She never met Bernie Madoff, but anyone with the slightest knowledge of New York's financial world surely knew of him.

So Marcia Cohen, a longtime journalist and best-selling author, didn't think twice about stashing her money in Madoff's innocuously titled "capital preservation" fund. After consulting with her accountant, Cohen invested her retirement funds, book royalties, everything.

"He was an investor who was saving people's capital and who was giving them a little return, which was perfect for retirement — supposedly," said Cohen, who lives with her husband in a small house in Eldorado, southeast of Santa Fe.

The scope of Madoff's epic misdeeds are now legend. Thousands of people were duped into the Manhattan financier's Ponzi, or pyramid, scheme, in which existing investors were paid with money from new investors. Madoff told federal investigators that $50 billion was lost when the scheme collapsed last year. People have lost their fortunes, become destitute, and in some instances, committed suicide. Nonprofit foundations have either shut down or suffered severe hits.

This week, a list of victims' names became public in a 162-page document posted online. Among them are 10 Santa Fe-area residents or their nonprofit foundations.

Some couldn't be reached Thursday for comment. Another, Barbara Bonfigli, said she didn't wish to discuss her situation. She suspects that she'll be included in a civil action but hasn't gotten directly involved.

"If it's out there, it's out there, with millions of other unfortunate people," Bonfigli said of being identified as a Madoff victim.

Cohen, 78, worked as an editor at the New York Daily News, and after leaving the newspaper business, authored a 1988 book on the women's movement, The Sisterhood: The True Story of the Women Who Changed the World.

She gave Madoff her money around 1988. Her accountant billed it as a "very low-risk" investment protected by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She received monthly statements that showed a stable return on her money, often less than 10 percent.

"Just make enough every year, like you used to do in savings banks — you know, make 10 percent and live on it, and that was my life savings," Cohen said. "That was how I hoped to live out the rest of my life. At this point, I don't know if that's how I will live out my life."

When the now familiar footage aired of Madoff in his Yankees cap strolling to his Park Avenue apartment, Cohen was among the devastated. She has shared her troubles with others in her situation and received more than 1,000 e-mails through an online Madoff support group posted through Google.

"Every page just makes you want to cry," she said.

No one she has corresponded with was trying to get rich, she said. "People are left destitute by this thing, absolutely destitute," she said. "They're mostly middle class, and we are certainly not celebrities."

Almost as much as Madoff, she said, federal regulators are to blame. They heard people's concerns years ago but didn't act, she said, while all along she paid taxes on her earnings. She's not sure she'll recover any of it.

A throng of lawyers has gotten involved, with differing missions. They either want to sue the government, sue insurers or simply conduct their own investigation, she said.

Cohen declined to say how much she lost, but said the loss has been life-altering. Regular getaways to Mexico are off, for example, and she hopes her 16-year-old car holds up.

"We get Social Security and we eat a lot less," she said. Her son, who lives in New Jersey, has helped her with money and even paid off the remainder of her mortgage.

Others in her support group have asked her to appear on television for ABC News and CBS News, which approached the group. She declined. The last time she did something like that was to promote her book.

Cracking jokes along the way, Cohen tells her story with an upbeat tone that betrays what she's going through.

"I just have to be," she said, "otherwise you collapse."

She invited any local victims seeking more information on the Madoff support group to e-mail her at larcolost@comcast.net.

Contact Doug Mattson at 986-3087 or dmattson@sfnewmexican.com.