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Prison Never Option In D.C. Madam's Mind

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - The release of two suicide notes and the preliminary findings of an autopsy Monday confirmed what most already had concluded: that Deborah Jeane Palfrey, also known as the D.C. Madam, killed herself by hanging.

The notes show that Palfrey, 52, couldn't stand being sent to prison after she was convicted in federal court last month of money laundering and racketeering. She operated a Washington prostitution ring that catered to the rich and powerful, and faced a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison.

She had been in prison before - for 18 months after one of her earlier escort services crashed, according to The Washington Post - and wrote she feared emerging broke and hopeless this time.

The letters are dated April 25, a week before her death. Her mother, Blanche Elizabeth Palfrey, 76, found the body Thursday in a shed near her home.
Deborah Palfrey wrote that her father, Frank, who died in 2002, would be waiting to guide her.

The Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner's Office has ruled Palfrey's death a suicide by hanging.
Stephen Thompson
TEXT OF LETTERS, Page 8

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