Deborah Jeane Palfrey (March 18, 1956 – May 1, 2008)^[1] (dubbed the D.C. Madam by the news media) operated Pamela Martin and Associates, an escort agency in Washington, D.C. Although she maintained that the company’s services were legal, she was convicted on April 15, 2008 of racketeering, using the mail for illegal purposes,^[1][2] and money laundering.^[2] Slightly over two weeks later, facing a prison sentence of five or six years, she was found hanged. Autopsy results and the final police investigative report concluded that her death was a suicide.^[1][3][4][5]

Early life

Palfrey was born in the Pittsburgh area town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, but spent her teens in Orlando, Florida. Her father was a grocer. She graduated from Rollins College with a degree in criminal justice, and completed a nine-month legal course at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.^[6] Working as a paralegal in San Diego, California, she became involved in the escort business. Dismayed at how most services were run, including widespread drug abuse, she started her own company recruiting mostly women over 25.^[6] In 1990, she was arrested on charges of pimping, pandering and extortion; after fleeing to Montana she was captured while trying to cross the Canada–US border and brought back for trial. Following her conviction in 1992 she spent 18 months in prison.^[6][7] After her release, she founded Pamela Martin and Associates.^[8]

D.C. Madam scandal

In October 2006, United States Postal Inspection Service agents posed as a couple who were interested in buying Palfrey’s home as a means of accessing her property without a warrant.^[9][10] Agents froze bank accounts worth over US$500,000, seizing papers relating to money laundering and prostitution charges.^[10]

In early 2007, Palfrey reacted to the suicide by hanging of Brandi Britton, one of her former escort service employees, by saying, "I guess I’m made of something that Brandi Britton wasn’t made of."^[11]

Palfrey’s escorts charged as much as $300 per hour, and many have had professional careers. Palfrey continued to reside in California, and cleared some US$2 million over 13 years in operation.^[6] Palfrey appeared on ABC’s 20/20 as part of an investigative report on May 4, 2007.^[12]

In combination with Palfrey’s statement that she had 10,000 to 15,000 phone numbers of clients, this caused several clients’ lawyers to contact Palfrey to see whether accommodations could be made to keep their identities private.^[13] Ultimately, ABC News, after going through what was described as "46 lb" [21 kg] of phone records, decided that none of the potential clients^[14] was sufficiently "newsworthy" to bother mentioning.^[15]

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) acknowledged on the night of July 9, 2007, that he had been a customer of her escort service.^[16]

Thirteen former escorts and three former clients testified at her trial.^[17][18][19] The witnesses were compelled to testify, after being granted immunity from prosecution.

On April 15, 2008, a jury found Palfrey guilty of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering.^[1][2] Palfrey believed that contrary to the U.S. Attorney’s Office lower estimate, she might spend six or seven years behind bars.^[20] She faced a maximum of 55 years in prison.^[21]

Death

On May 1, 2008, Palfrey was found hanging in a storage shed outside her mother’s mobile home in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Police found handwritten suicide notes in the bedroom where she was staying, dated a week before her death. The autopsy and the final police investigation concluded her death was a suicide.^[3][5][22]

Palfrey’s death resulted in her conviction being vacated.^[23]

Suicide notes

Palfrey’s two handwritten notes were released to the public. In one of them, she wrote to her sister, "You must comprehend there was no way out, I.E. 'exit strategy,' for me other than the one I have chosen here." In another, she described her predicament as a "modern-day lynching". She said she feared that, at the end of serving her sentence, she would be "in my late 50s a broken, penniless and very much alone woman".^[22][24]

Speculation surrounding her death

The New York Times' Patrick J. Lyons wrote on the Times’ blog, The Lede, that some on the Internet were skeptical that her death was a suicide.^[25] After investigating the crime scene, however, police found "no new evidence [that] would indicate anything other than suicide by hanging," and a police investigative report released six months later concluded that her death had been a suicide.^[3][5] The police stated that Palfrey’s family believed the notes were written by Palfrey.^[26][27]

In early 2007, Palfrey learned of the death, apparently through suicide by hanging, of Brandi Britton, one of her former escort service employees.^[11] Palfrey reacted to this news by saying, "I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of." According to her former attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, she even took the extraordinary step of writing directly to the prosecutor, promising to show more resolve than Britton.^[28]

Journalist Dan Moldea, who was working with Palfrey on a book, recalled that in a 2007 conversation, Palfrey told him, "I am not going back to prison. I will commit suicide first."^[20] He said her previous prison experience had traumatized her and she felt she couldn’t do it again.^[1][11]