As previously mentioned, Bernie Madoff's life in prison is prettay prettay prettay good. Fellow inmates make him delicious wrap sandwiches, he's in with "the homosexual posse," and every now and then he gets stoned. The Jouranal checked in with the big man, and reports today that things are still going quite nicely. He plays bocce, chess and checkers. He "walks around the prison with his head held high." And he's got respect. "To every con artist, he is the godfather, the don," says an inmate interviewed earlier this week. One thing that does chap his hide though? The cockbags he used to employ, who got off easy. I mean sure, the scam was his idea, and he did most of the heavy lifting, all of which they benefited from-- and he didn't hear any complaints at the time. Maybe, when he gets out of the joint, he'll come down there and give them a crew cut.
Mr. Madoff chatted about the fraud's aftermath, claiming he "carried" employees at Bernard L. Madoff Securities LLC for more than two decades, yet wound up with an astronomical prison sentence. "I guess he felt they turned their back on him," Mr. White says.
Despite this upset, Berns knows he's got it going pretty good, and also that he's hot shit. That's why fellow inmates have tried to get his signature to sell on eBay, and make bank. That, Mades will not go along with but he will sit for any interested in sketching the man, the myth, the legend in all his regalness.
Kenneth Calvin "K.C." White, whose prison sentence in Butner for bank robbery overlapped with Mr. Madoff's for several weeks this summer, says he met him in the line where inmates await medication. Mr. White is an artist who painted several murals throughout the prison. Mr. Madoff struck up a conversation, saying: "You're the guy who does all the pictures around here," Mr. White recalls. Mr. Madoff asked Mr. White to paint his portrait, so the bank robber drew a fast sketch in the prison paint shop where Mr. Madoff worked at the time, according to Mr. White. Mr. Madoff told Mr. White he didn't want to be depicted in his prison khakis, Mr. White says, so he drew him in a suit and tie.
Next up: White does Berns in this.
