A suicidal Jeffery Epstein was extorted by prisoners and believed the government was 'trying to kill him', according to fellow inm...
A suicidal Jeffery Epstein was extorted by prisoners and believed the government was 'trying to kill him', according to fellow inmates in fresh details of his 'hellish' final days before he killed himself in a federal jail.
The millionaire pedophile's death at Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10 last year was officially ruled as a suicide by hanging, despite murder conspiracy theories circulating widely online.
But in interviews with Epstein's former inmates, obtained by the Daily News, they reveal it was common knowledge in the prison that he was suicidal and cellmates warned him not to kill himself in their presence.
One prison inmate claimed that Epstein was saying he was going to kill himself because 'the government is trying to kill him anyway'.
Former inmates also revealed he was also subject to threats and extortion from fellow prisoners and mistreatment from prison guards who made him sleep on the floor.
Sources claimed he paid around $4,000 to inmates for contraband cell phones, though some were never provided.
They also claimed that inmates would slide notes under his door saying: 'We're going to kill you, you rapist, you pedophile', while others offered him security for a fee.
Epstein, 66, first arrived at the prison after his arrest on July 6, 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
He was moved to the Special Housing Unit four days later, which separated him from the rest of the inmates.
Interviews with Jeffery Epstein's former inmates claimed it was common knowledge in the prison that he was suicidal in the month before he died. Pictured: The federal prison cell where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself
The photos from inside his cell reveal that fragments of material were found hanging from a window, while a large strip of bedding was also looped through a hole on the top bunk bed
His cellmate during that time was Nick Tartaglione, a former police officer facing the death penalty on charges of killing four men in a botched drug deal.
One prison inmate claimed he overheard Tartaglione warn Epstein not to kill himself while he was in the room, saying: 'Listen, don't do that s**t in here... do it on your own.'
However, on July 23, Epstein first attempted to take his own life by hanging himself using a strip of bedsheet.
His cellmate, Tartaglione, claims that he alerted prison officers and possibly saved Epstein's life - which is not disputed by prosecutors - and later told fellow prisoners that Epstein told him he was going to give him $2million in his will to thank him.
However, Tartaglione's lawyer said he would be 'stunned beyond all imagination' if it were true that his client was included in the millionaire's will.
Epstein was put on suicide watch and moved to a cell with Efrain 'Stone' Reyes, the last inmate to share a cell with the sex offender.
His memories of sharing a cell with Epstein were retold by his niece, Angelique Lopez, after Efrain 'Stone' Reyes passed away in his mother's apartment on November 27, five months after contracting COVID at a jail in Queens.
He said he was a 'good cellmate' who read a lot and kept to himself. However, according to Reyes' niece's account her uncle said he was 'very depressed' and mentioned that 'he didn't want to live anymore'.
Reyes' niece, told The News that her uncle told him: 'Don't do any of this while I'm in the room.'
The millionaire pedophile's death on August 10 last year was officially ruled as a suicide by hanging, despite murder conspiracy theories circulating widely online. Pictured: Epstein's jail cell as a crime scene after his death
The Metropolitan Correctional Center where financier Jeffrey Epstein, 66, was held while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges last year
Reyes also claimed that staff were 'treating [Epstein] like c**p' and making him sleep on the floor.
After his death, a note was found in Epstein's cell saying that a correctional officer sent him 'burnt food' and that 'giant bugs' were crawling over his hands.
Epstein hanged himself using ripped bedsheets less than 24 hours after Reyes was transferred to another detention center in Queens, New York for cooperating witnesses.
When he was released from prison in April, Reyes, expressed doubts that Epstein could have hanged himself from the frame of the bunk bed as it wasn't tall enough, saying that it didn't make sense.
However, he said said he couldn't be sure as 'sometimes people are fighting something we know nothing about.'
In a statement, Epstien's Lawyer, Reid Weingarten said: 'If your information is correct it is horrifying that such conditions are generally tolerated in a federal prison within the shadows of the federal courthouse, the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI.
'What would be even worse would be if federal law enforcement was specifically aware of the threats and extortions and did nothing to protect Epstein, but rather fought tooth and nail against any bail conditions so as to keep him in those conditions.'
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