In the aftermath of a scandal, the whole truth has a way of coming out.
Someone once said that best time to start reporting a story is long after it is over. Samuel Israel III languishes in prison, and his faked suicide attempt has been all but forgotten. But the man and his crimes have been brought back to life in the pages of New York Magazine, by the definitive chronicler of his life.
The life-story of Israel is rich indeed.
"Investors gave Bernie Madoff money because they trusted him. They gave Sam Israel money because they liked him—a gregarious, disarming goofball who, as a Wall Street apprentice, had invented an alter ego he called Captain Proton, a fearless superhero whose special powers were granted by vodka and cocaine. Now in his forties, he lived in a Westchester mansion, rented from Donald Trump for ,000 a month, with an adjacent chapel in which he had built a replica of the Bayou trading floor alongside an 800-gallon saltwater fish tank and a menagerie of rare reptiles. He'd also installed a high-end studio for jam sessions, where he'd play with the Allman Brothers' drummer when the band was in town. He owned a fleet of Porsches and signed personal checks printed with the image of SpongeBob SquarePants."
The story gets even wilder, with the article noting that, "Once he'd welcomed his family home from a short trip standing in the driveway wearing cowboy boots, his wife's bikini underwear, a lacrosse helmet, swim goggles, a life jacket, and a cape, then started screaming at his wife when she didn't get the joke."
It's quite a life, but after the end of his 20 year term, however, all will be forgotten.
For more:
- here's the highly entertaining profile
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