Posted by Damozel | Debra Jean Palfrey, 'the DC Madam,' was found dead in a storage shed at her mother's home in Tarpon Springs, Florida, an apparent suicide. (Fox) Palfrey was convicted on Tuesday of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes, and racketeering, but hadn't yet been sentenced. (Fox) Aged 52, she was facing a maximum of 55 years in prison. (The Swamp) Initially there was some doubt of her identity, but this now seems to have been confirmed by the police. (On Deadline)
Meanwhile, there's plenty of speculation in the blogosphere about her apparent suicide.
While it's possible she killed herself, many people are wondering. "Palfrey was busted in October of 2006, and it wasn't long before she captured national attention by threatening to release her phone records—records that could've destroyed the careers of hundreds of Washington politicians and officials. Or so went speculation at the time....Now we await the conspiracy theorists who'll swear she was killed by the government before she could reveal that Dick Cheney was a client, or something." (Gawker) Gawker has written her a bio or obit of sorts.
Palfrey, a former receptionist, cocktail waitress, and probable escort herself, began her escort service under the name "Pamela Martin & Associates" in 1993. By 2006 her girls charged $300-per-hour and allegedly counted as clients thousands of important Washington figures.
She was finally busted in 2006 (by the Post Office!), whereupon she began her second career as an inescapable media figure (in DC, at least). She made headlines by threatening to sell her client list to pay for her attorneys—attorneys she kept firing, until finally deciding to defend herself. The presiding judge eventually convinced her to take a court-appointed lawyer as the case went to court this February.
Meanwhile, Palfrey continued insisting she'd done nothing illegal. She was merely offering an "erotic fantasy service." The first high-profile johns Palfrey outed—Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias and some think-tank nut—admitted no wrong-doing. Tobias did eventually resign.
And finally she released what is probably the biggest name on her list—Senator David Vitter. Vitter, who's even been linked to other whores, did not resign.
She didn't sell the list. She did hand it over to ABC, but they apparently found nothing on it newsworthy enough to share....
"I'm not suggesting she didn't [commit suicide]," BooMan says, "but didn't pretty much everyone predict at some point that her life was in danger? I wonder if she or her loved ones were threatened or she just became depressed with the likely outcome of her sentencing. She was found in a small storage shed with a suicide note."
In re: questions surrounding her suicide, Mike Carney points out:
Here's what Palfrey told ABC News last year: "I sure as heck am not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, you know, four to eight years."(On Deadline)
Memeorandum has discussion here.
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