Judge Releases Sealed Note Said to Be Epstein's Goodbye

A handwritten note said to be from Jeffrey Epstein, long sealed in a related criminal case, was made public Wednesday by a federal judge in New York. The undated message, written on yellow legal paper, opens with Epstein asserting that investigators scrutinized him "for months" and "found nothing" before bringing older charges, the New York Times reports. "It is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye," the note reads at one point. It later adds, "Watcha want me to do—Bust out cryin!!" and ending with "NO FUN" and "NOT WORTH IT!!," with those phrases underlined. The note is not signed, per CNN.

The document was filed on the court docket Wednesday by Judge Kenneth Karas of Federal District Court in White Plains after the Times petitioned to have it unsealed. The newspaper has not independently verified that Epstein wrote the note, and the Justice Department said in a filing that it doesn't know if it is genuine. Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein's former cellmate, has said he found the note in July 2019 tucked into a graphic novel in their cell after Epstein was discovered unresponsive with a strip of cloth around his neck. He also described its contents. Epstein survived that episode but was found dead weeks later at age 66 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The city medical examiner classified his death as suicide.

The Justice Department has said it never possessed the note, which did not appear among the millions of pages of Epstein-related records the agency has released. A two-page court chronology indicated that Tartaglione's lawyers had authenticated the document, without detailing the method, per the Times. Tartaglione, who said he turned the note over to his attorneys in case Epstein continued to accuse him of assault, was convicted in 2023 in a quadruple murder case and is serving four life sentences while appealing. Prosecutors did not oppose public release of the note, telling the judge there is significant public interest in the circumstances around Epstein's death.