A suicide note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein weeks before he killed himself was found by his cellmate and remains under seal, according to a new report.
The New York Times detailed that Epstein's cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, claimed to have found the note after an earlier suicide attempt by Epstein.
The Times has verified that the note exists and is sealed in Tartaglione's file. The newspaper said that it had petitioned to have the document unsealed. Whether Epstein actually wrote the note that Tartaglione claims he found is unknown.
Tartaglione told the newspaper the note was written on a page ripped out of a yellow legal pad and said something along the lines of "What do you want me to do, bust out crying? Time to say goodbye."
According to a Justice Department investigation into the death, Epstein was found on July 23 at 1:27 a.m. in his cell with an orange cloth around his neck. Tartaglione told officers that Epstein had tried to hang himself.
The report went on to detail that Epstein initially said that Tartaglione had tried to kill him, but later walked that back and said he did not know what had happened and did not want to discuss how he had gotten his injuries.
After being placed on suicide watch for several days, Epstein was eventually given a different cellmate. That cellmate was eventually transferred to another facility on August 9. Epstein, according to the report, killed himself while he was alone in his cell, with his body found on August 10.
"Epstein had an orange string, presumably from a sheet or a shirt, around his neck that was tied to the top portion of the bunkbed. Epstein was suspended from the top bunk in a near-seated position, with his buttocks approximately 1 inch to 1 inch and a half off the floor," the report states.
According to the New York Times, Tartaglione found the suicide note on July 27, four days after the July 23 incident. Tartaglione said told the New York Times that the note was hidden in a graphic novel: "I opened the book to read and there it was."
Tartaglione told the newspaper that he gave the note to his lawyers to protect himself because of Epstein's previous claim that Tartaglione had tried to hurt him.
