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 was placed on suicide watch, but later made a startling allegation to the guard watching over him: Epstein said his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, had tried to kill him.
Tartaglione - a former police officer then awaiting trial and a possible death sentence in a quadruple murder case - had a different version of events.
He told his lawyer Epstein had tucked a suicide note inside one of the former officer’s books. He handed the note over to his legal team but its existence got scant mention in the years afterwards - even after Epstein’s suicide in a different cell about three weeks later was scrutinized by federal investigators and a skeptical public.
On Wednesday, almost seven years after the incident, the note Tartaglione says he found was publicly released for the first time after a judge unsealed it from records that were part of an unrelated legal dispute.
It isn’t clear whether the note is authentic or a forgery, when exactly it was written or whether its cryptic language amounts to a suicide note, as Tartaglione claims.
Here is what to know about Tartaglione, now 58, and why the note stayed out of public view for so long:
Who is Nicholas Tartaglione?
After retiring as a police officer on a disability pension in 2008, authorities say Tartaglione turned to dealing drugs and eventually orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of four men in 2016.
Tartaglione believed that one of the men, Martin Luna, had stolen money from him that was meant to be used to buy cocaine, according to prosecutors. The burly former police officer lured Luna to a bar, tortured him in an effort to find out where the money was, and when he didn’t get the answer he was seeking, strangled Luna with a zip tie, authorities said.
Three men Luna had brought with him that night - a mix of friends and family – were shot in the head. All four were buried on Tartaglione’s property, according to prosecutors.
Tartaglione was arrested in December 2016, and was still awaiting trial three years later when he found himself sharing a cell with Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. In 2022, prosecutors announced they were no longer seeking the death penalty. Tartaglione was 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 around 1:30 a.m. the morning of July 23, 2019, according to jail records. He was taken out and placed on suicide watch elsewhere in the jail. That’s when the guard says he sat up and accused Tartaglione of trying to kill him. Epstein claimed the cellmate had tried to extort money from him, and threatened to beat him up if he didn’t pay.
However in an interview with jail staff a week later, Epstein said had never had any issues with Tartaglione, was not threatened by him and didn’t “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 at the jail on Aug. 10, 2019. Officials said they found a handwritten note in Epstein’s cell at the time, but it didn’t appear to be a suicide note so much as a list of grievances about the filthy conditions at the jail, which has since been closed.
Authorities concluded that Epstein killed himself and that the first incident was likely a missed opportunity to take steps needed to prevent a second suicide attempt.
When did the note first emerge - and why was it only released this week?
A chronology included in files about Epstein’s case recently released by the Justice Department 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 done with Tartaglione in late July. “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 was placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.
Tartaglione mentioned it publicly in an interview for a podcast last year, as he sought to dispel the 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 in the phone interview from prison.
The note itself is hard to parse.
“They investigated me for month - found nothing!!!” says the short note. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” the note continues. “Watcha want me to do - Bust out cryin!!”
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