generated during the sprawling investigation into the financier’s life and death.
Tartaglione had casually mentioned finding a note during a podcast interview last year but the revelation only gained serious traction following the recent newspaper report.
The judicial ruling
The note only entered the official record because Tartaglione’s legal representatives submitted it as part of his own criminal proceedings. The ex-policeman is currently serving four consecutive life sentences for a series of drug-related murders.
Following a request from the media, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas chose to unseal the file. He determined that because the document was submitted in connection to Tartaglione’s trial it was subject to the public’s right of access. The judge firmly rejected any privacy concerns given Epstein’s death and the immense public interest in the case.
Judge Karas did not verify the document’s authenticity or investigate its chain of custody. He deemed those factors irrelevant to the immediate issue of public access, stating:
The scrawled message
Written on a yellow legal pad, the text references historical investigations and his subsequent legal troubles. In 2008, Epstein secured a highly controversial plea deal in Florida that resulted in a remarkably short jail sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor. His 2019 arrest brought much more severe federal charges.
Reflecting on his situation, the unsealed image shows the author wrote:
The message then concludes with a dark assessment of his future:
