5 Bizarre Theories Tied to Epstein's New Prison Note

A newly unsealed note purportedly. written by Jeffrey Epstein himself is. now raising shocking questions about. what really happened behind bars inside. his final days. Locked away for years, we have not seen this until now. What it. says, what it means, did he write it? And does this prove or disprove the. theory behind his death? Welcome to. Sidebar presented by Law & Crime. I'm. Jesse Weber.

All right, before we jump into this, I. got to tell you about this app, this. sponsor that I think you're going to. love. It is called Upside. Now, Upside. gets you cash back. Yes, extra cash back. on everyday purchases like gas, groceries, take out. So, here's what you. do. You download Upside for free, you. claim an offer at one of their 100,000. plus locations, you pay like normal with. your card, you verify the purchase, and. just like that, money back. So, say I. need to get gas or I want take out one. night, I'll search for Upside offers. first, and after I spend, money appears. in my app that I can transfer right into.

my bank account. And Upside's frequent. users, by the way, earn an average of. $254 back a year. So, to start getting. your cash back, click the link in the. description or scan the QR code, and. make sure to use promo code sidebar to. get an extra 25 cents bonus on every. gallon on your first tank of gas. A. handwritten note locked in a federal. courthouse for years, never reviewed by. federal investigators, and hidden from. you. It is a treat to be able to choose. one's time to say goodbye.

What you want me to do? Bust out crying? No fun, not worth it. That note was allegedly written by. Jeffrey Epstein, and it just got. released by a federal judge. Now, if you. followed this case at all, if you've. been following us here on Sidebar cuz. we've been all on top of the Jeffrey. Epstein story, you know there are. already more questions than answers. about what happened in that jail cell. So, to be clear, the official ruling. says one thing, and we already know what. that is, right? That's on the record. But, this newly released note, along.

with other documents, is fueling a new. wave of speculation, and suspicion, and. maybe theories. And, depending on who. you ask, this note either supports the. official story, or blows it apart. We. know that Jeffrey Epstein was arrested. in July of 2019 on federal sex. trafficking charges. He was being held. at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. in New York City awaiting trial. And, on. August 10th, 2019, he was found. unresponsive in his cell. The official. ruling from the New York City Medical.

Examiner, later backed by the Department. of Justice and the FBI, was that he went. out on his own terms. But, almost. immediately, questions emerged. considering who Jeffrey Epstein was and. his connections, right? Multiple. surveillance failures and camera issues. were documented at the jail. That. contributed to speculation. Two. correctional officers were charged with. falsifying records related to required. inmate checks, though prosecutors later. dismissed those charges under a deferred. prosecution agreement. But, again,

questions, questions, questions. And, before all of that, about 2 weeks. before Epstein died, there was another. incident. On July 23rd, 2019, guards. found Epstein in his cell with marks on. his neck. This is according to a Bureau. of Prisons incident report. He survived, and his cellmate at the time was a man. named Nicholas Tartaglione, a former. police officer awaiting trial for. quadruple murder. And, according to the. New York Times, Tartaglione, or.

Tartaglioni, says he found something. after Epstein was removed from the cell, a handwritten note tucked inside a book. Now, Tartaglione gave the note to his. lawyers, but then, nothing. For nearly. what, 7 years, the note sat locked away. in a federal courthouse in White Plains, New York, sealed as part of. Tartaglione's own criminal case, and. never came up in the official. investigations into Epstein's death as. far as we could see, the Department of. Justice told the Times they had never. even seen it. So, how did it just come.

out now? Last week, the New York Times filed a. petition with Judge Kenneth Karas, who. oversaw Tartaglione's case, asking the. court to unseal the note. And the. Justice Department didn't oppose the. release, and on May 6th, just yesterday, Judge Karas ordered it unsealed. And. now, for the first time, we can all see. what it apparently says. So, the obvious. question is, did Jeffrey Epstein. actually write this? That's the biggest.

question, right? And if he did, was he serious? Or was he just messing. around? And if he wasn't serious, why. was this apparently locked away for 7. years? So, let me read this to you in. full. It's from a note that authorities. have not publicly authenticated. Okay, I. want to be clear about that. But, it's. one that Tartaglione claims Epstein. wrote. Quote, "They investigated me for. a month, found nothing. It is a treat to. be able to choose one's time to say. goodbye. What you want me to do? Bust.

out crying? No fun, not worth it.". Now, here's where it gets weird, because. just days before that July incident, and. weeks before his death, Epstein was. telling prison psychologists. he had no interest in ending his life. That's in the files. We have the. documents. We've talked about this. before. So, which is it? The note saying. goodbye, or the man saying he wanted to. live? I mean, that's the first question. the files won't let us ignore. And. that's just the beginning, because once.

you start looking at what else came out. in these files, the questions don't. stop. They just get bigger. Now, now, there's a big butt here. But, before we go any further down the. conspiracy road, we do have to talk. about something else, because there is. actually some compelling evidence that. suggests Jeffrey Epstein did write this. note. I'm going to start with the phrase. "bust out crying". It's not a common expression, but. Epstein used it. In a September 2016. email to his brother Mark, which is. included in the files, Epstein wrote,

quote, "What you want me to do? Bust out. crying?" Same phrasing, same. misspelling, same everything. So, if someone faked this note to make. it look like a suicide note, they must. have had access to Epstein's private. emails from years earlier. Maybe. Or. more simply, Epstein just wrote it himself. Then there's the CBS note. 2020, CBS. News reported on a different handwritten. note found in Epstein's cell after his. death. That one complained about jail.

conditions and a guard keeping him in a. locked shower stall for an hour. They. also complained about burnt food and. giant bugs crawling over his hand. And. at the bottom of that note, Epstein. wrote two words, "No fun.". Exactly what he wrote in this newly. released note, "No fun.". So, with that in mind, I want to start. right off the bat with the obvious. conspiracy that has been circulating. since the very announcement of Jeffrey. Epstein's death, that he didn't do this. That he didn't want to do this. That he. was killed. So, I want to take a look.

back at what Epstein told psychologist. because it directly contradicts that. note, in theory, right? So, okay, maybe. he wrote it. The emails and the other. note might indicate he talked like this, but here's the thing, if he wrote those. words, did he mean them? According to. the BOP records, the Bureau of Prison. records released in the file dump, Epstein was evaluated multiple times in. July of 2019 and just one day after that. July 23rd incident, on July 24th, he. told a prison psychologist he had no. interest in ending his life. He said he.

had lots to do for his legal case. He. described having a wonderful life with. interesting people and projects. He said. it would be crazy to take his life. And. then this, I would not do that to. myself. Next day, July 25th, said it again. I am. too vested in my case to fight it. I. have a life and I want to go back to. living my life. Now, does that sound like someone who's. writing goodbye notes? Could also be the. possibility maybe he's lying, maybe.

didn't want to have extra precautions. put in place so he appears to not look. like he's going to take his life so that. he has the flexibility and the. opportunity to do so, maybe. Because. here's the thing, the people who knew. Epstein say. he wasn't that type. His own brother, Mark Epstein, actually came on our show. and said this. >> I thought, okay, he killed himself. Uh, at the time I had no reason to doubt it. and I just figured that was his decision. and I respected it. Yeah, I uh, grieved the loss of a. brother, but.

it was his decision. But then, after the. autopsy was done and all the other. information started coming out, it. became apparent that it was not a. suicide. Uh, when you looked at the autopsy. results, uh, the photographs we have of. the body, the the details of the mark on his neck, uh, compared to the way they said he was. hanging, it nothing matches up. If you looked at all of these facts and. evidence, you would not come up with the. conclusion that it was a suicide.

>> And by the way, Mark Epstein has been. saying that for years. He told. NewsNation he quote, laughed at how. stupid it was that officials ruled out. murder. Told Nancy Grace two. pathologists to examine the body. allegedly said they couldn't call it a. suicide because it looked too much like. a homicide. But we do have to remember this. Two days before he died, so August 8th, 2019, Epstein signed a new will placing. more than $500 million. in assets into a trust. And reports at. the time identified Karrina Shuliak as.

his long-time girlfriend and primary. beneficiary. The filing included. properties that were tied to Epstein. We're talking his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico, Paris, the US Virgin. Islands, along with a 33-carat diamond. ring described in court records as given. in contemplation of marriage. And. Epstein also reportedly spoke to that. girlfriend for 20 minutes on an. unrecorded phone call the night before. he died. We did a whole deep dive on. Epstein's secret girlfriend that you can. check out on our YouTube page. But. anyway, you could argue updating a will.

and speaking to this person is exactly. what someone does when they think the. end is near. That's a possibility. But let's say he wasn't planning to die. This would raise a question that the. official report does not answer. What was that note? Because if Epstein was fighting to live, talking about his future, updating his. will for a life that he expected to. return to, then. that note isn't a goodbye. It's something else entirely. And that. brings us to the people who were. supposed to be watching him. Because it.

turns out the files have some answers. about those guards, and I will tell you. it's weird. Let's talk about this woman, Tova Noel. She was one of the correctional officers. assigned to Epstein's unit at the. Metropolitan Correctional Center. And on. the night of August 9th, 2019, she was. working a double shift. Her job was to. check on inmates every 30 minutes. That apparently didn't happen. Here's. what did happen. According to a forensic. examination of her desktop computer that. was released as part of these files, uh Tova Noel searched Google for.

something at 5:42 in the morning on. August 10th, 2019. Quote, "Latest on. Epstein in jail.". Apparently searched again 10 minutes. later, 5:52 a.m. And less than 40 minutes later, her. co-worker, Michael Thomas, found Epstein. unresponsive in his cell. Now, when investigators asked Tova Noel. about this in a sworn statement that was. taken in 2021, she apparently said she didn't remember. doing those searches. She apparently He.

"I don't recall looking him up, like. when you click on the browser, like how. it has that little news piece, like one. time he was there.". The problem with that? The forensic logs. appear to show she navigated to specific. articles, a CNBC article, a KTLA. article. She wasn't just apparently. scrolling a news feed. The argument was. she was clicking. And then there's the money. Yeah, according to reporting from the New York. Post and the Miami Herald, Toledo Noel's. bank, Chase, filed a suspicious activity. report with the FBI in November of 2019.

So, 12 cash deposits made between April. 2018 and July 2019, with the largest. being $5,000 on July 30th, just days. before Epstein died. The Miami Herald. reports that she also received thousands. of dollars in Zelle payments in the. months leading up to his death. No. official explanation for where that. money came from. And Noel's financial. records show she was leasing a new Range. Rover worth more than $60,000. But just to be clear here for a second, Noel was never charged with anything.

related to Epstein's death directly, right? She wasn't charged with killing. him. She and Thomas, they faced charges. for falsifying records, but as I. mentioned, those charges were dropped. Now, here's what makes people keep. asking questions. According to the Miami. Herald, Epstein's former cellmate told. prison authorities. that Epstein said he should pay off. inmates and guards to protect him. The Herald's sources said that Epstein. did make those protection payments. So, a guard who was supposed to be watching.

Epstein googles him 40 minutes before. his body's found. Financial records. later reviewed by reporters showed. multiple cash deposits into Noel's. accounts before Epstein's death. Now, is. that proof of anything? No, but it's. weird. It raises a question about that. No? And if someone else was involved in. what happened to Epstein, hypothetically, would they have wanted a note that. looked like a goodbye? Cuz it brings us to what other inmates. say they heard that morning. According. to a five-page handwritten note included. in the Epstein files, an inmate at the.

MCC apparently spoke with the FBI about. what he heard on the morning of August. 10th, 2019 and around 6:30 a.m. He. recalled officers shouting, quote, "Breathe. Breathe.". Then he allegedly heard an officer say, quote, "Dudes, you killed that dude.". Female guard allegedly replied, quote, "If he's dead, we're going to cover it. up and he's going to have an alibi, my. officers.". That same inmate later claimed, quote, "Mr. Noel killed Jeffrey." Again, to be.

clear, there is no corroborating. evidence to back this up. The DOJ's. investigation concluded that none of the. inmates who were interviewed had any. credible information suggesting Jeffrey. Epstein's cause of death was anything. other than what the official ruling. says, but the note exists, it's in the. files, the FBI interviewed this person, and the allegation is on the record. So, why include it? Because it shows what people inside that. jail believed happened or seemingly. And. if an inmate was claiming a guard killed. Epstein, then that note, the one that.

looks like a suicide note, would. essentially be the perfect cover. Which brings us to the video. Or what little video there is. Because. if you recall, according to a DOJ. Inspector General memo from the files, the only camera that was apparently. recording in the SHU, the special. housing unit of the MCC that night, was. positioned near the entrance to the. unit. It had low-quality video, could. only show part of the officer station, had a partial view of the stairs leading. to the tiers. And at 10:39 p.m. on.

August 9th, 2019, a flash of orange. appeared going up the stairs toward the. L tier, that's where Epstein's cell was. located. The FBI report described it. this way, quote, "A flash of orange. looks to be going up the L tier stairs, could possibly be an inmate escorted up. to that tier." The Inspector General's. report offered a different explanation. because they said it was likely a. correctional officer carrying inmate. linen or bedding up the stairs. Which is it? An inmate in an orange. jumpsuit or an officer carrying orange.

bedding? Now, if you recall, according. to CBS News, which analyzed the footage. with video forensic experts, the. movement was more consistent with an. inmate wearing a prison uniform than an. officer carrying clothing. They also. said it would be unusual for an officer. to be escorting an inmate at that time. of night. Again, you could see why. people would look at this and say it's. suspicious. Now, here's what the Inspector General. determined that between approximately. 10:40 p.m. on August 9th and just before. 6:30 a.m. on August 10th, no one entered.

any of the SHU tiers. That finding is consistent with what the. two guards on duty admitted, that they. didn't conduct the required rounds or. counts that night. Here's the problem. The only camera recording kind of like I. mentioned had terrible angles, and the. FBI report included diagrams showing how. much of the unit was simply not visible. You couldn't see the entrance to. Epstein's cell. You couldn't see most of. the stairs. You couldn't see who came. and went from the officer's station. So, this would mean that that note, the one.

that's supposed to explain everything, was found in a cell that the cameras. barely even watched. And that leads to the missing minute. So, here's what happened with that. footage, okay? When the FBI released the. surveillance video in July of 2025, eagle-eyed viewers noticed something. almost immediately. The timestamp jumps. At 11:58:58. p.m., it skips forward to 12:00 a.m. exactly. So, 62 seconds just. gone. Now, Attorney General, or former.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, addressed. this at a press conference, and she said. that missing minute was caused by the. camera resetting itself at around. midnight. And she said the system was. old from like 1999, and that every night. the video resets. So, every night should. have the same minute missing. But, according to CBS News, a government. source said she was incorrect in that. assessment. And here's the problem. again. No missing minute was documented, apparently, in the Inspector General's. investigation. Not a mention of it. So,

if this happened every single night, why didn't the OIG note it? Does that prove something happened in. that missing minute? No. But, again, another question, another weird part. about this. And it leads to the final one. Because. according to the files themselves, officials did something that day that. most people don't know about. A decoy. According to an FBI interview document. included in the Epstein files, a food. services employee told investigators. that after Epstein's body was found,

officials noticed a large media presence. gathered outside the MCC. So, what did. they apparently do? They came up with a. plan. And I'm going to read this. directly here from this document. Quote, "In order to thwart the media, three. redacted names used boxes and sheets to. create what appeared to be a human body, which was put into the white OCME. vehicle, which the press followed, allowing the black vehicle to depart. unnoticed with Epstein's body.". A fake body.

made of boxes and sheets loaded into a. medical examiner's van, press followed. it, the real body went out the back in a. black car. That is not the kind of. information that is going to squash the. theories out there. It's just going to. amplify it. Now, again, to be clear, this doesn't prove anything about how. Epstein died. And yes, he was a notable. figure, you can maybe understand why. they did something like this. The decoy. was about media management, not a. cover-up. But, again, it's another. example of how strange this whole. episode is. And it's another reason people keep.

asking questions. One more I got for you. If the official. story is correct, if Epstein wrote that. note, one that we've been talking about, took his own life, then why go through the trouble. of faking a body? Why hide the real body. in a black car while. the press chased a decoy made of boxes. and sheets? I mean, the note says. goodbye, but everything else in these. files says, you know, wait a minute. So, what do you believe? And that's all we have for you right now.

here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so. much for joining us and as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple. Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should. get your podcast. You can also check us. out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you. want to follow me, X, Instagram, my. NewsNation show, Jesse Watters. Primetime, Monday through Friday, 11:00. p.m. Eastern. See you next time, everybody.