Fresh reports about an alleged suicide note written by the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have emerged, alleging that it has been kept hidden in a New York courthouse for seven years. According to the New York Times, the alleged suicide note was found when Epstein was found unresponsive in his Manhattan jail cell, but he survived in July 2019.
The note was reportedly found by his then-cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, and is said to include the phrase “time to say goodbye,” though its full contents remain undisclosed.
Tartaglione is a former police officer convicted in a separate case of drug trafficking and the murder of four people.
Read more: Epstein survivor Juliette Bryant shares scathing message for Melania Trump
What do we know about the alleged suicide note?
Reports indicate that the alleged message predates Epstein’s death by several weeks. Epstein died on August 10, 2019, while in federal custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging by the New York City medical examiner.
Tartaglione recalled that detectives had spent months looking into Epstein and had “found nothing.” “What do you want me to do, bust out crying?” Epstein stated in the suicide note, adding, “It’s time to say goodbye.”
However, the note’s path through the legal system is summed up in the chronology sheet made public as part of the Epstein files. The “Chronology” record, which refers to lawyers and prisoners by their initials, is not known to have been written or why it was created.
Even at a period of extraordinary transparency on the government’s investigations into Epstein, the handwritten note has remained hidden from public view, despite Tartaglione’s reference to it on a podcast last year.
Read more: Warren Buffett says he has not spoken with Bill Gates since Epstein revelations
How did Tartaglione come upon Epstein’s suicide note?
Epstein was temporarily placed on suicide watch and relocated to a different area of the jail following the July incident. Tartaglione claimed that at that point, he discovered the note hidden within a graphic novel in his cell. Tartaglione said that the suicide note was a piece of yellow paper ripped from a legal pad, NYT reported.
“I opened the book to read and there it was,” Tartaglione said.
According to the chronology, Tartaglione met with “BB,” his main attorney Bruce Barket, on July 27, 2019, four days after Epstein’s suicide attempt, and told him about discovering the note.
The Department of Justice has reportedly said it has not examined the note, and US authorities have not formally verified its existence. According to records and interviews, a federal judge eventually sealed the memo as part of Tartaglione’s own criminal case.
The timeline states that Tartaglione’s attorneys authenticated the memo, but it does not specify how. The mysterious two-page timeline in the documents explains how the message got entangled inTartaglione’s convoluted court case.
“My lawyers at the time wanted to make sure, you know, I didn’t write it,” Tartaglione said.
According to the NYT, Tartaglione handed the note to his attorneys because it might have been useful if Epstein had persisted in accusing Tartaglione of attempting to attack him.
According to a Justice Department spokesperson, the department “underwent an exhaustive effort to collect all records in its possession,” including those from the Bureau of Prisons and the Office of the Inspector General, in accordance with a federal law ordering the government to disclose the Epstein files.
The official investigations into Epstein’s death, including a 2023 report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, made no mention of the note. The OIG declined to comment.