Deborah Jeane Palfrey's Suicide Notes: Death Was My Only "Exit Strategy."

TAMPA, Fla. — The woman known as the "D.C. Madam" apologized to her mother and sister in suicide notes, saying she couldn't bear going to prison and saw killing herself as the only "exit strategy."

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, convicted last month of running an elite Washington prostitution ring, wrote to her mother that she could not "live the next 6-8 years behind bars for what you and I have come to regard as this 'modern day lynching,' only to come out of prison in my late '50s a broken, penniless and very much alone woman."

The notes were released by police Monday.

Palfrey, 52, hanged herself with a nylon rope Thursday in a shed outside her mother's mobile home in the Florida Gulf Coast community of Tarpon Springs, northwest of Tampa. Her mother, 76-year-old Blanche Palfrey, discovered the body.

Deborah Palfrey was convicted of running a prostitution service that catered to members of Washington's political elite, including Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. She denied her escort service engaged in prostitution, saying that if any of the women engaged in sex acts for money, they did so without her knowledge.

She was free while she awaited sentencing on July 24 and had been staying with her mother.

Her suicide appeared to have been planned for days. The note to her mother was dated April 25, nearly a week before she killed herself. Police said the notes were found on a night stand in the bedroom where she'd been staying. One of the notes said, "Do not revive. Do not feed under any circumstances."

In the note to her younger sister, Bobbie, Palfrey expressed her love and told her to "be strong for mom."

"Also, you must comprehend that there was no other way out, i.e., 'exit strategy,' other than the one I have chosen here," she wrote. "Know I am at peace, with complete certainty, I believe Dad is standing watch _ prepared to guide me into the light."

Also Monday, police announced that the medical examiner's office officially ruled Palfrey's death a suicide by hanging. A toxicology report is pending.

Her death last week had sparked widespread Internet chatter among those who speculated that someone killed her to keep her from identifying more prominent clients of the escort service.

"Tarpon Springs Police Department detectives, after following up on several investigative avenues have not discovered any new evidence which would indicate anything other then a suicide by hanging in this case," spokesman Capt. Jeffrey Young said.

Palfrey's mother and sister identified her handwriting in the suicide notes, Young said.

A federal jury convicted Palfrey on April 15 of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering. Prosecutors said she ran the prostitution service for 13 years. The trial concluded without revealing many new details about the service or its clients. Vitter was among possible witnesses but did not take the stand.

Palfrey had vowed that she would not go to prison, even telling a Washington writer that she would commit suicide first.

Comments

[punditpolice]

You think she could have written that note with a gun to her head? Or more likely, pictures of her mom and sister and the threat to off them if she didn't cooperate? How easily the police and media swallow this BS...

[CommanderWhitehead]

CrazyDogLady is not so crazy, it would seem.

All of her points are dead on! (Sherlock Holmes would have easily arrived at the same set of deductions!)

If anyone still believes that Ms. Palfrey "offed" herself, knowing, as we do, that Cheney may have actually been a client of her...um...service, (and heaven knows who else) I'm afraid there is no hope for you.

Add Ms. Palfrey's name to the growing list of Bush/Cheney-instigated homicides (along side of Paul Wellstone and, of course, Pat Tillman).

Never give these bastards the benefit of the doubt.

Never!

[indypete]

This was defiinitely a suicide.... and Iraq was involved in 9-11.

[CrazyDogLady]

I think it's interesting that this article on how she WAS going to sing appeared in the BBC News on April 30, 2008 and she was found dead on May 1st...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6610137.stm

Things that make you go hmmm....

1. Women who commit suicide generally don't choose hanging as their exit stratergy.

2. A grown woman would not commit suicide in their elderly mother's house where her own mother would be the one to find her...

3. I find it interesting that she specifically included "DNR" in the note...How many people distraught enough to off themselves while "mom is napping" in the house really would think to include that?

4. Why have we not see the mother or sister interviewed?

5. Handwriting forgery is pretty easy - especially in this day and age...When was the last time her mom or sister actually saw her handwriting? When was the last time your geographically distant relatives saw your actual handwriting - except on a Hallmark Card?

[Wiredwilly]

Suicide. Yeah, right. Tell me another one.

[oogabooga]

Question one: How about the Feds going after the billions disappeared and stolen under the Bush/Cheney crime regime? Question Two: Why does the government prosecute prostitution? Question Three: Does Sen. Vitter (Republican family values of Louisiana) still wear adult diapers to play bad baby?

[njdon]

seems to me that she would have taken down some of the johns. perhaps even made a deal with the jerks before taking her life. prostitutes are not (in general) delicate.

[czarlos]

For the record, here's a link to the audio of her saying she would NOT kill herself:

" Corporate Media Ignores Palfrey"s Statement She Would Not Commit Suicide"

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2008/050208_tape_ignored.htm

[eplebneesta]

I believe the note actually said "Exit Strategery"

EPN

[PhillyQuaker]

Doctors, athletes and prostitutes:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article722727.ece

I understand he prosecutor wanted Palfrey held for a psych evaluation but the judge who did not want to be on this case over-ruled and allowed Palfrey free on bond pending sentencing.

[Economike]

Why the heck didn't she make whatever knowledge she had public?

[JBS]

Prosecutors seized all of her business records and the court placed a gag-order over them. Her lawyers had to fight just to get access to them to use for her defense.

[HatingTheGame]

A convenient death or an inconvenient truth?

Ken Lay - big Bush booster, who was boosted in return to pull the greatest swindle in Texas (and American) history. Found dead in his home in Colorado mysterious heart attack on a normally healthy person (sort of like in that "fixer" moving Michael Clayton, remember?)

David Kelly - the UK intelligence guy who accused 10 Downing street of "sexing up" pre-war Iraq intelligence to push for war under pressure from the Americans. Exposing this would have brought down the Poodle Blair government, and totally discredited the Iraq invasion (earlier than it eventually did). Dead by walking into the woods, and slitting his wrists.

Now Palfrey -- supposedly having tricky Dick Cheney on her list of Johns (or Dicks, as it may be).

All of them, btw, vowed to fight for their innocence. People in the public eye like this do not just off themselves. They are used to the high profile and know full well that they will be tried in the media -- and in that case, just like OJ, they know that they could win and be vindicated.

The powers that be, paranoid to the core that they will be exposed for their evil ways and hypocrisy act and react to protect themselves.

Convenient deaths covering up inconvenient truths.

It makes you realize how little we are allowed to know by the gatekeepers of our information, and however well informed you think you are -- you are ultimately not.

Ultimately,

[darcy]

Completely agree, HatingtheGame. Anyone who thinks Palfrey's death was suicide is VERY naive.

[DixieMelody]

When I saw the helicopter news footage of "the shed," I was in complete disbelief.

It looks just like the metal shed in my backyard . . . the one I can't even stand upright in, and I am 5'3".

And the metal crossbeams are pretty flimsy, hardly capable of supporting approximately 100 lbs.

Definitely NOT an "ideal" setting in which to hang one's self.

And by the way, I would still like to know why The Huffington Post disabled the comments section when they originally posted this story.

[SolarPowerGuy]

HuffPo seems to automatically close comments on articles related to someone's death. Several months back, I remember there was an incident here where people posted nasty remarks about a dead person, in the comments on their obituary. The comments were picked up by the right-wing blogosphere, and eventually the MSM. They tried to pin these nasty remarks to Arianna, and to liberals in general.

As I recall, a little detective work suggested that right-wing trolls were responsible for the very remarks that stirred the controversy. From my days on Usenet, this wouldn't surprise me. There's a long tradition of right-wingers monkeywrenching forums which do not share their point of view. Some people suspect that there are people who actually get paid to spread slime on the Net. Curiously, there does not appear to be a similar legion of left-wingers to troll at freerepublic.com.

But, it was hard to PROVE that right-wing trolls were responsible for the aforementioned remarks. And even if it was proven, the main story was out there and the people who were pushing it had no interest in carrying the counter-story. So rather than face this situation every time someone dies, they just close the comments on all first-run obituary articles.

[JBS]

Quo Bene?

[xargaw]

Last year one of the women that worked for her killed herself after she was outed. Now, she kills herself. Don't let anyone tell you this is a victumless crime. Mr. Tobias and Mr. Vitter are as guilty as Ms. Palfrey. I wonder if they are even slightly affected by the impact of their actions. Perhaps, embarrassed, but unlikely remorseful.