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‘Bernard And I Attempted Suicide,’ Ruth Madoff Tells ’60 Minutes’

Author Of Book On Disgraced Financier Not Buying What She's Selling

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Ruth Madoff (credit: CBS/60 Minutes)

Ruth Madoff (credit: CBS/60 Minutes)

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(CBS News/CBSNewYork)Ruth Madoff makes some startling admissions in a “60 Minutes” interview airing this Sunday.

In the only interview Madoff has given regarding her husband’s crimes, Ruth told Morley Safer she and Bernard were so distraught over the burden of his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, 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,” Madoff told Safer. “We had terrible phone calls. Hate mail, just beyond anything and I said ‘…I just can’t go on anymore.’”

In an excerpt from the interview that aired Wednesday night on the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley,” Ruth said she and Bernard took a bunch of pills, some of them Ambien and possibly some Klonopin. She did not drink alcohol with them for fear of vomiting.

“I took what we had, he took more,” said Ruth. “It was Christmas Eve, 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 said.

LISTEN: 1010 WINS’ John Montone reports


Andrew Kirtzman, a former political reporter for CBS 2 and the author of the bestseller “The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff,” told CBS 2′s Lou Young on Wednesday night he thinks he knows why Ruth Madoff is suddenly breaking her silence.

“Ruth is asking people just to take her word for it because there’s no evidence they tried to kill themselves and this is the first time that anyone has even suggested it,” Kirtzman said.

Bernie Madoff, himself, reportedly told New York Magazine earlier this year that he never considered suicide. But Ruth said that’s why they mailed envelopes full of expensive jewelry to members of their family.

“The feds felt that was just a bald attempt to get rid of the last vestiges of what they had made illicitly and was just going to their cronies and to their family members,” Kirtzman said.

A recipient of one of the Madoff goodie bags recalled the conversation he had with his mother about the strange delivery three years after the fact.

“She told me that she and my father planned to kill themselves and sent me that package before hand,” Andrew Madoff said.

“It seems like she’s stabilized her life and now she’s going on a PR offensive to convince the public that she’s not a devil,” Kirtzman said.

See the full story on”60 Minutes,” Sunday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Sunday’s story will also contain previously undisclosed revelations about the family in the aftermath of the scandal.

Share your thoughts on this story below …


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  • snapperboy

    Evidently as bad at committing suicide as investing -

  • NC

    There is a veil we all must pass through that blocks the passage of possesions-i look forward to being free as a bird -thank God

  • All of America

    You know what they say, Ruthie. “Practice makes perfect”!

  • Mort Steinmetz

    I wish she had succeeded!

  • Timmy

    “I don’t know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what was happening”

    “I don’t know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous what WE HAD DONE.”

    THERE, I FIXED IT FOR YOU.

  • the Dude

    Just a p.o.s.

  • What a Runt

    Too bad you failed. Swim out into the ocean as far as you can, or eat a bullet you runt.

  • Count Yob

    I won’t watch it because it infuriates me how CBS and the rest of the corporate media have dropped the ball on investigative reporting on Madoff, his associates and the rest of the vast web of organized financial crime which goes far beyond Madoff’s ponzi scheme and has led to the looting of national treasuries and debasement of national currencies. I don’t care to see Morley Safer commisserating with poor Mrs. Madoff instead of doing real investigative reporting.

    • Noahfingwhey

      You’re being kind of hard on 0bama aren’t you ?

  • V Kint

    Sympathy ploy…

  • The Big ?

    Try a bigger gun, and hold it closer to your head, so you don’t miss.

  • Pendit1

    Boo freakin’ hoo! I don’t feel sorry for her at all.

  • alan

    It would have been better had both of them killed themselves. She has a couple of million and Bernie likens prison to a college campus. Oy Vey

  • Paul

    Ruthie, you lazy_stupid_bitch. You should try harder next time. If you need some help, I can hook you up.

  • Sau Sage Fingerz

    if at first you don’t succeed…?

    • RufusVonDufus

      I think Bernie’s daughter-in-law best described him the other day in words that only pure disgust could understand. He was a p r i c k and it is too bad he did not succeed. It would have save the taxpayer some money. I hope his wife suffers as much as his victims do.

  • tsiok

    Sure… they suffered so! We should feel bad for them now? What a jerk.

  • sanfranfriscan

    Did they try choking on a roll of quarters?

  • MadCharles

    Cowards don’t commit suicide they attempt suicide.
    Look at all the baby boomer cowards still around that hid out in colleges and Canada from the draft while protesting classmates like me plucked off main street only to find themselves in Vietnam combat six months later.

    • Bast Hotep

      What was the matter with you? Too cowardly to protest an unjust war, so you took the easy way out by going to fight it?

      It takes more courage than you think to leave your country when you know it’s doing wrong.

      • MadCharles

        I could believe your reply is for real. I’d hope it isn’t as the protesters knew about as much of what was happening in Vietnam as they know why their protesting in the streets.

  • ronmer

    Sure, sure…..this is the same woman who begged deputies to let her take “her” prized fur coat before she was removed from “her” NY mansion…..

  • Tommy

    If Bernie had half a teste he would have offed himself with a rope or a gun not ambien ….what a soft Long Island wimp

    • Buck Ofama

      Sominex.

      Remember the jingle?

      “Take Sominex tonight and sleeo…

      …safe and restful sleep, sleep sleep.”

      A handful of Sominex would have shown that ruth and bernie were really serious

  • EC

    so distraught over the burden of his billion-dollar Ponzi scheme . . .Give me a break. How distraught do you think the victims of his ponzi scheme are having to go back to work in their old age or having to start over completely from scratch? Do you ever think of the victims or is it all about poor old you and theburden you must bear? . You sit there and act like people should care you tried to kill yourself instead of sitting htere and saying this is where we hid the money. What a b*****!!!!!

  • samzydeco

    She knew. The sons knew. I can believe the daughter-in-laws were in the dark and of course the grandkids are innocent.
    Bernie and Ruth and the remaining son don’t deserve a good nights sleep for the rest of their lives.

  • Bob

    She was trying to hide jewelry when they where caught,this is the act of a greedy person,not an innocent person.

  • Butch Blosc

    She and her family should tell the people they robbed where the rest of their money is — then kill themselves.

  • Bob

    Are we suppose to feel bad for her and her family. I don’t think so.I believe they all got what they deserve. Look at what they did to familys all over this country.

  • allison

    Oh Boo Hoo, you are a criminal, so much so your son…. you know.

    • jasperddbgghost

      Seriously, someone with no money has the cojones to finish the job. This gold digging wench and her idiot husband never even considered it. She’s just looking for pity. Wallow in your gluttony, saddlebags.

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