After having been under seal for nearly seven years, Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged suicide note was made public on Wednesday, but on Friday, Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein, claimed the note was nonsense and alleged it to be a “forgery.”
“I’ve known Jeff all my life. If he was going to kill himself, if he was going to write a suicide note, he would’ve written it ‘to somebody,’ not just a blanket statement saying goodbye,” Mark Epstein told the National Enquirer in the outlet’s report Friday. “I don’t buy that.”
The note was allegedly discovered by Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer who was convicted of having kidnapped and murdered four men in 2016 and sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. Tartaglione claimed to have discovered the note hidden inside a graphic novel.
The note was reported on last week by The New York Times, which successfully pressed a federal judge for its release. Its contents are brief, and include similar language to how Epstein had communicated over email in the past, including the phrase “watcha want me to do – bust out cryin,” a phrase Epstein has written several times in emails to his brother, Mark Epstein.
Nevertheless, Mark Epstein told the National Enquirer that he didn’t believe his brother had written the alleged suicide note, claiming it to be “a forgery.”
In late July, just over two weeks before his death, Epstein was found semi-conscious in his cell with “marks on his neck,” according to NBC 4. Epstein would later accuse Tartaglione of having attacked him, though would later retract his accusation. It was that incident, Mark Epstein said, that led him to dispute the note’s authenticity.
“In the July incident, Jeffrey’s cellmate attacked him, he reported it as such, he told his lawyer as such, and then he recanted that story saying he couldn’t remember what happened because he was fearful of retaliation," he said.
"[That’s why Epstein] was taken off suicide watch so quickly, because they knew it wasn’t a suicide attempt.”
