Convicted DC Madam Found Dead, Foul Play NOT Suspected!

Published on May 1st, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS – Police were called to the home of DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s mother on Thursday to investigate an apparent suicide. Police have confirmed that the dead person is Palfrey, 52. Palfrey was dubbed “The DC Madam” by the national media after her arrest for allegedly running an upscale call girl ring in the nation’s capitol.

She was convicted on Tuesday of money laundering and using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering, but she had not yet been sentenced. There has been much speculation in the media about who was on Palfrey’s client list, but few details came out during the trial. She had appeared on ABC’s 20/20 and said that her service — Pamela Martin and Associates — had a client list that included some 10 to 15 thousand names.

Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, was linked to the service, and while Randall L. Tobias resigned as a deputy secretary of state after acknowledging to ABC News that he used Palfrey’s service for massages, no other big names emerged. Police say Palfrey’s body was in a small storage shed on the west side of her mother’s mobile phome. There were handwritten notes at the scene indicating that Palfrey intended to take her own life, and no foul play is susected. One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.
Last year, Palfrey said she, too, was humiliated by her prostitution charges, but said: “I guess I’m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn’t made of.”

You will have to excuse me for being a bit suspicious. She predicted in 1991 she would be “suicided”.

Update FYI: The information about her being “suicided” on Wikipedia has been removed since I posted this story this morning. In fact, much of the Wikipedia entry has been revised.

Conviction reported earlier on DU..

58 users responded in " Convicted DC Madam Found Dead, Foul Play NOT Suspected! "

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# 1 GremlinClr said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:16 am

Suicide my ass. I’m sure the local police will fall all over themselves to solve this one. Shit like this pisses me off.

# 2 gquaglia said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:16 am

Suicide, my ass!

# 3 gquaglia said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:17 am

#1 you beat me to my comment.

# 4 JimD said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:22 am

The Repukes “Vince Foster” – on the “Morals” Front anyway – she knew where the bodies were burried !!! Had to be silenced !!! Wonder where her “Black Book” is now !!!

# 5 gquaglia said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:25 am

Wonder where her “Black Book” is now !!!

You would have a better chance of finding out the fate of the Rosswell Aliens!

# 6 Miguel said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:29 am

A very convenient suicide. And #5, you are most likely right!

# 7 Improbus said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:30 am

“no foul play is suspected”

They really expect people with an IQ above 80 to swallow this? Please.

# 8 Mister Mustard said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:33 am

Suicide my ass!!

# 9 MotaMan said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am

I Bet some of you guys would still do her.

# 10 Calin said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:01 am

I love the way #4 automatically blames the Republicans. Because Democrats never visit prostitutes.

Either way, normally I avoid tin-foil hat ideas. But even I’m suspicious on the timing of this thing.

# 11 Raff said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:09 am

#10

Yeah really, besides everyone knows that republicans like boys and bathrooms sex… Its gotta be the democrats.

# 12 Joe said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:15 am

Yeah, remember JFK’s suicide in Dallas?

# 13 The Warden said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:15 am

Death by Dildo?

# 14 zorkor said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:27 am

land of the free and the right to freedom of speech. yeah right!

# 15 OhForTheLoveOf said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am

#7 – They really expect people with an IQ above 80 to swallow this?

Yes.

I expect the sub-80 crowd (like 9/11 truthers, etc) to imagine an elaborate conspiracy.

# 16 Boo Radley said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:37 am

#15. Um…Why would it have to be an “elaborate conspiracy”?

# 17 t0llyb0ng said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:38 am

Wicked woman did some bad things.

Wicked woman went away.

End of story.

# 18 bobbo said, on May 1st, 2008 at 11:57 am

Someone predicting “being suicided” can just as easily be projecting their own paranoia and resulting depression leading to “real” suicide.

If the DC Power structure wanted to warn Madames not to make their contacts public wouldn’t a public execution be the more effective message sent?

I don’t know about “the black book” but didn’t she make all her phone records public? The black book of sorts?

Wouldn’t any DC Power Structure want her suicided BEFORE a complete trial on the issue?

Rave on sub 80 IQ’ers.

# 19 Jägermeister said, on May 1st, 2008 at 12:18 pm

Department of Homeland Security reports that this is not an act of terrorism.

# 20 Madam McNormal said, on May 1st, 2008 at 12:22 pm

First, it’s pretty rare for any “madam” to be playing with a full deck. Next, anyone who believes that she was telling the truth about what “would happen to her” saying that “she would not commit suicide someone would murder her” might be missing the bottom line of this whole thing, she’s a crook, a liar, a thief, and drama queen. She lied her whole life. She was very good at it. She finally got caught. Ego could not handle it. Ego said something to her about either going to jail, or killing herself to make the world suspect the cops are the bad guys since she ‘predicted’ it and/or she just might have gotten so depressed about going to jail, there was no point in living. Sorry conspiracy theorists.

# 21 eyeofthetiger said, on May 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Like a vigra induced red tie affair set up by dead drops, light signals and cut-outs with oneway mirror glass on limousines. All of the stiff dicks on her client list; which, includes all of her and underlings associates phone records would be a suspect. After all wouldn’t such a topic be rendered a pasture for national security???

# 22 Li said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:12 pm

Suicided.

And my IQ is so high that I’m smart enough not to enumerate it.

# 23 bobbo said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:19 pm

#22–Li==What factors lead you to that conclusion?

# 24 billabong said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm

Gee we only have 15 thousand suspects.I think Cheny did it.

# 25 OhForTheLoveOf said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:33 pm

#16 – #15. Um…Why would it have to be an “elaborate conspiracy”?

I don’t know… but it always is.

# 26 Said said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:33 pm

Did you ever think she just didn’t want to go to jail?

Have you also considered this possibility? http://tinyurl.com/57ygxj

# 27 jlm said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:34 pm

no need to investigate…not like any influential people had any reason to kill her so it must have been suicide. nice.

# 28 OhForTheLoveOf said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:44 pm

#22 –

#23 – Probably Occam’s Razor.

Say… You don’t imagine there might be some cleverly ironic reason Li chose to use the “word” suicided… do you?

# 29 Bob said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm

It amazes me that anyone would believe that she would be “Suicided” after all potential harm such an action could prevent had been done. If you actually believe that, do the human race a favor and take yourself and any progeny you may have and dive into the nearest convenient method of instant death. The gene pool will not miss you.

# 30 Jack Acid said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm

Let’s do a little role playing:

Influential person #1 who wants to kill her: “This chick can really screw us. We should take her out.”

Influential person #2: “But she predicted we’d do that. We’ll never get away with it.”

Influential person #1: “I’ve got it! We’ll wait until *after* she makes her phone records public and goes to trial, thereby doing maximum potential damage to us before we make our move.”

Influential person #2: “Sheer genius. We’ll get rid of her after she’d done all the damage to us that she can possibly do.

Ifluential person #1: “Consider it done.”

Just a reminder — The X-files is *fiction*. Agent Scully and Agent Mulder don’t really exist. There is no massive cover-up of an impending alien invasion. There is no magic carburator that has been suppressed by the oil industry which can get 200 miles per gallon of gas. Sometimes people commit suicide even after claiming they would never do such a thing when faced with the reality of the alternative.

# 31 andy said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm

needle shaky on the fishy meter

# 32 Sister Mary Hand Grenade said, on May 1st, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Wait until the overnight mail shows up tomorrow at all of the news agencies! Bwahahahaha

# 33 Eric said, on May 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm

What’s hillarial, and more than a little bit scary, is that even though this whole thing may reek to high heaven, and very few people that hear the story may believe it, the fact is, more than likely, if this was not a suicide, we just won’t know for years, and there is nothing that any of us can do about it except come onto some random Blog (with apologies to John and the entire UD crew) and scream conspiracy theories until they’re blue in the face.

Transparancy is no longer a hallmark of this government, not that it ever was to begin with, but there are certain things that just go without saying, and one of those things is that if you become a potential threat to too many people in power, those in power will make sure they use that power to take steps to make sure that they don’t lose that power. And that is to the exclusion of nothing.

So, whether it’s true or not that she committed suicide, there will always be doubters from now on, regardless of whether they’re right or not.

Isn’t that what one of the founding fathers called “a healthy distrust of the government by it’s subjects”?

# 34 Smartalix said, on May 1st, 2008 at 2:21 pm

30,

Revenge is enough motive. The Mossad killed all the guys who planned Munich after the damage was done as well.

If the black book has been published there would have been hundreds of suspects had the death been called murder. (I don’t follow the “news”, is there a link to it or to an annoucement by a news organization that they have it?) In the media feeding frenzy in the early days, activity of a nefarious nature would have a high chance of being caught in flagrante delicto.

Someone mentioned Occam’s razor. Which is the cleanest scenario, one where a woman of uncertain mood commits suicide after commenting that she would be forced to do so by powerful and upset men? Or that one of those same (with a number that large statistics come to bear) powerful upset men had her killed?

# 35 bobbo said, on May 1st, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Occam’s razor is a lazy armchair theory when there is no proof or evidence favoring a specific theory? It is useful for initial considerations only.

Here there is evidence and a coroner and others will be reviewing it and publishing it.

Is Palfrey’s mother reporting any black van’s in the area?

# 36 Jack Acid said, on May 1st, 2008 at 2:40 pm

LOL. The “cleanest scenario” is obviously the one where she was killed by that mysterious shot from the grassy knoll.

Even Freud knew that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

You really believe that revenge after the fact is a better motive than silencing her before any damage could be done? I suppose they also forced her to write suicide notes, then either murdered her or made her commit suicide without it looking suspicious even though they knew she predicted someone would kill her and make it look like suicide.

Now balance that against the fact that she was just convicted, knew she would be going to jail for a long time, and had only a short time of freedom left.

Doesn’t seem too difficult to me to figure out which is the cleaner scenario.

# 37 OhForTheLoveOf said, on May 1st, 2008 at 3:01 pm

#35 – Here there is evidence and a coroner and others will be reviewing it and publishing it.

And no matter what they find, there are plenty of nutters who will not trust it and keep the tin foil hat theories alive.

# 38 McCullough said, on May 1st, 2008 at 3:14 pm

#37. “And no matter what they find, there are plenty of nutters who will not trust it and keep the tin foil hat theories alive.”

“Nuts comprise a lot of people… both brilliant and mad.”

OhForTheLoveOf.

# 39 Bo Didley said, on May 1st, 2008 at 4:36 pm

#37. “tin foil hat” blah blah “hitler” blah blah blah “nutter” blah blah “loonbat” etc…..dismissed.

# 40 RBG said, on May 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Now on CNN:

“She had said in interviews that she would kill herself before going to prison.”

“I’m looking at 55 years in a federal penitentiary, and at my age, that is virtually a life sentence,” Palfrey told CNN Radio’s Ninette Sosa in March. “Realistically, we estimate between eight and 15 years. I’m also looking at the complete forfeiture of my entire life savings and work.”

Police earlier said “handwritten notes were found on scene that describes the victim’s intention to take her life, and foul play does not appear to be involved.”

# 41 Mister Mustard said, on May 1st, 2008 at 5:28 pm

>>I’m looking at 55 years in a federal
>>penitentiary

That does seem like kind of a hefty sentence for the non-violent crime of providing pussy for the well-heeled Washington politicians. I don’t recall the Mayflower Madam getting 55 years in the slammer.

# 42 JPV said, on May 1st, 2008 at 5:28 pm

Alex Jones may not be the most credible news source, but then again neither is CNN.

Apparently she made various statements on Jones’ radio show, that she does NOT have any intention of committing suicide.

There is a recording available of her saying this…

http://prisonplanet.com/audio/010508palfrey.mp3

Does CNN have a recording of the statement that they attribute to her?

Also, one of her “girls”, Brandy Britton, also ended up committing “suicide”.

Make of it, what you will…

http://tinyurl.com/3pfxne

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 in March, “I’m planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government,” she said.

# 43 bh28630 said, on May 1st, 2008 at 6:56 pm

The phone numbers (sans names) were provided to the media to research to discover who was on the list. For whatever reason, the media did not bite on the lead.
Now consider, just for a lark, when a person is most likely to flip. Would that be while they still have a court case or when actually facing jail time? My thought is if she was ever going to name names now would be when since 55 years of a cell vs a comfortable few days chatting with a prosecutor of either political persuasion would be preferable.

# 44 RBG said, on May 1st, 2008 at 7:49 pm

So I guess then Dick Cheney had her write all those suicide notes or he said he would kill her?

RBG

# 45 gquaglia said, on May 1st, 2008 at 8:41 pm

“I’m looking at 55 years in a federal penitentiary, and at my age, that is virtually a life sentence

How fucked up is this country when someone providing a normal human need, for money, would get 55 years when shithead street thugs who rob and steal and will never be a productive member of society get less.

# 46 Glenn E. said, on May 1st, 2008 at 10:01 pm

Very coincidental timing. John, you should have added a graphic over her head that reads “Mission Accomplished”. Our entire military machine still hasn’t killed Bin Laden, but obviously some black bag outfit had no problem offing the DC Madam. A few years back there was a huge flap about a missing girl, suspected as death, that some Democratic congressmen had dated or just met. And his career was ruined without any proof of wrongdoing on his part. Now here we have the dead body of a infamous DC madam who could, and probably would, name names if faced with jail time. And she dies quite conveniently to all who might be on her client list. And you can easily believe that nothing will be made of this. Especially if some high ranking republicans are involved. Let’s face it. Billions of tax payer dollar are at stake here. Dollars that might not go to the defence contractors that some career threatened politicians had been lobbyed for. So our entire defence based economy was at stake. Does anyone really believe she’d be allowed to screw all that up?

# 47 GF said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 am

And yet O.J. Simpson is playing golf somewhere because that dumbass knew how to hide his assets. I find it hard to believe she didn’t do the same.

# 48 RBG said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 am

If only there had been some conceivable way for a person to leave a full disclosure of names and details with someone instead of protecting those the madam knew would kill her.

RBG

# 49 hhopper said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 am

When women commit suicide, they very seldom hang themselves. That, in itself, is suspicious.

I drove by the scene yesterday on my way home. There were five police agencies involved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many TV trucks.

# 50 Bob said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 9:33 am

#49 According to studies Women are less likely to use violent methods of suicide than men. Generally they prefer poisoning. When they do use violent methods they tend to prefer methods that leave their identifying physical features intact, such as hanging, wrist cutting, and electrocution. More rarely, a woman will use a method like a simple gunshot to the head. It is believed that women who commit suicide behave this way because they can not stand to destroy their self image.

Interestingly this suicide behavior is not common to all women, just those in “Western” or strongly “Western Influenced” cultures. In other cultures violent suicide in women is often as common or more so than it is for men.

# 51 Brian said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 am

I can’t say I’m surprised. She’s dead because had a lot of information that could hurt a lot of very powerful people.

# 52 Rich said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 am

Has anyone attempted to find the data deleted from her Wikipedia article and restore it?

# 53 RBG said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm

49 hhopper. Yeah, I get where you’re going with that. The mastermind couldn’t afford professional killers.

RBG

# 54 bobbo said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm

This links to “Wired Science” blog where the question asked is “How would you Murder someone and fake a suicide”. Most of the discussion of course is off point, but shows a different bent than here on DU.

http://tinyurl.com/5lemvj

# 55 McCullough said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm

#52. Rich- I went back to Wikipedia last night to reread the information that I had originally linked to referencing Alex Jones taped interview (thanks JVP,)on her suicidal intentions, and was a little surprised to find 1/3 to 1/2 of the whole entry on Palfrey missing, and not just the Jones info, I wish that I had copied that article, but it seems to be in the ether now. Interesting that.

# 56 RBG said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm

I thought Wikipedia kept (and allowed access?) to every version.

RBG

# 57 McCullough said, on May 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm

#56. RBG- thats my understanding. So maybe its wrong to use it as a source? So why would it be edited, and by whom?

# 58 Reality said, on May 3rd, 2008 at 9:41 am

#56. RBG- thats my understanding. So maybe its wrong to use it as a source? So why would it be edited, and by whom?

Welcome to the club of reality. Wiki can be edited by ANYONE. Any idiot can go in and change Wiki articles. There was a news article months ago about how Wiki told the public that government agencies were changing articles, as well as corporations.

Yet, people run around acting like Wiki is an encyclopedia or something… it’s a website that shows you what everyone ‘thinks’ about these subjects- and are completely bias depending on who edits it last..

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