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 later made a startling allegation: According to a jail officer, Epstein said his cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, tried to kill him.
Epstein soon recanted, but not before Tartaglione became a central figure in the mystery surrounding the ex-financier’s injuries.
Tartaglione, a former police officer then awaiting trial in a quadruple murder case, had a different version of events. He told his lawyer Epstein had tucked a suicide note inside a book.
Tartaglione handed the note over to his legal team, but its existence got scant mention in the years after — even after Epstein's subsequent suicide, which drew scrutiny from federal investigators and a skeptical public.
On Wednesday the note Tartaglione said he found was finally made public, unsealed by a judge after being locked in a courthouse vault for years as part of an unrelated legal dispute.
It is not clear whether the note is authentic, when exactly it was written or whether its cryptic language amounts to a suicide message, as Tartaglione claims.
Here is what to know about Tartaglione, why the note stayed out of public view for so long and how its release is reverberating now:
Tartaglione retired on a disability pension in 2008. Authorities say he turned to dealing drugs and eventually orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of four men in 2016.
Tartaglione believed that one of the men stole money from him that was meant to be used to buy cocaine, according to prosecutors. The burly former police officer lured the man to a bar, tortured him in an effort to locate the money and ultimately strangled him with a zip tie, authorities said.
Three of the man's friends and relatives who were there were shot in the head, and all four were buried on Tartaglione’s property, according to prosecutors.
Tartaglione was arrested in December 2016. He was still awaiting trial three years later when he found himself sharing a cell with Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Tartaglione was ultimately convicted in 2023 and later sentenced to four consecutive life terms.
Epstein was found in the cell with Tartaglione around 1:30 a.m. on July 23, 2019, according to jail records. Epstein was then placed on suicide watch elsewhere in the jail. That's when, the officer said, he sat up and accused Tartaglione of trying to kill him, adding that he tried to extort money and threatened to beat Epstein up.
Epstein’s claim of an attack quickly became public, and within a day NBC News reported that jail officials questioned Tartaglione and were investigating whether Epstein had been assaulted.
In an interview with jail staff a week later, however, Epstein said he never had any issues with Tartaglione, was not threatened by him and did not “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 on Aug. 10, 2019. Officials said they found a handwritten note in his cell but it appeared not to be a suicide note so much as a list of grievances about 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 to prevent a second suicide attempt.
A chronology included in recently released Justice Department files about Epstein's case 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 with Tartaglione late that month. “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 placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation.
Tartaglione mentioned it last year in a podcast interview from prison as he sought to dispel 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.
The brief note itself is hard to parse.
“They investigated me for month — found nothing!!!” it says.
“It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” it continues. “Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!”
After seven years of startling turns and unanswered questions, the document only adds to uncertainty and frustration for some of his accusers.
“It is hurtful to me because I don’t know if Jeffrey Epstein really wrote it, and if he did, when he wrote it,” said actor and model Alicia Arden, who filed a 1997 police report about him that went nowhere.
Arden also wonders why the note is just being released now. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said Epstein's victims want truth and transparency but the note “simply deepens the mystery.”
Jennifer Freeman, another attorney for survivors, said the document distracts from their push to scrutinize the government's handling of Epstein's case and hold accountable anyone who enabled him.
“We cannot allow the narrative to become muddied by speculation over whether this note is real,” Freeman said.
FILE - This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)
This document, released Thursday, May 7, 2026, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, shows a note that Jeffrey Epstein’s former cellmate said he found after Epstein’s reported suicide attempt in July 2019. (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said it intercepted Iranian attacks Thursday on three Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz and “targeted Iranian military facilities responsible for attacking U.S. forces.”
U.S. Central Command said in a social media post that U.S. forces intercepted “unprovoked Iranian attacks” and responded with self-defense strikes.
The U.S. military said no ships were hit. It said it doesn’t seek escalation but “remains positioned and ready to protect American forces.”
Meanwhile, Iranian state media said the country’s armed forces exchanged fire with “the enemy” on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. It is the largest Iranian island in the Persian Gulf, home to about 150,000 people. It also houses a water desalination plant.
Iranian state media also reported loud noises and defensive fire in western Tehran. In southern Iran, explosions were heard near Bandar Abbas, semiofficial Iranian news agencies said. The reports from the Fars and Tasnim agencies did not identify the source of the blasts.
Earlier Thursday, a shipping data company reported that Iran has created a government agency to vet and tax vessels seeking passage through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran said it was reviewing the latest U.S. proposals for ending the war.
The Iranian effort to formalize control over the channel raised new concerns about international shipping, with hundreds of commercial ships bottled up in the Persian Gulf and unable to reach the open sea. Still, hope that the two-month conflict could soon be over buoyed international markets.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the Islamic Republic was reviewing messages from Pakistan, which is mediating peace negotiations, but Iran “has not yet reached a conclusion, and no response has been given to the U.S. side,” Iranian state TV reported.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed Middle East peace efforts at the Vatican with Pope Leo XIV, whose opposition to the Iran war has led to open sparring with President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration has sent mixed messages on its strategy to end the war. A tenuous ceasefire and previous declarations that military operations were over have given way to new threats of bombing if Tehran does not accept a deal that allows for resumption of oil and natural gas shipments disrupted by the conflict.
Trump also suspended an attempt by the U.S. military to open a safe passage for commercial ships through the strait, saying the pause would allow more time to reach a peace agreement. An official in Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the kingdom and U.S. ally refused to support Trump's effort to reopen the strait by force.
The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has largely held since April 8. But in-person talks between the two countries hosted by Pakistan last month failed to reach an agreement. The war began Feb. 28, when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke by phone Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.
“We expect an agreement sooner rather than later,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Thursday. “We hope the parties will reach a peaceful and sustainable solution that will contribute not only to peace in our region but to international peace as well.”
He declined to give a timeline.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, speaking in televised remarks, said Islamabad remained in “continuous contact with Iran and the United States, day and night, to stop the war and extend the ceasefire.”
In other regional developments, direct talks between Israel and Lebanon were scheduled to resume next week in Washington, according to a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss plans for the closed-door meetings. The official said talks will be held May 14 and 15.
Iran established a new government agency to approve transit and collect tolls from shipping in the strait, shipping data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said Thursday. The move has raised concerns about eroding the freedom of navigation on which global trade depends.
The agency, called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, is “positioning itself as the only valid authority to grant permission to ships transiting the strait,” Lloyd’s reported in an online briefing. Lloyd's said the authority had emailed it an application form for ships seeking passage.
Iran has effectively closed the strait, a vital waterway for the shipment of supplies of oil, gas, fertilizer and other petroleum products, while the U.S. is blockading Iranian ports. The disruptions have sent fuel prices skyrocketing and rattled the global economy.
The new Iranian agency formalizes an existing, albeit murky, vetting lane that takes vessels through the strait’s northern waters near the Iranian coastline. Iran controls which ships are allowed to pass and, for at least some vessels, imposes a tax on their cargo.
Maritime law experts say Iran’s demands to vet or tax vessels violate international law. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea calls for countries to permit peaceful passage through their territorial waters.
The U.S. and its Gulf allies are pushing for the U.N. Security Council to support a resolution that condemns Iran’s chokehold on the strait and threatens sanctions. A prior resolution calling for reopening the strait was vetoed by Iran allies Russia and China.
Top Iranian officials have said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is playing a key role in overseeing negotiations with the U.S. But he remains in hiding and has not appeared in public since he was wounded early in the war.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he met recently for more than two hours with Khamenei. In remarks aired Thursday on Iranian state television, Pezeshkian praised the supreme leader’s “sincere” behavior in what he said was a long in-person meeting.
Khamenei has only released a series of written statements since being named supreme leader in March. He replaced his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the war’s initial strikes.
Trump did not consult with U.S. ally Saudi Arabia before launching the short-lived effort to force open a shipping passage through the strait, according to a Saudi official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“We told them that we are not part of this and that they can’t use our territories and bases for this,” the official said Thursday.
The official said Saudi Arabia sent a message to Iran that the kingdom would not be involved in U.S. attacks related to Trump’s attempt to reopen the strait.
Trump suspended the effort, dubbed Project Freedom, during its second day Tuesday. Only two American-flagged merchant ships are known to have passed through the U.S.-guarded route. The U.S. military said it sank six Iranian small boats threatening civilian ships.
McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany, and Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. Associated Press journalists Sally Abou AlJoud, in Beirut; Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece; Matthew Lee in Washington; Samy Magdy and Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan; Farnoush Amiri in New York and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed to this report.
Children play in the water along the shore as a mix of bulk carriers, cargo ships, and service vessels sit offshore in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, April 26, 2026.(Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls on a reporter in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
A container ship sits at anchor as a small motorboat passes in the foreground in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard with graphic showing the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strikes on Feb. 28, with his framed fist amongst his supporters framed fists in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
An Emirati patrol boat, left, is near a tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from a coastal road near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron, center right, visits the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, during his visit to Cyprus, March 9, 2026. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Pool Photo via AP, File)
A man waves an Iranian flag for a pro-government campaign under a billboard with graphic showing Strait of Hormuz and sewn lips of U.S. President Donald Trump in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
