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Awaiting Sentence, 'Madam' Kills Self

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, THOMAS W. KRAUSE and JOSH POLTILOVE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 2, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - The woman known as the "D.C. Madam," who a jury convicted for running a Washington prostitution service that catered to the rich and powerful, hanged herself Thursday morning in a shed next to her mother's mobile home.

Authorities found the body of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, at the Sun Valley Mobile Home Park and pronounced her dead about 11 a.m. They found handwritten notes in a notebook describing her intent to take her life, and do not suspect foul play. Authorities did not release the content of the notes.

On April 15, a federal jury convicted Palfrey of money laundering, using the mail system for illegal purposes and racketeering. She reportedly made more than $2 million.

Palfrey was free until her scheduled sentencing set for July 24. Known as "Miz Julia" to her employees, she faced a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison.

The path to Palfrey's conviction ensnared at least one lawmaker and several high-level Washington officials, most notably Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana. Palfrey had said her escort service, Pamela Martin & Associates, was a legitimate business offering sexual fantasies, not a prostitution service. She said if any of the women had sex for money, they did so without her knowledge.

"This is tragic news. My heart goes out to her mother," said Palfrey's attorney, Preston Burton.

Mother Found Daughter Hanging

Palfrey's mother, Blanche Elizabeth Palfrey, 76, found the body.

She woke from a short nap and began to look for her daughter, police said. She noticed a three-wheeled cycle in the lawn that was usually stored in the shed.

Blanche Palfrey went to the shed and found her daughter hanging by a nylon rope from a metal beam.

She called 911 at 10:52 a.m.

Tarpon Springs Police Capt. Jeffrey Young said Blanche Palfrey is distraught.

"When you have a suicide, it's all the victims that are left behind," he said. "They're the ones that have to pick up the pieces and go on with their lives and deal with this. That's the tragedy in any situation like this."

Blanche Palfrey didn't know her daughter was despondent to the point of suicide, Young said.

The Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office will perform an autopsy and check for drugs or alcohol in her system.

News of the suicide rattled the usually quiet mobile home park, just off U.S. 19. By lunchtime, journalists, satellite trucks and law enforcement officials surrounded the pink-and-white mobile home.

Neighbors heard the sirens and began to investigate. Before long, the news raced around the park. Talk of the neighbors turned almost immediately to their concern for Blanche.

"She's a darling," said Charles Munter, who also lives in the mobile home park. "She would do anything for anybody, and anybody would do anything for her. I'm afraid this is going to take an awful toll on her because she's had a bad heart for the last five years or more."

Vernon Good, 87, a resident of the mobile home park, said he has known Palfrey's mother about 10 years.

"We thought Blanche was staying with her daughter up in Washington," he said. "I was surprised to learn that she was there."

Good said he met Deborah Palfrey once briefly.

"She gave the impression to everybody here that she had plenty of money," he said. She spoke about a home she owned in Orlando and another in Washington.

Good said he hasn't spoken to Blanche since her daughter's conviction about two weeks ago.

Dee Carr, 73, also has been friends with Blanche for about 10 years.

Carr said Blanche didn't know until recently what her daughter did for a living.

"From my understanding, she thought she was an interior decorator," Carr said.

Palfrey ran her escort business for about 13 years before being arrested. She caused a furor last year when she threatened to pay for her defense by selling records of phone calls with thousands of clients to the highest bidder.

She later released her phone records for free, but the documents identified no other big-name clients.

Along with Vitter, other high-powered clients including military strategist Harlan Ullman and Randall Tobias, a former senior State Department official. None of them were called to testify in the trial.

Vitter, a first-term senator who is married and has four children, acknowledged being involved with Palfrey's escort service and has apologized for what he called a "very serious sin."

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," he wrote in a statement. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there - with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way," he wrote.

Through his spokesman, Vitter declined to comment today.

Vitter's phone number was listed five times on Palfrey's records between 1999 and 2001, when he served in the U.S. House.

'Unattainable Values'

In a July interview with The Baton Rouge Advocate, Palfrey said that the escort service involved clients calling her at her San Francisco home. She would arrange "dates" by phone.

Palfrey knew Vitter as "David from C Street," she said. At the time, Vitter had an apartment on C Street.

Palfrey didn't know Vitter was in Congress, she said, and after learning his identity called him a "hypocrite" for his "family values" political stances.

"These were unattainable values," Palfrey said. "Who could live up to what he was preaching? Even he couldn't live up to it."

Prosecutors had asked the judge to keep Palfrey in jail until her sentencing. The judge refused, saying she had never missed a court appearance and knew she would be punished if she fled.

Burton, Palfrey's attorney, said he thought his client was in fine spirits after the verdict.

"She's with her mother," he told The Washington Post.

Palfrey is the second woman connected with the escort service to commit suicide.

Former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. Before going to trial, Britton committed suicide in January by hanging herself in her home in an upscale neighborhood between Baltimore and Washington.

Last year, Palfrey said she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but "I guess I'm made of something that Brandy Britton wasn't made of."

Privately, Palfrey had spoken of suicide before.

Palfrey reached out to author Dan Moldea last year for help writing a book, according to Time magazine.

"She wasn't going to jail, she told me that very clearly. She told me she would commit suicide," Moldea told Time.

"She had done time once before for prostitution," Moldea recalled. "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."

Reporter Baird Helgeson, editor Howard Altman and Tampa Tribune wire services contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com. Reporter Thomas W. Krause can be reached at (813) 259-7698 or tkrause

@tampatrib.com. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

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