Disgraced financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein tried to end his life at least three times before his successful attempt, and his cell was found strewn with nooses after his August 2019 death, according to a new investigation into the late pedophile’s death.
Ex-New York cop and convicted murderer Nicholas Tartaglione, 56, who briefly shared a cell with Epstein at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center, told the New York Times that he was point-blank asked how to make a noose by the sex trafficker days before his first reported attempt on July 22, 2019.
Epstein had just returned to his cell after being a judge denied him bail. It was his 13th day in custody.
Over the next few days, Tartaglione said he then twice witnessed Epstein making preparations to kill himself.
In one incident, he recalled Epstein had tied a sheet to a grate over a cell window, and another time woke up to find him looking “a little suspicious” in the darkened cell before finding a noose under his mattress, The Times reported.
Tartaglione told the outlet that he reported both attempts to jail guards, but they laughed him off. His account, however, was backed up by another inmate, Peter Bright, who recalled Tartaglione telling him about the previous attempts shortly after Epstein’s death.
On July 22, less than three weeks before Epstein was found dead in his cell, Tartaglione found him motionless on the floor of his cell with an orange fabric noose draped around his neck.
The pedophile had initially claimed to corrections officers that his cell mate tried to kill him. An internal prison investigation cleared Tartaglione of any connection to the incident.
Warning: Graphic Image
When Epstein was eventually found dead on the morning of August 10, his cell was scattered with various linens — which he was not allowed to have — including several nooses and strips of orange fabric that could be fashioned into a noose.