They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!
Seven years after Jeffrey Epstein died in a Manhattan federal jail, a handwritten note allegedly composed in his final weeks has been unsealed by court order — a fragment of private despair now thrust into public reckoning. The document, surfaced through a New York Times petition and submitted as evidence by Epstein's accused-murderer cellmate, speaks of investigations that 'found nothing' and a quiet farewell, though its authenticity remains unconfirmed. It arrives at a moment when the Justice Department continues releasing documents tied to Epstein's crimes and connections, each disclosure widening the unresolved questions around a death that official rulings have never fully put to rest.
- A federal judge unsealed the note after The New York Times petitioned for its release, breaking years of court-sealed silence around a document that may be the last written words of one of the most scrutinized figures in recent American legal history.
- The note's chain of custody is itself a source of tension — it passed from a cell to a convicted murderer's lawyers to a court filing, with the Bureau of Prisons never recording its existence.
- Scrawled phrases like 'time to say goodbye' and complaints about decade-old charges resurfacing paint a portrait of a man who felt legally cornered, but CBS News has not verified Epstein wrote a single word of it.
- A July 2019 incident once described as a cellmate assault was later recharacterized by a former Attorney General as an attempted suicide, meaning the note — if genuine — may mark a second crisis in under three weeks.
- The release lands inside a larger avalanche of Justice Department disclosures about Epstein's network, ensuring that each new document reignites the central unresolved question: did Epstein die by his own hand, and was anyone else involved?
A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the public release of a handwritten note that authorities attribute to Jeffrey Epstein, written in the weeks before his August 2019 death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The document had been sealed as evidence in a separate case and came to light only after The New York Times petitioned for its disclosure.
The note's origins are contested. Epstein's cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione — himself facing murder charges — claimed he found it tucked inside a book the morning after Epstein died, and his lawyers filed it with the court in 2021. The Bureau of Prisons never logged the document's existence, and CBS News has not independently confirmed Epstein authored it.
The contents are fragmentary and raw. The handwriting is described as scrawled, with phrases like 'time to say goodbye' and 'They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!' suggesting a man who felt abandoned by a legal system he believed had once already cleared him, now facing far graver federal sex trafficking charges than the 2008 plea deal that had kept him free for over a decade.
The timeline sharpens the unease. An incident on July 23, 2019 — eighteen days before Epstein's death — was initially described as an assault by Tartaglione, but a former Attorney General later told Congress it had been 'viewed as an attempted suicide.' If accurate, the note would represent a second crisis within three weeks.
Epstein's death was ruled a suicide, but it has never fully satisfied public scrutiny. The note's release coincides with the Justice Department's ongoing disclosure of millions of documents from the Epstein investigation, each new filing deepening rather than resolving the questions surrounding how, and whether, he truly died alone.
A federal judge ordered the release of a handwritten note on Wednesday that authorities say was written by Jeffrey Epstein in the weeks before his death in custody in August 2019. The document, which had been sealed as evidence in a separate criminal case, surfaced publicly after The New York Times petitioned for its disclosure.
The note's origins are murky. Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein's cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, claimed he discovered it inside a book the morning after Epstein died. Tartaglione, who is himself facing murder charges, gave the note to his lawyers, who filed it with the court in May 2021 as part of his appeal. The Bureau of Prisons made no record of the document. CBS News has not independently verified that Epstein wrote it.
What the note appears to say is fragmentary and raw. The handwriting is described as scrawled. It reads, in part: "They investigated me for month — found nothing!!! So 15 year old charges resulted." Other phrases include "time to say goodbye" and "No fun — not worth it!!" The language suggests despair, a man feeling cornered by legal machinery he believed had already cleared him once.
The timeline matters. On July 23, 2019—eighteen days before his death—Epstein reported that Tartaglione had attacked him in their shared cell. At the time, the incident was characterized as an assault. But when the former Attorney General testified before the House Oversight Committee, she reframed it: the July 23 episode was "viewed as an attempted suicide." If that characterization is accurate, then the note Tartaglione allegedly found would represent a second suicide attempt, or at minimum, a second crisis, in less than three weeks.
Epstein's legal history had been a study in narrow escapes. In 2008, he pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor, a plea deal that allowed federal sex trafficking charges to be dropped. He served thirteen months in county jail and registered as a sex offender. For more than a decade, he remained free. Then, in July 2019, a federal grand jury in New York indicted him on child sex trafficking charges—allegations that carried far graver consequences than the 2008 case. On August 10, 2019, he was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. His death was ruled a suicide.
The release of this note comes amid a broader reckoning with Epstein's life and connections. The Justice Department has recently released millions of documents from the investigation into his crimes, many of which detail his relationships with prominent figures. Each disclosure seems to deepen the questions surrounding his death: whether he truly took his own life, whether the circumstances were as straightforward as authorities claimed, and what role his cellmate may have played. The note, authenticated or not, adds another layer of ambiguity to a death that has never fully satisfied public scrutiny.
Citas Notables
They investigated me for month — found nothing!!! So 15 year old charges resulted.— From the apparent note
The July 23 incident was viewed as an attempted suicide.— Former Attorney General, testimony to House Oversight Committee
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a note matter now, seven years later? What changes if we know what he wrote?
It doesn't change the fact of his death. But it changes the story we tell about his state of mind. If he wrote it, it's evidence he was in crisis—that the legal pressure was real and immediate.
But the cellmate found it. Doesn't that seem convenient?
It does. Which is why CBS News won't verify it. Tartaglione has his own reasons to produce evidence about what happened in that cell. He's defending himself against murder charges.
So we don't know if Epstein wrote it at all?
We know it exists. We know someone submitted it to court. We know what it says. But no, we don't have independent confirmation of authorship.
What about the July incident—the one they called an attempted suicide?
That's the crucial detail. If that was really a suicide attempt, then the note suggests a pattern. A man in deepening despair, twice in three weeks.
And if it wasn't a suicide attempt?
Then the official story becomes harder to believe. Then you have to ask what really happened in that cell, and why the narrative shifted.
What does the note actually tell us?
That he felt investigated, cornered, hopeless. That he saw no way out. Whether that's the whole truth or just one man's account of his state of mind—that's what we still don't know.