K.C. is convinced that the right buyer will pay good coin for the black-and-white sketch that he penciled, because the date that Madoff wrote next to his autograph - Aug. 12, 2009 - indicates that the piece was created in jail.
K.C.'s name for the portrait?
"I call it 'F--- My Victims,' because Bernie is not very remorseful. He told me, 'I made them millions of dollars. I'm doing 150 years. F--- my victims.' "
Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, doubts that Madoff would ever utter such words.
Says Sorkin: "At all times, he expressed deep and sincere remorse, both publicly and privately, for everyone who he put through" the Ponzi scheme that ballooned into the largest investment fraud - victims lost billions of dollars - ever committed by a single person.
Since Madoff himself wasn't available for an interview, and because the federal Bureau of Prisons wouldn't comment on anything Madoff-related other than to confirm that he's at the Butner complex, this story is K.C.'s alone.
But, oh, what a tale.
Back in 2003, K.C., now 55, was frantic. He'd been living in Philly and collecting disability because of coronary artery disease, but his payments were suddenly discontinued.
He didn't know that he could appeal the denial. Penniless, he muttered to himself, "I'm gonna have to rob a bank."
Which is something any of us might threaten to do, in jest, when money's tight, right?
K.C. actually did it.
He pretended to have a weapon in his pocket when he passed a holdup note to a Sovereign Bank teller at 31st and Market in April 2003. He darted out the door with $457. The next month, he tried the same thing at a PNC bank up the block. But the teller tripped an alarm, and K.C. bolted, empty-handed.
