NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A note that a former cellmate said he discovered after ‘s first suspected jail suicide attempt was all but certainly penned by the same person as a note that authorities found in the millionaire sex offender’s cell after he , handwriting experts say.
Three forensic document examiners who reviewed the notes at the request of The Associated Press concluded that they have or appear to have common authorship, with shared characteristics such as the same spacing, letter shapes, usage of capital letters and unique punctuation.
In the first note, made public this week, the writer states: 鈥淭hey investigated me for month — found nothing!!!鈥� and talks about being able to choose the 鈥渢ime to say goodbye.鈥� The other note, which has been public for years, is a list of grievances about conditions at the jail, including the showers, food and 鈥淕iant Bugs.鈥�
While no one has definitively said Epstein wrote the notes, they point to his grim outlook before his death and echo some frustrations he conveyed to jail personnel about being confined in the crumbling Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan after living in luxury for decades. They also contain phrases he had used in the past.
Both notes, written in pen on notepad paper, include the underlined phrase 鈥淣O FUN鈥� and end with double exclamation points 鈥� the first of which is bowed slightly with similar curvature. The first few words of each note are larger than the rest and each successive line slants away from the left margin.
鈥淭hese are the kinds of things that would suggest that we’re dealing with the same writer,鈥� said Thomas Vastrick, the president of the American Society of Questioned Document Examiners.
鈥淭hey are written by the same person,鈥� said Bart Baggett, who founded the forensic analysis firm Handwriting Experts Inc. and has testified in court as an expert witness more than 130 times.
鈥淏oth of those documents have the same author,鈥� said Grace Warmbier, who worked for a decade for the New York City Police Department performing document examinations and handwriting analysis.
None of the experts were able to say definitively that Epstein wrote the notes, in part because there are few if any confirmed examples of his handwriting in the millions of pages of records the Justice Department recently released on the late financier.
In addition to the two jail notes, Warmbier and Vastrick also reviewed writing samples from the former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, including part of a note he sent to the New York Daily News in 2019 in which he denied any involvement in Epstein’s death.
Warmbier ruled out Tartaglione as the author, finding 鈥渟ignificant dissimilarities between his handwriting and the handwriting in question.鈥�
Vastrick said Tartaglione’s writing samples had 鈥渁 wide range of variation from one to another鈥� and that there were at least some similarities that require further examination.
鈥淎t this point, I certainly would not eliminate him as a potential writer,鈥� Vastrick said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 at the same time want to suggest that he is the writer.鈥�
For years, only a few people known about the note that Tartaglione claimed he found. Then, last summer, he mentioned it on writer Jessica Reed Kraus鈥� podcast. That piqued the interest of writers at The New York Times, who convinced a judge on Wednesday to release the note, which had been sealed in an unrelated case.
Tartaglione, an ex-police officer serving a life sentence for killing four people, said he discovered the note in a book in his cell after Epstein was found on July 23, 2019, on the floor with a strip of bedsheet around his neck. Epstein was placed on suicide watch and moved to a different cell. He had no cellmate when he was on Aug. 10, 2019.
Epstein and Tartaglione shared a cell for about two weeks, beginning soon after Epstein鈥檚 July 6, 2019, arrest on sex trafficking charges and ending with the suspected suicide attempt. Both men were awaiting trials.
According to a chronology in the Justice Department’s files on Epstein, Tartaglione told his lawyer about the note four days after the suspected July 23 attempt. There is no indication that anyone alerted jail officials or Epstein’s representatives.
The note was later submitted as evidence in Tartaglione鈥檚 criminal case and placed under seal amid a dispute over his legal representation. It wasn鈥檛 mentioned in government reports examining the circumstances of Epstein鈥檚 death, nor did it surface in the Justice Department鈥檚 files. The other note, found after Epstein’s death, was in 2020 and is in the files.
Beyond handwriting analysis, the phrasing of the notes could give clues to their authorship. The note Tartaglione said he found contains the line: 鈥淲atcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!!鈥�
Epstein previously , mimicking dialogue from a 1931 鈥淟ittle Rascals鈥� film, in three emails that were included in the Justice Department’s files, including one he sent to his brother four months before going to jail.
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Associated Press videojournalist David R. Martin contributed to this report.
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EDITOR鈥橲 NOTE 鈥� This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at
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