A US federal judge has made public an alleged suicide note said to have been written by late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The document was released on Wednesday following a petition by The New York Times to the White Plains court. Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, claimed he received the note in July 2019 after Epstein’s first failed suicide attempt. Epstein was later found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City.
The note, which bears no signature, reportedly contained statements of frustration but its authenticity remains unverified. The Guardian said it could not confirm whether Epstein actually wrote it, and the US Department of Justice did not immediately comment. Tartaglione, a former police officer serving a life sentence for four murders, had given the note to his lawyers, who consulted handwriting experts to identify its author. The note had been kept confidential under attorney-client privilege during Tartaglione’s appeal process.
Epstein’s death was officially ruled a suicide by New York City’s medical examiner in 2019, though speculation and conspiracy theories persist due to his ties with influential figures.