- An inmate where Epstein was jailed rejected conspiracy theories that the sex offender was murdered.
- "He wanted to kill himself," the man said in an email to
jail staff, The New York Times reported.
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein "seized the opportunity" to kill himself in a
The details were included in a lengthy New York Times report published Tuesday that was based on more than 2,000 pages of Federal Bureau of Prisons records the newspaper obtained after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
Epstein, who was jailed while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019.
A medical examiner ruled Epstein's death a suicide by hanging.
Two months after the 66-year-old's death, an inmate at the detention center emailed the jail's psychology department about a conversation he had with a fellow inmate whose cell was next to Epstein's, The Times reported.
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The inmate whose cell was next to Epstein's heard Epstein "tearing up his sheet before committing
"He wanted to kill himself and seized the opportunity when it was available," he said in the email, according to The Times. "Such is life — or death, in this case."
Meanwhile, the records obtained by The Times also painted a picture of Epstein's final days. In the weeks before his death, he tried to convince jail officials that he wouldn't try to kill himself.
According to the records, Epstein spent the time after a suicide attempt in July 2019 saying that he was happy and wouldn't try again, The Times reported.
"I have no interest in killing myself," Epstein told a psychologist at the jail, according to the Bureau of Prisons documents seen by The Times.
Epstein called himself a "coward" who did not like pain, The Times reported, citing the documents.
"I would not do that to myself," he said.