All those people who lost their life savings thinking all the while they were reaping healthy profits.
The ones who could afford the loss, they're disappointed and hurt, but they're surviving.
The ones who lost their homes and their kids' education money, they will never recover, financially.
Then there is Mark Madoff, the eldest son of the family who along with his brother and mother worked for Bernie Madoff. I will leave it to the authorities to determine whether the family knew of their father's swindles. Having grown up in a family business, I find that it stretches credulity to think that, especially given their enormous "success" and wealth, they didn't know. Or at least didn't get a little suspicious.
But if you give them the benefit of the doubt that they didn't know their dad was putting investors' money in one pocket, and paying out supposed "profits" from anothe, then you can understand how tough being a Madoff would be.
Mark Madoff was reportedly despondent, getting sued regularly, and was under criminal investigation. With two young children to raise, he was finding it hard to get a job. Understandably.
Suicide is such a profoundly sad affair. To get to that point in your life, with pain unbearable enough to drive you to take your own life, well, I'm not sure most of us can comprehend that. Thankfully.
Having said that, and feeling compassion for his family, I also feel a seething anger: Mark Madoff hung himself in his apartment, while his two-year-old son slept in the next room. No one else was at home. His wife and other child were in Florida and he was smart enough to email her to advise her to check in on the toddler.
But what if she hadn't gotten the email? Who does that to his child? To his family?
We'll have the latest on any developments in the Madoff case, tonight at 11.
We're also keeping an eye on developments in the inarguably thuggish tripping of a Miami Dolphins player yesterday by a coach for the New York Jets. Jets strength coach Sal Alosi stuck out his knee and tripped special teams player Nolan Carroll as he was running outside the sideline after a punt return.
It was so classless and seemly and beyond the pale. The NFL and the Jets are reportedly reviewing the tape, which was seen in slo-mo-instant-replay by millions. He could be suspended, or fined, or fired. Or any combination of any of them. Scott Clark is following the story for us.
POLL: WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TO THE COACH?
And our investigative reporter Jim Hoffer tonight looks at guns used in crime in New York. Because the odds are good that the weapon came from Virginia, the number one source for illegal guns coming into New York City.
And the one-stop shopping for guns in Virginia: Gun shows. Jim goes undercover to investigate, at 11.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's frigid AccuWeather forecast. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11.
