This story is worth pausing on because of a detail that is almost too bizarre to be made up. A handwritten note, allegedly written by Jeffrey Epstein following his initial attempt at suicide in July 2019, was discovered by a convicted quadruple murderer inside a graphic novel in a Manhattan jail cell. It was given to defense attorneys, sealed in a federal court vault for almost seven years, and eventually forced into public view because the man who discovered it couldn’t resist discussing it on a podcast. An editor would advise a novelist to tone it down if they proposed that chain of custody.
Nicholas Tartaglione, a former Briarcliff Manor police officer serving four consecutive life sentences for drug-related killings, is the man in the middle. According to the warden’s statement, he and Epstein shared a cell for about two weeks during the summer of 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center since they were both well-known prisoners. Epstein was discovered semiconscious and had marks on his neck on July 23. He first claimed to the guards that Tartaglione had attacked him, but he later changed his mind and claimed he couldn’t remember what had happened and didn’t want to talk about it. It was determined that Epstein had committed suicide when he was found dead in a separate cell almost two weeks later.
The note was crucial to Tartaglione’s legal team for precisely that reason. His actions while incarcerated, whether he attacked a vulnerable cellmate or someone who attempted to assist him, held significant weight in front of a jury, and federal prosecutors had initially sought the death penalty against him. Tartaglione’s claim that Epstein had not hurt anyone was substantiated if he had written a suicide note. He was therefore encouraged to hang onto it by his attorneys, who were led at the time by Bruce Barket. The note became into evidence, which turned into a sealed exhibit. In a murder case, a sealed exhibit is one of the more obscure items under American law. That’s the unglamorous, purely procedural reason it was kept under wraps for seven years. Not a plot. litigation.
The contents themselves are disjointed and peculiar. “They investigated me for a month — found NOTHING!!!” is one of the lines. “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.” “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!” Finally, “NO FUN — NOT WORTH IT!!” According to Tartaglione’s account on the podcast that initiated the entire unsealing process, Epstein had drawn a happy face prior to “time to say goodbye,” which is the kind of detail that causes anxiety. In some spots, the handwriting is hard to read. Depending on your degree of skepticism, the tone is either revealing or suspiciously theatrical as it veers between resignation and resentment.
Furthermore, a lot of the coverage has skipped over the fact that skepticism is justified. There has never been official authentication of the note. According to Barket, he and his team “became comfortable” that it was Epstein’s, in part because it looked similar to another purported Epstein message on a yellow legal pad that 60 Minutes had acquired, which likewise concluded with “NO FUN.” However, comfort isn’t guaranteed.
Mark Epstein, Epstein’s own brother, told Fox News Digital that he doesn’t think it’s real, pointing out (not unreasonably) that there wouldn’t be a suicide note related to the July incident if it wasn’t a suicide attempt. Judge Kenneth Karas, who issued the order for the unsealing, took care to clarify that he was not attesting to the document’s validity or chain of possession, stating that those issues had no bearing on whether or not it should be made public.
The Justice Department’s role—or lack thereof—complicates matters even more. According to DOJ officials, this note was not discovered during the initial death inquiry. The July 23 incident is described in clinical detail in the OIG report on Epstein’s death, including the orange cloth and the friction scars.
However, a note discovered by a cellmate a few days later and forwarded to a different criminal case appears to have never been included in the death inquiry file. Even the timeframe is inconsistent: according to a two-page chronology in the DOJ’s extensive Epstein document release this year, the message was discovered between July 23 and July 27, which Barket claims runs counter to his own account of what happened. That DOJ chronology’s beginnings remain unknown, which is a minor mystery within the greater one.
It’s difficult not to feel that this note serves as a sort of Rorschach test for your preconceived notions about Epstein’s demise. The note provides somber confirmation if you believe he committed suicide: a man who had run out of options and chosen his way out, resentful of the probe that had trapped him.
The note’s unclear provenance, the cellmate with every reason to provide exonerating proof, and the years of concealment all seem like additional smoke around a fire that no one can quite find if you’re one of the many individuals who believe something else happened in that cell. The debate is not settled by the paper. Perhaps the only thing about it that is clear is that it feeds both sides at the same time.