Ruth And Bernie Madoff Attempted Suicide On Christmas Eve

Ruth Madoff, wife of disgraced Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, told "60 Minutes" that the couple was so distraught over her husband's crimes that they attempted suicide together.

"I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening," Ruth Madoff tells reporter Morley Safer. "We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said '...I just can't go on anymore.' "

On Christmas Eve, Ruth and Bernie went through with the suicide pact.

From CBS News:

So Ruth and Bernard Madoff took a bunch of pills, some of them Ambien and possibly some Klonopin, Ruth recalls. She did not drink alcohol with them for fear of vomiting. "I took what we had, he took more," says Ruth. It was Christmas Eve, she says, "That added to the whole depression." But the pills didn't work. "We took pills and woke up the next day....It was very impulsive and I am glad we woke up," she says.

An excerpt from the exclusive interview will be broadcast tonight on the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley." The full "60 Minutes," story will air on Sunday.

In an interview with New York magazine, Bernie Madoff previously denied that he ever considered suicide. "I never thought of taking my life," he told NYMag's Steve Fishman. "It's just not the way I am." (Visit nymag.com to hear audio of the interview).

Ruth Madoff's shocking story comes on the heels of a new tell-all memoir from Stephanie Madoff Mack, the widow of Ruth and Bernie's son Mark.

Mark committed suicide on the second anniversary of his father's arrest in the living room of his SoHo loft while his wife and daughter were in Disney World. He hanged himself while his infant son was sleeping nearby.

From Mack's "The End Of Normal: My Life As A Madoff":

My stepfather ... found Mark's body hanging from the steel beam that ran through the living room. He had fashioned a noose out of our dog Grouper's leash. A snapped cord from the vacuum cleaner was on a table nearby; apparently it had taken two tries. Nick was sleeping just a few steps away.

Ruth Madoff later blamed Bernie for her son's suicide, according to biographer Jerry Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer told The New York Post Ruth was "totally disgusted with [Bernie] and blames him for her son's death," adding, "She thinks this is the end of the family."

Comments

[denese117]

02:24 PM on 10/31/2011

It's far to convenient that all of a sudden Ruth is talking now and she has a book coming out. I have been married for 28years and I find it very hard to believe you don't know your husband or his business well enough to know what he's doing and where the money he's making is coming from. This is just another ploy to make money off of hard working people. I will never purchase a book about them and put money in their pockets to rehash the terrible deed that was done to so many people. I also feel if they really wanted to off themselves they would has succeeded, this was either just another ploy for sympathy or a total lie. Considering who this info is coming from I would believe both (ploy for sympathy/lie).

[Scottt01]

07:12 PM on 11/01/2011

After finding out her and her children had been lied to for all these years by her husband and she decides she want to commit suicide with the creep? I don't buy it. A con job got her into this mess and now she thinks a con job will get her out of it.

[mother10]

09:56 PM on 10/30/2011

she hasn't worked since 1963 so the money all came from his theft...her husband worked/stole money...so why does she get to keep 2.5 million dollars ! what judge did this ?

[mother10]

09:21 PM on 10/30/2011

will someone please explain to me, why she was given 2.5 million ...when other people were left with NOTHING...she is very comfortable financially even NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! scream !

[Frederick Rhodes]

07:04 AM on 10/30/2011

Parents, to avoid giving your sons any cause to develop this kind of extreme greed, and need for revenge with no remorse, like poor old Bernie, don't steal the joyskin of their prepuce while sexually terrorizing them as infants and children.

[Phranquenstew]

01:39 PM on 10/29/2011

As a small part of their punishment, the public should be given their addresses in prison and they should be required to spend 40 hours per week reading their own mail.

[ncrespi]

12:56 PM on 10/29/2011

This attempt was the only time Bernie and Ruth were underachievers.

[zest]

12:32 PM on 10/29/2011

Is she trying to rehabilitate their public image? I never heard of them before the scandal and will never like them.

[PJWolf66]

10:33 AM on 10/28/2011

So, they felt burdened by all the hate mail and terrible phone calls. Not because of any guilt for ruining hundreds of peoples lives. If he hadn't been caught, they'd still be living off the "flesh" of others. Wow. Are we really suppose to express empathy for this poor woman?

[MelodieSays]

02:44 PM on 10/28/2011

besides the fact that they are lying liars, who lie.

[Badgirl]

09:55 AM on 10/28/2011

and, to no one's surprise - Bernie and Ruth were able to cheat death too.

[Marcel Serraillier]

05:53 AM on 10/28/2011

Please if you have life saving money, retirement pension or pennies left :send it to poor Ruth Madoff who almost had to kill herself.

[bg222]

01:12 AM on 10/28/2011

This is what deregulated financial markets produce. OWS has a point.

[Myonie Payton]

02:42 PM on 10/27/2011

Wow they stay failing

[Valerie Pease Hoffmannv]

02:07 PM on 10/27/2011

It still sounds like Ruth is more sorry that they got caught, rather than realizing the error of their ways: "I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening," Ruth Madoff tells reporter Morley Safer. "We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said '...I just can't go on anymore.' " My sympathy goes out to Mark's family.

[Justin Allison]

10:18 AM on 10/28/2011

That is called the Michael Vick Syndrome.
Making apologies, but having no remorse, understanding, of why what they did was so wrong.

[DulcetDelight]

12:47 PM on 10/30/2011

Exactly. They are selfish, they feel sorry for themselves getting caught. That's all. Had they not been caught, they would have continued to live happily in their greed destroying lives.

[PJWolf66]

10:35 AM on 10/28/2011

That's what struck me as terrible. They didn't feel bad for what they did to people, they felt oppressed by the hate mail and horrible phone calls.

[CaptainRenault]

01:47 PM on 10/27/2011

Next time, Ruthie, wash them down with about 5 tumblers of scotch . . .

^ ^

[Phranquenstew]

01:42 PM on 10/29/2011

then take a stroll "on the other side of the tracks".

[cdd300wm]

01:41 PM on 10/27/2011

I'm usually hoping that the umber rich become les successful as they go on through life but this is one case I wish they succeded with their efforts to killl themselves! But then again I also think this is a ploy to get our sympathy and I wish them much success in their second attemp. I will even provide the means nessecery to do the job right!

[piceaglauca]

03:25 PM on 10/27/2011

no....nobody is being sympathic. The whole story is titelating.

[ncrespi]

10:32 AM on 10/28/2011

I think Ruth was just a coward who didn't want jail time as an accomplice/accessory.