1. Yeah, and the kid with the wrong Robin Hood margin call did the same. That is only money, not to mention not putting all your eggs into one basket.
On the other hand Elie Wiesel who went through Auswitz said, "we have been through much worse."
2. Two of those suicides were part of the scam. One was Mark, Madoff's son, who should have known better, specially after the expose by Markopolos. The other guy was a French dude who was repeatedly warned by Markopolos.
"Harry Markopolos said he had met with de La Villehuchet several years before, and had warned him that Madoff might be breaking the law"
Bottom line: Don't kill yourself over money. Money can be made again or reclaimed.
The facts:
"Ignoring
opportunity costs and taxes paid on fictitious profits,
half of Madoff's direct investors lost no money, with Madoff's repeated (and repeatedly ignored)
whistleblower,
Harry Markopolos, estimating that at least $35 billion of the money Madoff claimed to have stolen never really existed, but was simply fictional profits he reported to his clients."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoff_investment_scandal#Recovery_of_funds