Widow reveals feelings about Madoff family

"The End of Normal." Stephanie Madoff Mack. Blue Rider Press. $26.95.

"The End of Normal" is a tell-all book by the grieving wife's sons of one of Bernie and Ruth Madoff's son who hung himself on the second anniversary of his father's arrest for creating the greatest Ponzi Scheme in the history of the nation. This is not the story you have watched on "60 Minutes" when Ruth Madoff was the guest. This is not the story that will come out this week written by Andy Madoff's fiancee.

The sons of Bernie were Mark, the eldest who committed suicide, and Andy, who claims he and his brother had nothing to do with their father's financial management business. The author of this book does not paint a pretty picture of her once brother-in-law. You will read how the brothers parted company with each other and with their mother when she refused to divorce or break relationship with her husband when he went to prison for 150 years.

Are you feeling sorry for Ruth Madoff? Maybe this will soften your opinion when you know she received 2 1/2 million dollars and replied "this is not enough when I must pay attorneys."

"The End of Normal" has double meaning for there was never anything normal about the rich and famous Madoffs. With their yacht in Palm Beach and one on the French Riviera, a private jet, several plush pent-houses and their refusal to have anything but 800 count Egyptian linens. Both Andy and Mark, according to the younger brother after the suicide of his brother, they made 60 million a year. And yet they never questioned their father's means of money-making.

Stephanie begins her book with the courtship of she and Mark.

She tells how Bernie made her sign a pre-nup since he had to pay when both boys got divorces. She pulls no punches about the inter-conflice of this family and their nonchalance when her two children were born. The very night Madoff told his sons of his crime, Bernie and Ruth attended a company Mexican Christmas party and before many hours had passed the FBI swooped down on them. Several of Madoff's staff went to jail that day, where they remain to this day.

The central theme of Stephanie's book is greed. Bernie Madoff, a charismatic Jewish person, never thought of anything but money and more money. He has never considered the scars and ruination of so many families. His respond to the media on the day of his arrest was, "I made wealthy people even wealthier." No remorse. And this is the way of all Ponzi Schemes --the downfall is always the last chapter.

Stephanie, her mother and little daughter had long planned a holiday at Disney World. The baby son was left in his dad's care. This would be the day of the second anniversary of Madoff's arrest. Early that morning Mark sent a text-message saying: "Send someone to take care of the baby," and in the SoHo condo he hung himself.

The author includes a letter she later received from Bernie Madoff as he serves time in the luxury of the North Carolina Federal Correstional Complex. It reads: "Prison is alike a college campus, with lovely lawns and trees. I live in a dorm with 24 inmates who all treat me with respect and admiration, calling me "Uncle Bernie" or "Mr. Madoff." I am quite a celebrity and treated like a Mafia Don, I have loads of friends." Obviously he doesn't think about his angry, lack of friends on the outside. Madoff's Ponzi has been responsible for four suicides, including his own son.

The reader will sense the grief of Stephanie Madoff as she writes:

To this day (three years later) I can't lie down and take a nap, because it's an empty moment. Those are the hardest... it is the saddest moments that overcome me." The criminal activity of her father-in-law, the suicide of her husband, the insensitivity of her mother-in-law and brother-in-law has taken its toll, but she tries to keep her two children out of the hate shown to anyone with the Madoff name

You wonder how someone can not distinguish between right and wrong and reply the way Bernie Madoff did on hearing of his son's suicide. "I don't give ------ about my sons."

An amazing story. The first story written by a member of the Madoff family. And it all adds up that a smart man with everything going for him could turn so evil.

There is no mention of anything spiritual in this family and it leaves you wondering how they could endure such heartache and devastation without a smidgen of faith.

Included is a full-color collection of family photos.

Velma Daniels is a Winter Haven author and book reviewer. Her "BookWorm" column appears occasionally on Sunday in the Accent section of the News Chief.