- “It was very, very impulsive”: According to the wife of disgraced, convicted former billionaire Bernie Madoff, the pair attempted to kill themselves about two weeks following Bernie’s confession that he’d been running a massive Ponzi scheme. They both took what they believed would be an overdose of pills before retiring to bed, only to both awake groggy but alive the next day. Ruth Madoff says the pair never again discussed suicide, adding “But I have no idea why he didn’t — I don’t know how he lives with it all.” source