Deborah Jeane Palfrey took extreme measures, even by Washington standards, when it came to defending herself against charges of running a high-priced call girl ring under the guise of an escort service. Standing before the nation’s news media last year, the woman who became known as the D.C. Madam at once denied any involvement in illegal prostitution and threatened to make public her client list — to sell it, in fact, as a way of financing her legal bills.
Almost exactly a year later, after being convicted at trial and awaiting a prison sentence — a theoretical maximum of 55 years, though in all likelihood something more like 4 to 6 — it seems Ms. Palfrey took the most extreme measure of all. According to The St. Petersburg Times and other news outlets, she was found dead in a shed outside her mother’s house in Tarpon Springs, Fla., and the police believe after a preliminary investigation that she hanged herself.
Handwritten notes were found at the scene, and she left other chilling clues with the biographer Dan Moldea, who spoke to her last year, according to Time magazine:
“She wasn’t going to jail, she told me that very clearly. She told me she would commit suicide,” author Dan Moldea told Time soon after news broke … “She had done time once before [for prostitution],” Moldea recalls. “And it damn near killed her. She said there was enormous stress — it made her sick, she couldn’t take it, and she wasn’t going to let that happen to her again.”
Though she set Washington abuzz with her threat to spark a hundred sex scandals by revealing her customers’ identities, but the big fish who were rumored to be among them evaporated one by one.
In the end, only three Washington bold-face names turned up in the roster: Randall Tobias, a deputy secretary of state, who immediately resigned; Harlan Ullman, a military analyst who helped design the “shock and awe” strategy used in the Iraq invasion; and Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, who has so far avoided resignation, though he faces a tough re-election campaign in 2010.
2008
5:37 pm
(( threatened to make public her client list ))
She’ll never do it now.
As Saturday Night Live’s Church Lady used to say, “How very convenient.”
— Posted by Miles
2008
5:42 pm
Two witnesses now dead by suicide in a matter of months!?
— Posted by Lozange
2008
5:47 pm
Glad to see I’m not the only one who thinks this is weird… let’s ignore the reports that she “apparently” committed suicide and look at this objectively…
She claimed to have records of very prominent DC insiders, just a few were released. (somewhat of a warning shot fired by her to the justice system)
In her last interview with ABC News, the reporter asked her about one of her ladies, Brandy Britton, who was also a professor at U of M, was outted and humiliated and ultimately committed suicide and the DC Madam’s comments were
“I just keep my head high. I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of. You know, I, I’ve got something in me. What that is, it’s, it can’t be defined, but there’s something in me that won’t let ‘em get away with it. And I’m not going to let these baztards get away with it.”
This sounds like a woman ready to fight to the end, not a woman ready to give up.
The fact that some guy comes out and so calmly explains that she said she would commit suicide makes it look even more like a cover up.
Her mom mentioned that she was acting normally just a couple hours before the incident.
Its not hard to see what’s going on here… and I’m dissappointed there has been no objectionism by the media. I mean, the only people who would have a motive to do this would be very high in the government and i’m certain they would have some CIA operative smart enough to stage a suicide so that Deputy Dip in Florida won’t “see any signs of foul play”
— Posted by Blake
2008
5:49 pm
Seriously, how much longer before conspiracy theories start up? Murder or suicide? Demi Moore in the movie version? What a waste of everything: lives, reputations, privacy. Who was the criminal? What was the crime? Who got hurt in a criminal sense? The puritanical stance Americans have about prostitution has got to change. There are real crimes out there.
— Posted by George Matthews
2008
5:50 pm
Did she really conveniently hang herself with some help from the big fish??
She had done less harm to us as a nation than the Politicians.
Who says it is a fair world?.
Mercy on her soul.
— Posted by kaq
2008
5:53 pm
>>
Bring on the conspiracy theorists.
— Posted by Brought down by servicing the politicians and lobbyists.
2008
5:54 pm
What a shame. The country’s hypocrisy about this sort of thing will continue on and on.
Can’t wait until the next one of these ’scandals’ erupts.
— Posted by MichiganChet
2008
5:56 pm
This is not the first time a notorious female dies under suspicious circumstances when she says she will reveal embarrassing information about powerful men.
— Posted by Lyle Vos
2008
6:03 pm
How come high-profile steroid dealers don’t commit suicide?
— Posted by jc
2008
6:04 pm
!!!!!READ THIS!!!!!!!
DC Madam Predicted She Would Be Suicided
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, May 1, 2008
DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey predicted she would be “suicided” on several occasions both recently and as far back as 17 years ago - comments that now appear ominous in light of the announcement that the former head of a Washington escort service allegedly killed herself today.
“If taken into custody, my physical safety and most probably my very life would be jeopardized,” she wrote in August 1991 following an attempt to bring her to trial, “Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me,” said Palfrey in a handwritten letter to the judge accusing the San Diego police vice squad of having a vendetta against her.
During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder.
Palfrey had threatened to release the names of well-known clients of her upscale call girl ring in the nation’s capitol, and had indicated that Dick Cheney may be one of them.
“No I’m not planning to commit suicide,” Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance, “I’m planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government,” she said.
Developing…..
Listen to Alex’s interview of Palfrey where she states she would not kill herself.
— Posted by freddy williams
2008
6:05 pm
Another victim of the moral police. Sacrificed so that we can all feel more virtuous.
— Posted by RIP Palfrey
2008
6:17 pm
Sorry, but it sounds really fishy.
— Posted by tim hogan
2008
6:28 pm
Could be a suicide or it could have been “assisted”.
— Posted by Buddha4Brains
2008
6:32 pm
this adm silences another one
— Posted by dan
2008
6:35 pm
This is sick. Prostitution, while distasteful, shouldn’t yield such life-damning punishments from society such as years in the horrid conditions of year while the body and one’s life wither away.
— Posted by A youth
2008
6:37 pm
The Lady had principles. I wish our politicians will also have it. The White House and Congress will be full of empty seats.
— Posted by Gabriel
2008
6:38 pm
SUICIDED.
DC Madam Predicted She Would Be Suicided
“Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me,” Palfrey wrote - Time Magazine curiously quick to re-affirm suicide story
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Thursday, May 1, 2008
| StumbleUpon
DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey predicted she would be “suicided” on several occasions both recently and as far back as 17 years ago - comments that now appear ominous in light of the announcement that the former head of a Washington escort service allegedly killed herself today.
“If taken into custody, my physical safety and most probably my very life would be jeopardized,” she wrote in August 1991 following an attempt to bring her to trial, “Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me,” said Palfrey in a handwritten letter to the judge accusing the San Diego police vice squad of having a vendetta against her.
(Article continues below)
During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder.
Palfrey had threatened to release the names of well-known clients of her upscale call girl ring in the nation’s capitol, and had indicated that Dick Cheney may be one of them.
“We now know it goes at least as high as a United States Senator,” Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show, “I’m hearing rumors now from other people that there are other possibilities in that stratosphere so to speak, on that level.”
“No I’m not planning to commit suicide,” Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance in July, “I’m planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government,” she said.
Click here to listen to the last interview with Palfrey.
UPDATE: In an almost uncanny development, as soon as this article started to go viral on the Internet, Time Magazine released a story claiming that Palfrey told author Dan Moldea that she would rather commit suicide than go to jail. What a funny coincidence!
— Posted by Sata
2008
6:40 pm
So much unprecedented power in the hands of a hounded woman to expose the superpowerful for their corruption and hypocrisy…and she hangs herself?
Oh boy, God Bless the United States of the Unbelievably Naive…
— Posted by Jeremy
2008
6:44 pm
David Vitter needs to resign. Louisianians are sick of Diaper Gate.
— Posted by DG
2008
6:44 pm
Really? She hung herself? Must have been some list.
— Posted by Kevin Giam
2008
6:45 pm
Strange that she has been quoted by other reporters as saying if she was found dead as a suicide, it would be murder, and that she feared for her life.
I was fortunate to correspond with her briefly last summer, and the full list of phone calls has yet to be indexed, because they had been scanned from the original paper phone bills, but not converted into text files for cross referencing.
She seemed overwhelmed by the whole affair, and did not deserve this fate, whatever the truth about her demise is.
Personally, I am doubtful about her reported means of passing, and I hope there will be more than a cursory investigation, but it IS Florida, after all…
— Posted by vaporland
2008
6:45 pm
Why are we sending people to prison for prostitution anyway? This country has the highest percentage of its citizens behind bars of any country in the world. The unholy alliance of private prison operators and politicians has guaranteed that people serve ridiculously long sentences for crimes that pose little danger to the public.
— Posted by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
2008
6:45 pm
You have to wonder nowadays, did the “DC Madam” really commit suicide, or does it just appear that way? Did she release ALL the names in her little black book? The consequences of involving politicians
in criminal matters today could leave you HANGING in suspense.
— Posted by jonas
2008
6:46 pm
How unfortunate; my greatest sympathy is for the mother, who has to deal with the emotional aftermath. Suicide is a very selfish act. It’s too bad that she couldn’t use her determination never to go back to prison to find another source of income than prostitution.
— Posted by halflight
2008
6:46 pm
And she didn’t make any other “big” names public before doing this? Very suspicious, indeed…
— Posted by Robert W.
2008
6:46 pm
Sad, very sad. As in many parts of our world today, women are stoned to death for being raped by men. Women are executed because boys peeked at them while in lesser dress. Men are innocent and are caused to sin by the evil women. Sad really sad. No women should be said to have done crime of a sex crime unless all men involved are also sent to jail and published. Sex is a two way street. Men really can control their sex problems and paying for sex is still paying for sex. So who is more guilty the man for paying a woman for sex when the woman needs the money or the man. There would be no drug gangs without customers. Until the courts punish the customers and end the business there will continue to be a business. All customers of prostitutes should be public knowledge just at the person prosecuted.
— Posted by bob
2008
6:46 pm
I believe this was murder and not a suicide. The police were called at 11 am. At 1 pm cause of death was determined to be suicide by hanging. If it were you or I, it would be days before a cause of death were determined. I think there were too many powerful people on her list, and they needed to get rid of her so they could maintain their family-values image.
— Posted by Karl
2008
6:46 pm
the suicide is suspicious. i doubt that a thorough investigation will take place, since Palfry was a call girl and her clients are bigwigs.
— Posted by max
2008
6:47 pm
SAD ENDING OF SAD LIFE.PEOPLE SHOULD LEARN HOW BAD THIS CAN BE.
— Posted by Khan
2008
6:48 pm
And the story the main stream media is ignoring, is that she said in an interview recently that she would never commit suicide, but predicted she would be murdered, and it would be covered up as one.
— Posted by Thomas Mc
2008
6:48 pm
There is an ongoing battle between Good and Evil. There are grave consequences for choosing the latter.
— Posted by J.A.H. Wallace of New Jersey
2008
6:48 pm
Dan Moldea is a liar, and everyone knows it.
I’d love to see where the real statements are because this story is not over.
— Posted by Matt
2008
6:51 pm
When will we speak honestly enough as a society of humans to where we stop killing our ourselves over fear? She did nothing wrong. Neither did you.
— Posted by Dan
2008
6:52 pm
finally, a victim in this a-historical “crime.”
— Posted by cbbigby
2008
6:52 pm
What a sad end for a person who should have just been left alone.
— Posted by John Kaufman
2008
6:52 pm
Thus ends a saga of victimless crime, with a victim. Had she elected to serve her prison sentence, it is well-documented that she would have been subject to rape by both inmates and guards, with little recourse.
So much for justice, when America punishes acts between consenting adults outside bars and fails to punish coercive acts within them.
— Posted by fred
2008
6:52 pm
How convenient. Now she won’t be able to embarass anyone important.
— Posted by MarySyracuse
2008
6:54 pm
As a culture, it frightens me how punitive we are. We brag about how humane our prisons are, but they breaks the spirit of almost every prisoner. They leave with variations of PTSD and either end up returning or living with a broken spirit and placing other burdens on our society. We love to make examples of people by sending them to prison. Prosecutors will never admit it, but the are usually perfectionists who very rarely allow them selves to make a mistake unless they get caught like your former governor did. This a real tragedy for her family. By the way, breaking the spirit in the point of prison. It is called disassociation in trauma terms. We also love to publically burn people at the stake in the media and kill them with shame.
— Posted by Fred Nolke
2008
6:55 pm
This is what movies are made of. She did not kill herself, she was murdered by someone who wished not to be identified and has lots of connections, ya know what I mean!
— Posted by d.d.Orth
2008
6:58 pm
With all the problems w/illegal immigrants,drugs & gangsa I wonder why so much timeis spent on cases like this. Morally I am opposed to prostitution but there are worse problems than this to deal with. What a waste that this woman felt she needed to kill herself,long prison sentences for this? Very unreasonable,2 consenting adults & all that . I just don’t see the big crime here. RIP
— Posted by Karrie Arthur
2008
6:58 pm
the jaunty title ‘Story Ends…’ seems a bit too brisk when the poor woman committed suicide.
— Posted by LN
2008
6:59 pm
The evidence gathered in the crime scene shows all the signs of a CIA job. A copy of Miss Palfrey black list, fortunately, is now safe in the hands of an undisclosed depositaire’s bank vault. The only data known about him is that he was one of her best clients, is a top political figure in Washington, has served under more than one president and will keep the list as his safeguard against the same high ranking politicians that were her weekly customers.
It is also known that the list of names is chilling, and if being exposed it alone would make headlines for months to come and will make crumble a respectable chunk of the DC administration, plus most of the large public works contractors, including a few from the Iraq Reconstruction Plan.
It’s been rumored as well that he is willing to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for a lenient sentence, if a good deal is offered.
— Posted by Zeev Reuteman
2008
6:59 pm
4-6 years prison term seems quite harsh. How did the senator and others on the hit list escape justice? Sounds like politics and justice as usual… well, at least, she fought the good fight…
— Posted by Anthony
2008
6:59 pm
I think it is sad that Washington and the media in particular are obsessed with juicy news and waste their time while the whole country is being swallowed by Chinese invasion. No one is talking about it how we are getting outsmarted by Chinese. We are electing so many stupids for so long.
— Posted by Deb
2008
7:00 pm
what hypocrits we are.we fight for Roe,defending a womans right to decide how to use her body,throw rapists in jail for uncivil excercise of power,and scorn woman whochoose to relieve sexual stress and support themselves by charging for what we claim is their asset.enough church driven morality.palfrey was not a threat to anyone
— Posted by chelsea morning
2008
7:00 pm
Don’t you believe it. She knew where all the bodies were buried. I believe it will eventually be known that it was a “hit” by those who feared what she might say.
— Posted by Loli
2008
7:01 pm
What does it say about American jails that someone would rather commit suicide than be there?
Cruel and unusual?
— Posted by Sad, sad
2008
7:04 pm
She wouldn’t needed to commit suicide or go to prison if the government didn’t legislate morality. Keeping prostitution illegal doesn’t help anyone.
— Posted by Erik
2008
7:04 pm
As a clinical therapist who has worked with a great many (sexually) abused women–many of whom engaged in prostitution at some point–it is sad to see this lady take her own life while her high-priced “family values” clients simply lost their jobs. Times have changed in my 54 years, but women remain both undervalued and castigated for serving male power and sexuality. Will that ever change?
— Posted by rockwriter
2008
7:05 pm
It’s so sad. Another woman is dead because of the shame brought out of the senseless prosecution of a victimless crime. What a shame.
— Posted by Bruce Howard Ulanet
2008
7:07 pm
how many women hang themselves in sheds? Isn’t this similar to the way Brandy Britton, her employee died? Or “comitted suicide”? She seems a lot more like a pills kind of person. Seems just as easy to fake too… Very odd.
— Posted by Dan
2008
7:07 pm
the women are punished and the “johns” suffer what? real fair.
— Posted by Moral Police
2008
7:08 pm
One can only hope that all her “clients” are forced to serve 6-8 year prison sentences as well.
But we wouldn’t want to punish any Louisiana senators, now would we?
— Posted by Row
2008
7:09 pm
Why no mention of her other quote on suicide, this one a direct one, “I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of.”?
Britton was one of her prostitutes, who also committed suicide.
Two from one investigation kinda stretches disbelief, and makes you wonder who might be protected by these deaths.
And really, to not include direct quotes from Palfrey where she explicitly states she will not be committing suicide is pretty poor journalism.
This “suicide” warrants an independent investigation, at the very least.
— Posted by cored
2008
7:09 pm
How convenient for many powerful people.
— Posted by JiminNC
2008
7:10 pm
This woman in her despair may have been driven to her death. We may never find out the whole truth but one fact is crystal clear. Ms. Palfrey is paying the ultimate price, her life, for breaking the law but her partners in crime, the so called elite male clients are getting away home free. They are scrambling and slithering back to their long suffering wives, these enablers who preferred to look the other way in return for free room and board, visits to Tiffany’s, health spas and other privileges that go along with sharing the tarnished titles of their hypocritical,selfish, greedy and over indulged spouses. In the 21st century the double standard lives on. Just as it has always been. A man can commit a hundred deviations from the path of respectability and can return untarnished to his family and friends. He gets a free pass.The woman is forever labelled. The trial was a mockery, it was monstrous show of cruelty and baiting. An unforgettable exhibition of how far the awareness of power can go towards the destruction of another’s spirit and very soul. It was an example of how to degrade and humiliate the helpless, this time a group of women who were unable to strike back. They were not evil. They were practising in a profession that has existed since time began and should have been legalised long ago. One can hope these self righteous people with their overblown egos and those skulking elite hypocrites will one day realise and regret their actions, and may their consciences rest heavy on their shoulders.
— Posted by elizabeth
2008
7:12 pm
What a terrible death! She must have been terribly frightened of going back to jail. Cannot even say she took the easy way out on this one. But then again, is it possible someone “forced” her to write the suicide notes and then hanged her?? Cases like this have happened before when it was murder that was actually committed. I think the prosecuters and the police should do further investigation just make absolutely sure there was no foul play.
— Posted by NinaK
2008
7:12 pm
Agree with LN…
Inappropriate tone to this article, suggesting somehow that her efforts to defend herself were comparably extreme to her apparent suicide.
Unfortunate when the Times uses this brand of arrogant flippancy when “reporting” the misfortunes of those who they might deem morally deserving.
— Posted by bperk
2008
7:12 pm
Oldest profession, two consenting adults, we have so much more to worry about. Fear from retribution, yeah, maybe she did not commit suicide after all. I just bet the johns faired way better than this woman. They always do. Politician sleaze.
— Posted by Patty
2008
7:12 pm
How tragic. I just read about this story for the first time and am shocked.
I think of the lying, cheating, fraud, tax evation, rape of nature and who knows who and countless other outrages politicians and other elected officials commit in America. These people get a slap on the wrist at most.
But a woman sells sex to many of these very same individuals, is considered a criminal and faces 5 to 6 years in prison. So she kills herself rather than live through the ordeal again.
An American woman in 21st century America felt she had to kill herself because of this. Don’t you see that something is very, very wrong here?
— Posted by Barbara Nuffer
2008
7:12 pm
nooooooooooooooooooooooo…….
sounds like an episode of SVU.
— Posted by moni
2008
7:12 pm
Yeah…
Suicide sort of like Marilyn Monroe committed suicide…
Does anybody really believe this?
(in a related story David Vitter was seen dancing)
Not that I’m suggesting anything nefarious…
— Posted by Holcombe Hurd
2008
7:13 pm
Next time, NYT, do your research:
“During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder.”
— Posted by yada
2008
7:13 pm
This is very sad news and illustrates, once again, the inequities women and minorities struggle to overcome in our society.
— Posted by IM
2008
7:13 pm
My first question is why, in this day and age, are the People’s resources being wasted prosecuting these sorts of victimless ‘morality’ crimes? Don’t they call it the oldest profession? Seems as though if criminalization was an effective deterrent, it would have died out centuries ago. Whether or not you condone the concept of sex for fun, why is a consentual arrangement between adults any business of anyone but the involved parties? It isn’t as though this woman was exploiting impoverished slaves —by all accounts, the clientele and the employees were all doing quite well, and nobody was coerced in any way. Why, then, is this considered a criminal enterprise, when we have so many more significant problems to spend our attention and resources resolving?
My other concern is that a woman who threatened to implicate and embarrass “powerful members of the government” was found dead before even being sentenced to prison, and the media seems eager to corroborate the immediate police interpretation of suicide. Perhaps, but it certainly seems that if she was still holding some hidden embarrassing info in the hopes of manipulating the outcome of her sentencing, there might be some powerful men out there with strong motivation to silence her quickly. I wish I had confidence in investigative journalism’s ability to examine such potentialities, but I suspect nobody will seriously question the official story here.
— Posted by Skeptic
2008
7:13 pm
I would like to see an investigation following this suicide, but something tells me that this issue will be left alone by detectives due to the high powered individuals it has the possibility to humiliate. If a formal investigation is held, I will bet it’s either a facade or it will end as it began, inconclusive.
— Posted by Nate
2008
7:14 pm
Another example of a woman being persecuted and prosecuted while the men who patronize them don’t face criminal charges. In many respects, we haven’t come a long way, baby, socially. The Euros are light years ahead of us in so many ways, e.g., artistically, economically, politically, and socially.
— Posted by Jay
2008
7:14 pm
There are so many reasons female prostitution should be a regulated legal activity for women and an agressively enforced misdemeanor for male perps that it’s not impossible to understand why a woman facing 55 or even 5 years for being a madam would decide to commit suicide. It reminds me of the conclusion reached in Orhan Pamuk’s novel “Snow:” Women commit suicide to regain their dignity. Men commit suicide because they have lost their dignity. Anyone wishing to review the argument for regulated legalization need only read Nicholas Kristof’s recent Times article on the subject.
— Posted by Greg Pool