SUICIDE IS PAINLESS: HAVING YOUR BEHIND POUNDED IN PRISON IS NOT

Have a nice life thief:

After nearly a month on the run, fugitive former hedge-fund executive Samuel Israel III walked into a small Massachusetts town's police department near the Connecticut border and surrendered on Wednesday, authorities said.

Mr. Israel, who disappearing last month shortly before he was supposed to begin serving a 20-year prison term, turned himself into the Southwick, Mass., police department at 9:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday, an assistant to Southwick Police Chief Mark J. Krynicki said Wednesday.

On June 9, Mr. Israel's sport-utility vehicle was found abandoned on a bridge in Westchester County with the words "suicide is painless" scrawled in the dust on the hood -- about 90 minutes before he was to report to prison in Massachusetts.

Authorities investigated at the time whether he may have jumped from the bridge in a suicide attempt, but they later ruled that out.

Mr. Israel, who hails from a prominent New Orleans family, was charged with misrepresenting the value of Bayou's funds and defrauding clients out of more than $400 million. Mr. Israel pleaded guilty in 2005 along with two other executives and was sentenced in April to 20 years in prison.