New York – Ruth Madoff: Mark’s Blood Is On Bernie’s Hands

New York – Ruth Madoff is blaming her jailed-crook husband, Bernie, for the grisly suicide of their eldest son, Mark, biographer Jerry Oppenheimer told The Post yesterday.

The distraught mother believes Mark “would not have died if it weren’t for what [Bernie] had done,” the author of “Madoff With the Money” said, quoting a family friend.

“Her wrath is aimed at her husband.”

Mark Madoff, 46, hanged himself Saturday with a dog leash from a steel pipe in the living room of his SoHo loft.

The body was discovered a mere 10 feet from his sleeping 2-year-old son’s bedroom, two years to the day after his disgraced father’s arrest for the biggest investment fraud in US history.

Ruth is “totally disgusted with [Bernie] and blames him for her son’s death. She thinks this is the end of the family,” Oppenheimer said, quoting Madoff relatives and sources close to the family.

As for Bernie, “family members don’t think [he’s] going to survive this.”

“It has made him realize what this whole thing has all been about. It’s a Greek tragedy.”

The city Medical Examiner’s Office yesterday formally ruled Mark’s death a “suicide by hanging.”

Neither Mark nor his brother, Andrew — who had ratted their dad out to authorities after he confessed to the Ponzi scheme — have been hit with charges in the fraud case, which bilked billions of dollars from investors.

Still, sources said, Mark had become increasingly despondent over the scandal — at least some of his four children were among those named in one of a number of lawsuits plaguing the family, and he hadn’t spoken with his mother or father in two years.

And with his last name mud, Mark Madoff — who once lived like a prince, helping run his father’s empire — had apparently been struggling to find enough work to pay the bills.

“Mark was broke, and every time we went to dinner with [him and his wife, Stephanie], we paid,” one family friend said outside the SoHo pad.

The pal said he last heard from Mark on Friday evening — just before the friend and his wife were supposed to have dinner with Mark.

“But we got a text saying, ‘Sorry, I’m not going to make it tonight,’ ” the pal said.

Mark was last seen alive at around 6:30 p.m. on Friday walking his pooch in front of the building where he lived alongside celebs like rocker Jon Bon Jovi.

At around 4 a.m. Saturday, he fired off three desperate e-mails to wife Stephanie — who was vacationing at Disney World in Orlando with the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Audrey — and his lawyer, sources said.

One e-mail declared, “No one wants to hear the truth,” and pleaded, “Please take care of my family.” Others confessed love for Stephanie and urged, “Send someone to take care of Nick.”

Madoff then wrapped his 3-year-old dog Grouper’s leash around his neck and hung himself from the exposed ceiling pipe at the entrance to the home’s living room, as baby Nicholas slept nearby.

Stephanie opened the e-mails at around 7 a.m. and frantically phoned her dad, lawyer Martin London. London rushed by cab from his Murray Hill home to the apartment and discovered Mark’s body and called cops. London then called on his own son to pick up little Nicholas as London stayed to talk to cops.

Funeral arrangements for Mark, who has two children from a previous marriage, were not announced yesterday. It remained unclear whether Bernie Madoff, sentenced to 150 years, would be allowed to attend.

Friends and relatives gathered at his and Stephanie’s Greenwich, Conn., home, where the wife was believed to be with their children. But even in death, the legal mess goes on for Mark.

Last week, Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee of seized Madoff assets, sued the Mark and Stephanie Madoff Foundation for $2 million it allegedly received from Bernie and Ruth Madoff’s bank account in December 2007.

Picard also sued the Deborah and Andrew Madoff Foundation for $2 million that Bernie allegedly wired to it.

A one-man suicide machine:
Other Madoff-related suicides

Dec. 17, 2008 — HSBC banker Christen Schnor, 49, hanged himself in a five-star hotel room in London a week after his company said $1 billion of the bank’s money was at risk because of Madoff’s scheme.

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Dec. 22, 2008 — French hedge-fund manager Thierry de la Villehuchet committed suicide in New York City after losing $1.5 billion to Madoff.

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Feb. 10, 2009 — Former military adviser William Foxton shot himself to death near his home in Southampton, England. He could not tolerate the shame of being in financial straits after losing his life savings to Madoff’s Ponzi plot.