User:Kay Onghowling/Madoff executed at dawn

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17 March 2010

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NEW YORK CITY -- Bernard Madoff, the operator of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history, was yesterday executed by hanging, on his own request, aged 71, in a New York City prison.

Madoff, who was found guilty of 586 counts of fraud, 374 counts of money laundering and 143 counts of perjury, and last June was initially sentenced to 150 years in jail, however, as he knew he was about to die, and he did not want his pathetic corpse to be rotting in a New York jail for about 148 years, he appealed to the judge for a far more humane death sentence.

Last December, the judge granted him his promise, and commuted his sentence to a death sentence by hanging. However, after taking into account the seriousness of his crimes, the judge altered the sentence to make it 'hanging by the neck with a piano cord', so that it would be as slow and painful as possible. His execution was scheduled for yesterday.

Yesterday morning he was lead straight to the execution centre where the executioner had some problems fitting the piano cord around his neck. After it was finally done the lever was pulled and Madoff fell. True enough, because of the extremely thin piano cord, Madoff took a long and painful time to die. Nine minutes, in fact, before he stopped struggling.

His victims were understandably consoled by the news of his painful execution. Said Thomas Le Fick, a retiree who lost all his money and now lives in a garbage dump: "If I had my way, he'd be burnt at the stake with damp wood!"