The Post, which just a few days ago featured a photograph of a dog leash and the headline "End Of His Rope" to describe the suicide of Mark Madoff, is now on his side, outraged that he was cremated without a memorial. However, his wife Stephanie explained in a statement that there would be a private event later this week, adding, "My husband Mark took his own life and regardless of what you feel about my father-in-law and his monstrous crimes, Mark's children are innocent victims and this is tragic for them. I am devastated and now raising two small children alone. I ask that you please show decency and understanding toward all of Mark's children and allow us to mourn in private."
Madoff was found hanging from a dog leash in his Soho apartment—with his two-year-old son sleeping in another room—by his wife's stepfather on Saturday morning. Stephanie Madoff, worried about agitated emails she received from her husband, was in Florida with their other child and had asked her stepfather to check on him. The Post has details on his last hours:
Yesterday, sources also revealed that Mark Madoff tried unsuccessfully to kill himself twice before finally succeeding the third time.
Early Saturday morning, in his SoHo apartment, he tried to hang himself with a cord he had cut from a vacuum cleaner, but the cord snapped, the sources said.
When police arrived, they saw "a portion of [the vacuum cord] was hanging from the beam, broken," the source said. The other half of that cord, which had been looped into a noose, was lying on a nearby table.
He also tried to hang himself with one dog leash -- but that, too, broke, sources said.
He finally used another dog leash, which worked, they said.
It's believed the Madoff family wants to avoid a media circus with a funeral or memorial, but Ponzi scheme patriarch Bernard Madoff wasn't planning on attending if there was one.
