Bernie Madoff's Wife, Son To Appear On "60 Minutes"
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - The wife and surviving son of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff are speaking out for the first time in an exclusive interview with "60 Minutes."
Ruth Madoff told "60 Minutes" correspondent Morley Safer, in a story set to air on Sunday, that one Christmas Eve after her husband's Ponzi scheme unraveled the pair decided to end their lives.
"I don't know whose idea it was," Ruth Madoff said. "But we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening. We had terrible phone calls, hate mail. Just beyond anything and I said, 'I can't, I just can't go on anymore.'"
Ruth Madoff told "60 Minutes" she and Bernie took sleeping pills but could not remember how many.
"I don't even remember," she said. "I had -- I took what we had. He took more."
Ruth Madoff said the pair did not leave any notes for their children.
"It was very impulsive and I'm glad we woke up," she admitted.
Madoff victim Steven Berzner watched a portion of the interview Wednesday night on the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley."
One of his first thoughts about the suicide revelation was, "Cowards commit suicide. The brave people are the ones that stand up and face the music."
Berzner's father Irving invested heavily with Madoff for years after co-founding a successful costume jewelry business. Irving Berzner died in 2006. He had nearly $900,000 invested with Madoff.
Berzner, who is being sued by the Madoff bankruptcy trustee in a clawback lawsuit, said Ruth Madoff should have anticipated outrage from her husband's victims.
"What did she expect with what her husband did?," he told CBS4's Carey Codd. "Ruined people, took people's money, caused suicides. If my father was alive to see what happened he would not have survived this disappointment."
Bernie Madoff admitted to carrying out a massive Ponzi scheme. He is serving a 150 year prison sentence. It was in prison last December that Madoff learned his eldest son, Mark, took his own life.
In the "60 Minutes" interview we learn that Ruth Madoff sent some of her precious items to her children before the suicide attempt.
"That's when I packed up some things to send to my sons and my grandchildren," Ruth Madoff said. "I had some lovely antique things and things that I thought they might want."
Her son Andrew told "60 Minutes" he remembers getting an envelope in the mail.
"It was absolutely heartbreaking," he said. "These were pieces of jewelry that I recognized. Things that I had seen my mother wearing over the-- over the years. And-- I couldn't-- I couldn't understand how she could do this. I mean, what were they thinking?
"And-- it wasn't until-- three years later that I had a chance to ask her that question, 'What were you thinking when you sent me that jewelry?' I don't understand. And-- she told me that-- she and my father had planned to kill themselves. And they put together that package beforehand and sent it out."
Berzner believes those items were probably worth a lot of money and Ruth wanted to keep them away from the auction block.
"If she had any sympathy for the people that her husband stole from she would have given that to the trustee in bankruptcy," he said. "That's tainted. That's dirty property."
Berzner wonders if he'll hear Ruth Madoff apologize to the victims in the longer "60 Minutes" interview, which will air Sunday at 7 pm on CBS. However he said even if she does apologize, it's much too late for remorse.
