suicide

A Baloch separatist group has claimed responsibility for an attack on a train carrying soldiers in Quetta, Pakistan. The suicide car bombing killed at least 24 people and injured dozens more, including women and children.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New York unsealed a suicide note Wednesday purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein in July, 2019, before a failed suicide attempt soon after he had been taken into federal custody on sex trafficking charges.

The disgraced financier would ultimately die weeks later in the same New York facility in what was ruled a suicide.

While the note’s authenticity has not been established, it contains an apparent reference to a line from a 1931 Little Rascals film that Epstein had used in at least two email messages, according to the trove of Epstein documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice this year in response to the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act.

In the short handwritten note released Wednesday, Epstein allegedly wrote, “They investigated me for month — Found nuthing!!!”

The note concludes, “Whatcha want me to do — Burst out cryin!! No Fun – Not Worth It!!”

It was a phrase Epstein had used before.

In a September, 2016, email to his brother, Mark, he wrote, “whtchoo want me toodo — bust out crying” in response to news that their cousin had become a grandfather.

And in another message the following year to his childhood friend Terry Kafka, Epstein wrote, “Whatcha want me todo/bust out cryin,” in response to a message from Kafka about being nostalgic

Epstein’s brother and Kafka did not immediately responded to requests for comment.

The line is an apparent reference to a 1931 Little Rascals short film “Little Daddy,” in which the character Stymie says, “Well, what do you want me to do, bust out crying?” when another character says that it will be their last breakfast together.

The note emerged from the court records of Epstein’s onetime cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione, a former police officer who is serving four consecutive life sentences for a 2016 quadruple murder.

It was released in response to a request by the New York Times.

The note itself was not included in the millions of pages released by the Justice Department.

In 2020, “60 Minutes” disclosed a note Epstein reportedly wrote days before his August, 2019, death that included complaints about his conditions and similarly concluded with the phrase “No fun!!!”

Journalist Katie Phang sued acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche for allegedly failing to comply with the requirements of the Epstein files law passed last year, which required that the documents be released in their entirety within 30 days, with reasoning provided for any documents not released.

The department released the files after the deadline passed and has faced criticism for removing or not releasing some documents and simultaneously failing to redact the names of numerous Epstein victims while redacting the names of some of Epstein’s friends and associates.

WASHINGTON — A federal magistrate judge on Monday pressed a jail official to explain why a man charged with trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner and attempting to kill President Trump was placed on restrictive suicide watch after his arrest.

Officials at the city jail in Washington removed Cole Tomas Allen from its designated “suicide status” over the weekend after his attorneys complained that he had been unnecessarily confined in a padded room with constant lighting, repeatedly strip-searched and placed in restraints outside his cell.

But the relaxed conditions didn’t satisfy U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui’s concerns that Allen may have received disparate, punitive treatment in violation of his due process rights. Faruqui noted that the D.C. jail routinely houses convicted killers and others charged with violent crimes without placing them on 24-hour lockdown.

“It could drive a person crazy to be in that situation,” he said.

Faruqui apologized to Allen over his confinement conditions. In response to a news report on that apology, U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro criticized him in a social media post that said Faruqui “believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant.”

Allen’s lawyers said he wasn’t showing any suicidal risk factors after his arrest. But a jail psychiatrist evaluated him and initially concluded that he posed a suicide risk, according to Tony Towns, acting general counsel for the city’s corrections department.

“Every case is different, your honor,” Towns said.

Allen was moved into protective custody after the jail lifted the suicide prevention measures. His attorneys didn’t object to his new confinement status. They had asked the magistrate to cancel Monday’s hearing, but Faruqui forged ahead with it due to his “grave concerns” about Allen’s treatment in jail.

Allen was injured but was not shot during the April 25 attack at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital.

Allen was armed with guns and knives when he ran through a security checkpoint and pointed his weapon at a Secret Service agent, who fired back five times, authorities said. Pirro has said that Allen fired a shot that struck the agent’s bullet-resistant vest.

Allen later told FBI agents that he didn’t expect to survive the attack, which could help explain why he was deemed to be a possible suicide risk, said Justice Department prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine.

Allen, 31, of Torrance, is charged with attempted assassination of the president and two additional firearms counts. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

Defense attorney Eugene Ohm said Allen was prohibited from having anything in his cell. He asked for a Bible and a visit from a chaplain but hasn’t received either, according to Ohm.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

Jacqueline Falk, daughter of the late “Columbo” star Peter Falk, died Monday by suicide, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner. She was 60.

Jackie Falk died at her Los Angeles residence, the department’s website said. The case is still listed as open.

The Times was unable to obtain further information about Jackie Falk’s death Wednesday as the medical examiner’s public information office was closed because of staffing issues.

Peter Falk was 83 when he died at his Beverly Hills home in June 2011.

He and first wife Alyce Mayo married in 1960 and later adopted sisters Jackie and Catherine. The college sweethearts divorced in 1976, but according to Catherine — who was around 5 when her parents split — they remained “best friends.”

“I remember watching my mom and dad laugh and tell stories about their college years,” she told Closer magazine in 2023. “It was nice as a teenager to experience that.”

Peter Falk would bring both her and her older sister Jackie to movie premieres and set visits, and loved to take them ice skating, Catherine Falk said.

In 1977, he married actor Shera Danese, who he met while making the 1976 movie “Mikey and Nicky.”

“He saw me walking down the street, and that was it,” Danese told The Times in 1991. She said with a giggle that at 15 years or so into their marriage, “I tell him what to do.” Danese has not acted in film or TV since the year before Peter Falk’s death, according to IMDb.

The family story grew complicated when Catherine Falk alleged that Danese hindered access to their father.

After what she said was an expensive legal battle to gain visitation late in her father’s life, Catherine Falk has a website dedicated to the passage of laws to guarantee a new spouse can’t prevent children from a previous marriage from visiting an incapacitated parent. She said on the site that her dad maintained a 30-year loving relationship with her and Jackie despite alleged interference from his new wife.

In 2009, after petitioning the court to have her ailing father placed under a conservatorship, Catherine was permitted to visit Peter Falk, who was suffering from dementia. Danese was named the “Columbo” actor’s conservator. Jackie, who did not join the court fight to have access to her father, was not able to visit him during the three years before his death, the Catherine Falk Foundation website said.

The women found out about their father’s death via media accounts, the website said.