"Bernie Madoff's Luxury Apt. Building a Huge Hit on My Tours" says New York City Guide Jim Dykes

Bernie Madoff’s posh Eastside building where the Ponzie-schemer has been under house arrest for several months has become one of the most requested sites on Jim Dykes’ New York City tours as well as his Rich and Famous New York City tours. Madoff gave himself up 3 months ago after his $50Billion scheme was revealed due to the plummeting economy. The building is located on East 64th Street, which is notable for having an extremely high number of billionaire residents. Television host Matt Lauer, of NBC’s TODAY SHOW (not a billionaire) is a resident of the building and is said to “despise” the attention Madoff has brought to the building. “On many days, there are huge crowds of TV crews, TV satellite trucks, security guards, reporters and photographers, policemen, bystanders and MY tourists outside the building,” says Jim Dykes. The rich ladies and gentlemen in that neighborhood are furious…they loved the recent movie about Madoff starring Richard Dreyfus.
“Everybody wants to know about Bernie Madoff, his fancy penthouse, his office building and information on his various victims, many of whom are neighbors on the Upper Eastside,” says Dykes, one of the guides and co-founders of Rich and Famous Tours, the “Celebrity-themed” tour of New York City. Madoff’s office building is 11 blocks south and one avenue over…it’s the famed Lipstick Building, designed by famed architect Phillip Johnson with John Burgee, and which is shaped, aptly enough, like a tube of lipstick. It is said that Madoff would walk home very often, since the two buildings are fairly close together…perhaps a 15 minute walk from his penthouse on E. 64th St.
“People always want to know about the grim, sordid things mentioned in the newspapers on my tour” says Dykes. “ A year ago on Halloween celebrity realtor Linda Stein was bludgeoned to death in her Fifth Avenue penthouse and EVERYone wanted to know about it. And when Heath Ledger overdosed in his SoHo loft, it became the #1 location people wanted to see on the tours. People have accused me of being morbid, but I’m only giving the customers what they want, just like the TV reporters, with their fake sadness when reporting a story. A friend of mine who used to work at ABC-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News in Manhattan told me: “If it bleeds, it leads” meaning of course, that bloody murder scenes and other grim locations ALWAYS begin the news telecasts.”