Jeffrey Epstein’s Suicide Note Treats His Own Death as One More Privilege
This line in particular has drawn attention: “It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye.” Epstein frames his own death the way he framed his life: as a privilege most people don’t get.
The note has never been authenticated by the FBI or the Department of Justice. Earlier in 2026, the DOJ made a major public release of Epstein documents as part of a sweeping transparency push. This note wasn’t part of it. DOJ says the document never reached the agency at all. The only people known to have examined it are handwriting experts hired by the cellmate’s defense team.
The cellmate is Nicholas Tartaglione, convicted in 2023 of a 2016 quadruple murder over a cocaine dispute. Before the murders, he was a police officer in Briarcliff Manor. He’s now serving 4 consecutive life sentences in a federal prison in California, says he didn’t do it, and has an appeal pending.
He was awaiting trial when he was paired with Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan in the summer of 2019, after Epstein’s July 6 arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges.
On July 23, 2019, Epstein was found in the cell with marks on his neck and a homemade cloth rope. He initially blamed Tartaglione for the marks, then walked it back and said he “never had any issues” with him. Tartaglione always denied the attack.
Epstein was moved to a different unit. According to a DOJ chronology, Tartaglione discovered the note tucked inside a graphic novel sometime between July 23 and July 27, after Epstein was gone. He says he opened the book and the note was just sitting there.
Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019. His death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging.
The guards on duty had falsified their logs and were later found to have been browsing the internet during the window he died. The cameras outside his cell had malfunctioned.
He had been removed from suicide watch and was housed without a cellmate, in violation of the protocol that followed the July incident. Then-Attorney General William Barr called it “a perfect storm of screw-ups.” MCC Manhattan was later closed.
Tartaglione kept the note and gave it to his attorney Bruce Barket, telling him it could disprove Epstein’s accusation if it ever came back up. Barket’s team later used it as evidence Epstein was suicidal. The note then became part of a sealed fight between Tartaglione’s own attorneys and stayed hidden for nearly 5 years.
Tartaglione first described it publicly on a podcast in 2025. The New York Times reported its existence on April 30, 2026, and petitioned for its release.
On May 6, U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas unsealed it, writing there was “no sufficient reason to keep it sealed.” Federal prosecutors supported the release, telling the court “there appears to be a strong public interest in the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.”
Epstein’s brother Mark has long disputed the suicide ruling. The pathologist he hired, Dr. Michael Baden, has said the autopsy injuries, including a fractured hyoid bone, are more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging.
The note traces to the July incident. Epstein died on August 10, in a different cell, alone.