In a handwritten letter, Epstein wrote about deciding his own fate, including the phrase: “Being able to choose the time to say goodbye is pleasant.”
Let us recall that American financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019. Officials ruled his death a suicide.
This letter is said to have been found by former police officer Nicholas Tartaglione, who was held in the same cell as Epstein. Tartaglione, convicted of murder, is currently serving a life sentence.
New York federal judge Kenneth Karas decided to release the document after a request from The New York Times. According to the judge, since the letter was part of court materials, it is considered a public document.
At the same time, the court did not assess the authenticity of the letter. Judge Karas emphasized that this issue does not affect the decision to release the document.
According to court materials, the letter, hastily written on yellow paper, contains the following lines:
“I was investigated for months — nothing was found. Eventually, 15 years of accusations emerged. Being able to choose the time to say goodbye is pleasant. What did you expect from me — that I would cry out loud?”
For context, Jeffrey Epstein first came to public attention in the early 2000s in connection with cases involving the sexual exploitation of underage girls. In July 2019, he was arrested again and charged with recruiting and sexually abusing underage girls in New York and Florida.
Information about the letter was first mentioned in 2025 during one of the podcasts involving Nicholas Tartaglione. However, the document gained widespread public attention after The New York Times published a report on it.
According to the newspaper, this letter never came into the possession of federal investigators and was not among the documents previously released by the Department of Justice regarding Epstein's case.
