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Weeks before Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a decrepit Manhattan jail in 2019, he was found on the floor of his cell, alive but with marks on his neck.
He later made a startling allegation: according to a jail officer, Epstein said his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, had tried to kill him.
Epstein soon recanted, but not before Tartaglione became a central figure in the mystery surrounding the ex-financier’s injuries.
Tartaglione, a former police officer then awaiting trial in a quadruple murder case, had a different version of events. He told his lawyer Epstein had tucked a suicide note inside a book.
Tartaglione handed the note over to his legal team, but its existence got scant mention in the years after – even after Epstein’s subsequent suicide, which drew scrutiny from federal investigators and a sceptical public.
On Wednesday, the note Tartaglione said he had found was finally made public, unsealed by a judge after being locked in a courthouse vault for years as part of an unrelated legal dispute.
It is not clear whether the note is authentic, when exactly it was written or whether its cryptic language amounts to a suicide message, as Tartaglione claims.
Here is what to know about Tartaglione, why the note stayed out of public view for so long, and how its release is reverberating now.
Who is Nicholas Tartaglione?
Tartaglione retired on a disability pension in 2008. Authorities say he turned to dealing drugs and eventually orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of four men in 2016.
Tartaglione believed that one of the men stole money from him that was meant to be used to buy cocaine, according to prosecutors. The burly former police officer lured the man to a bar, tortured him in an effort to locate the money and ultimately strangled him with a zip tie, authorities said.
Three of the man’s friends and relatives who were there were shot in the head, and all four were buried on Tartaglione’s property, according to prosecutors.
Tartaglione was arrested in December 2016. He was still awaiting trial three years later when he found himself sharing a cell with Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre. Tartaglione was ultimately convicted in 2023 and later sentenced to four consecutive life terms.
What happened during Epstein’s first suspected suicide attempt?
Epstein was found in the cell with Tartaglione about 1.30am on July 23, 2019, according to jail records. Epstein was then placed on suicide watch elsewhere in the jail. That’s when, the officer said, he sat up and accused Tartaglione of trying to kill him, adding that he had tried to extort money and threatened to beat Epstein up.
Epstein’s claim of an attack quickly became public, and within a day, NBC News reported that jail officials had questioned Tartaglione and were investigating whether Epstein had been assaulted.
In an interview with jail staff a week later, however, Epstein said he never had any issues with Tartaglione, was not threatened by him and did not “want to make up something that isn’t there”, records show. He said he was not suicidal.
After 31 hours on suicide watch, Epstein was downgraded to psychiatric observation. He was without a cellmate when he was found dead on August 10, 2019.
Officials said they found a handwritten note in his cell, but it appeared not to be a suicide note so much as a list of grievances about filthy conditions at the jail, which has since been closed.
Authorities concluded that Epstein killed himself and that the first incident was probably a missed opportunity to take steps to prevent a second suicide attempt.
When did the note first emerge – and why was it released only this week?
A chronology included in recently released Justice Department files about Epstein’s case said Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 suicide attempt.
Jail staff made no mention of the note in a report recounting an interview with Tartaglione late that month. “Tartaglione stated he does not understand Epstein’s motive and what he is trying to do,” the report said.
Tartaglione said he thought Epstein was having a heart attack.
The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione’s drug murder case and placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.
Tartaglione mentioned it last year in a podcast interview from prison as he sought to dispel persistent conspiracy theories that Epstein did not kill himself. “It was in my book. When I got back into the cell, I opened my book to read, and there it was,” Tartaglione said.
The brief note itself is hard to parse.
“They investigated me for month – found nothing!!!” it says. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye”, it continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”
How do Epstein’s accusers feel about this?
After seven years of startling turns and unanswered questions, the document only adds to uncertainty and frustration for some of his accusers.
“It is hurtful to me because I don’t know if Jeffrey Epstein really wrote it, and if he did, when he wrote it,” said actor and model Alicia Arden, who filed a 1997 police report about him that went nowhere.
Arden also wonders why the note is just being released now. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said Epstein’s victims wanted truth and transparency, but the note “simply deepens the mystery”.
Jennifer Freeman, another attorney for survivors, said the document distracts from their push to scrutinise the government’s handling of Epstein’s case and hold accountable anyone who enabled him.
“We cannot allow the narrative to become muddied by speculation over whether this note is real,” Freeman said.
Beyondblue, 1300 224 636; Lifeline, 13 11 14; Headspace (for those aged 12 to 25), 1800 650 890; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.
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