A federal judge released a document on Wednesday, described as a suicide note purportedly written by late financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, years after his death in a Manhattan jail cell was ruled a suicide.
The handwritten note includes the line, “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye,” according to court documents unsealed this week.
Epstein, the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker, was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide.
The handwritten note was said to have been found by his former jail cellmate, convicted murderer and former police officer Nicholas Tartaglione. US District Judge Kenneth Karas, who oversaw the Tartaglione case, released the note after a request by The New York Times, which reported its existence last week.
Karas ruled that the note qualified as a judicial document subject to the public’s right of access because it was submitted in connection with Tartaglione’s criminal case. Tartaglione is serving four consecutive life sentences for drug-related murders.
The judge found no legal reason to keep it under seal, though he did not vouch for the note’s authenticity or assess its chain of custody, calling those issues irrelevant to the unsealing decision.
“No party has identified any competing consideration that would justify sealing the Note,” the judge ruled.
Note allegedly discovered by former cellmate
The note, scrawled on a yellow legal pad, was submitted by lawyers for Tartaglione, who was Epstein’s cellmate for roughly two weeks in July 2019 while both were held at a Manhattan jail.
“They investigated me for a month – Found NOTHING!!! So 15 year old charges resulted,” the note says, according to an image released in the court file.
“It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye. Watcha want me to do – Burst out cryin!! NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!”
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, a conviction that resulted in a controversial plea deal and a short jail sentence. He was arrested again in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors, accused of recruiting and abusing underage girls in New York and Florida.
The note surfaced in July 2019 after Epstein was found alive in his Manhattan jail cell with marks on his neck in what authorities later described as an apparent suicide attempt.
According to Tartaglione’s public descriptions, the note was tucked inside a book in their shared cell. Epstein died several weeks later, on August 10, 2019, in a separate incident ruled a suicide.
Tartaglione mentioned the note in a podcast interview last year, but the issue drew widespread attention after the NYT reported on its existence last Thursday.
The newspaper reported that the note was never seen by federal investigators and was absent from millions of Epstein-related documents released by the Justice Department in recent years.
In ordering the unsealing, the judge rejected privacy concerns, noting Epstein’s death and the extensive public discussion surrounding the purported note.
