New Delhi, May 8 -- Jeffrey Epstein's death inside a federal jail cell in Manhattan has remained one of the most scrutinized custodial deaths in modern American history, spawning years of investigations, political controversy, conspiracy theories and institutional embarrassment. Now, nearly seven years after the disgraced financier was found dead while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, a newly unsealed handwritten document is adding another layer to the mystery surrounding his final days.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in New York ordered the release of a document described as a purported suicide note written by Epstein weeks before his death in August 2019. The note, which had remained under court seal for years, surface...