Bernie Madoff: BMOTY (Big Man on the Yard)

Here’s the lede most sites are taking from the New York Post’s story this morning about Bernie Madoff—the mega-fraudster is dying of cancer, and that’s why he fessed up to orchestrating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

But read deeper into the Post’s cover story for this takeaway—Madoff is a popular guy at the North Carolina prison where he’s been housed. He sits around shirtless with Native American inmates to take part in healing ceremonies, he pals around with gay inmates (in a platonic way…not that there’s anything wrong with that), and he’s said to be on the membership wish list of several prison gangs.

And, according to the Post, some are trying to get close to Madoff by appealing to his dietary interests:

Some prisoners are also bending over backward trying to satisfy his hearty appetite by regularly cooking sandwich wraps for him back at their cells.

"They're trying to kiss his butt," said one source.

The irony is that if the Post is right that Madoff is indeed facing a terminal prognosis, then any efforts to befriend the 71-year-old will be short-lived. But then again, maybe someone is just itching to write the next in a long line of Madoff tomes.

UPDATE: Late Monday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said that Madoff wasn't terminally ill, not had he been diagnosed with cancer.