A purported suicide note of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein found by his former cellmate, convicted quadruple murderer and ex-Briarcliff Manor cop Nicholas Tartaglione, has been made public for the first time after a federal judge in White Plains approved its unsealing.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas on Wednesday, May 6, granted a request by the New York Times to unseal the 7-line handwritten note that read:
“They investigated me for months – found NOTHING !!! So 16 year old charges (resulted). It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye. Watcha want me to do – Bust out cryin!! NO FUN (underlined) – NOT WORTH IT !!
Tartaglione was Epstein’s cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan when the financier first tried to kill himself on July 23, 2019. He was no longer his cellmate when Epstein did hang himself in his cell less than three weeks later on Aug. 10.
Tartaglione told the New York Times in an interview that he found the letter, on a piece of yellow paper from a legal pad, in a graphic novel after Epstein had been removed from the cell following the first suicide attempt.
He gave it to his lawyers as proof he had not tried to harm Epstein, who initially claimed that what appeared to be a suicide attempt was really the result of Tartaglione attacking him.
Both were awaiting trial at the time, Epstein on child sex trafficking charges and Tartaglione in the drug-related killing of four Hispanic men in Orange County. Tartaglione suspected one of the men had ripped him off of money he provided for the purchase of cocaine and lured him to a bar in Chester, NY, run by his brother.
The man Martin Luna, brought along two relatives and a family friend thinking he was going to give an estimate for a construction job. Tartaglione and two hulky enforcers then brought the men to property the ex-cop was renting at the time, where all four were shot execution style. Their bodies were not discovered until eight months later.
Tartaglione was convicted in 2023 after others involved in the drug deal and killings testified for the prosecution. Karas sentenced him the following year to four life sentences. Tartaglione maintains his innocence and his appeal is pending.
Unknown by even the federal prosecutors in the Tartaglione case, the suicide note was the subject of a lengthy sealed hearing into whether conflicts of interest should keep Tartaglione’s lawyers from representing him. It delayed the trial for more than a year. One lawyer was eventually recused by Karas but his primary lawyer, Bruce Barket, was allowed to remain on the case after Karas determined that any potential conflict involving him was waivable and Tartaglione opted to keep Barket.
The suicide note was not among the millions of pages of Epstein file documents made public this year and the Justice Department told The Times they had never seen it.
Karas ruled Wednesday that the note had a “substantial” presumption of public access. Federal prosecutors did not oppose the unsealing, saying that there was no compelling interest to maintain the sealing that was initially meant for Tartaglione’s protection if he had himself discussed the subject in public interviews.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Purported Epstein suicide note found by cellmate unsealed by judge
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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