We made an office-chair diagnosis of Bernie Madoff and declared him a narcissist, and Fortune identified him as a sociopath, but this weekend the Times went all Us Weekly and got a bunch of professionals to declare him a full-on “psychopath” à la Ted Bundy. (“Whereas Mr. Bundy murdered people,” the paper says awesomely, “Mr. Madoff murdered wallets.”) He also, it seems, has a touch of the OCD.
According to a former employee, who requested anonymity because of continuing litigation and because, he said, regulators have told Madoff employees not to speak to the media, Mr. Madoff scouted the office for potential filth. Once, when he spotted an employee eating a pear at his desk in New York, this person said, Mr. Madoff spied some juice dripping onto the gray carpet.
“What do you think you are doing?” this person recalls Mr. Madoff demanding. Eating a pear, the employee replied. Mr. Madoff ripped the soiled carpet tile from the floor, then rushed to a closet to retrieve a similar swatch to replace it.
We can’t even imagine how he must have react to wire hangers.
The Talented Mr. Madoff [NYT]
