Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: House Oversight Committee, Getty Images
The Justice Department released over 3 million pages of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein files in January, yet none of them appeared to include the suicide note the sex criminal purportedly wrote before his death in custody in August 2019. Even the federal investigators who examined Epstein’s body and phone did not have access to the note, which was found by his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, in the days leading up to Epstein’s death.
Now a legal motion from the New York Times has led to the unsealing of the note, nearly seven years after the suspicious circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death generated a wave of conspiracy theories suggesting nefarious activity. On Thursday, the Times petitioned a federal judge in New York to release the note, which had been sealed in 2019 as part of Tartaglione’s own case. Nearly a week later, the judge ordered it released, and here it is:
Photo: United States District Judge Southern District of New York
It reads:
They investigated me for month — FOUND NOTHING!!!
So 15 year old charges results.
It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.
Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!
NO FUN — NOT WORTH IT!!
The Times itself notes that it “has not authenticated the note, which was placed on the court docket Wednesday evening,” but adds:
The note repeats a saying — “bust out cryin” — that Mr. Epstein wrote in emails. It included another phrase — “No fun” — that Mr. Epstein also used in emails, as well as in a separate note found in his jail cell at the time of his death.
At the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, Epstein was initially bunked with Tartaglione, a former cop accused of a quadruple homicide. But after jail officials noticed Epstein had red marks on his neck consistent with a suicide attempt, he said Tartaglione had attacked him and he did not want to take his own life. According to a document in the Epstein files labeled only “Chronology,” Tartaglione then found the note and gave it to his lawyers to prove he hadn’t assaulted his cellmate, a claim he has long maintained. Tartaglione was convicted of the murder charges in 2023.
In an interview with the Times, Tartaglione said he found a note from Epstein written on yellow legal paper that had been placed inside a graphic novel. (Unfortunately, the report does not state which graphic novel.) The note claimed the Feds had “found nothing” despite investigating Epstein for months. “What do you want me to do, bust out crying? Time to say goodbye,” the note read, according to Tartaglione’s recollection.
Soon after finding the letter — and before Epstein’s death — Tartaglione gave the note to his lawyers so he could prove Epstein was suicidal. According to the “Chronology” document, Tartaglione’s lawyers were able to verify that Epstein had written the note. But after it was filed as part of Tartaglione’s lawsuit, it was sealed to protect attorney-client privilege as part of a dispute between his attorneys and was not made available to investigators.
The petition to unseal the alleged suicide note was part of a slow trickle of Epstein-related developments last week, including a separate Times story on how Epstein decorated his “mosque” on Little St. James with a tapestry that was once inside the Kaaba. Also last week, the House Oversight Committee announced that former attorney general Pam Bondi will testify on May 29 about the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein-files rollout.
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick testified behind closed doors for the Committee earlier Wednesday, after which Democrats on the Committee accused him of lying about his links to Epstein.
This post has been updated.
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