Madoff Boast: I'm Treated Like a Mafia Don

Just call him Don Ponzi. Scammer Bernard Madoff boasted to his daughter-in-law that he's treated "like a Mafia don" at his prison digs in North Carolina with "loads of friends" who "respect" him. "As you can imagine, I am quite the celebrity, and am treated like a Mafia don. They call me either Uncle Bernie or Mr. Madoff," he wrote. "I can't walk anywhere without someone shouting their greetings and encouragement, to keep my spirits up. It's really quite sweet, how concerned everyone is about my well being, including the staff. It's much safer here than walking the streets of New York."

Madoff, who describes Butner prison as similar to a "laid back" college campus-type facility with "plenty of recreation," zipped off his description of life behind bars in 2009 after his angry daughter-in-law Stephaine Madoff Mack wrote him details about his grandchildren, hoping to make him suffer, reports ABC News. Her husband, Mark, Madoff's elder son, committed suicide last year. "My husband was in terrible, terrible pain," said Mack, who has written a book about life with the Madoffs. "He was so deeply hurt that he just couldn't move past it." In his letter, Madoff told Stephanie: "I love my sons more than life itself, and live in constant torment with the pain I have inflicted on them. The helped me build a wonderful firm." (More Mark Madoff stories.)