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."

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"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 than 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

[Bobleblah1]

All you subterfuge agents go f off.
She is quoted on numerous radio shows saying that people related to the government were trying to kill her, and that she would never commit suicide.

These tapes can very easily be found so stop the lies.

[dana94591]

Death is everyone's exit strategy. It is just that she was part of the downfall of some powerful men so she had to pay. Not fair but that's how this game is played. You play you pay!!!

[klandish]

Well they played, are they going to pay? That's a misogamist comment you made. Not to mention the cynical green light you give to the powerful to commit murder. Ask your self why with your perspective there's no out cry for justice. Are you that resigned to corruption in every case, or just this one.

[pbfishtaco]

Nothing to see here, move along.

[geneven]

She left two suicide notes. They seemed authentic. She had a good motive for suicide. She had repeatedly said she would kill herself if convicted, unless you think that her biographer was lying. So, absent compelling evidence, which no one in the above thread has cited, I think she killed herself.

And that isn't so interesting, anyway. What is interesting is that she was essentially sentenced to death for abetting prostitution. That is a tragedy. And that life in prison is so hard that many people prefer death to being there.

There has to be a better way.

[ruyen]

Except there's no (I haven't heard at least) actual proof of her saying she would commit suicide, but there *is* proof (audio no less) of her saying she was not suicidal and her saying she would be "accidentally" killed in prison or "suicided" before going in.
It's not a stretch to believe someone could be forced to write a suicide note, and who uses the term "Exit Strategy" unless you're in the government anyway. If you think politicians don't kill people to hide their secrets, I've got some ocean front property to sell you in Montana.

[freebeer]

geneven says of the suicide notes.
"They seemed authentic"

And just what qualifies you to say that? Republican.

Then you allege she "had repeatedly said she would kill herself if convicted"

Post the link, or stop lying.

Here is what she did say, and here is the link.



"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.

"Not to be concerned, I have no intention of letting anyone buy me off or make any kind of a deal with me….and I’m not planning to commit suicide either," said Palfrey on a separate occasion.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=1907&cp=3

[GQB]

Now wait a minute...
If I have a little black book with the names of important clients, and I'm afraid I'm going to be offed before I can testify, just what do you think I'm going to do with it?
If she seriously feared being 'suicided', then there's a copy of her records in someone's hands.
If that doesn't show up, then I have to doubt the murder theory.

[JBS]

The court had her records and would not grant her access to them.

[groucho]

Whether or not she killed herself or was murdered, why the hell was she going to jail for 55 years? What a travesty. What about David Diapers Vitter? He gets away with it, just like all the other men. If this is a crime, it's only a crime when 2 people act. So why is the woman ALWAYS the one that is persecuted to this extent. Like Heidi Fleiss. I don't' know if they were nice people, they provided a service that apparently is very desirable.
So whether or not she put the rope around her neck, in my opinion the justice system in this country that continues to keep their foot on womens neck. Didi Myers, the white house spokeswoman, made less than her male counterparts. The ERA hasn't passed. The DC men are reaping benefits for themselves at the expense of anyone it takes.

[AurigaRa]

yeah, right.

We're not done with you yet , Cheney.,

[DixieMelody]

AND. . .

McCain

Fred Thompson

Rudy Gulianni

[aintnogod]

And what does this say about our Puritanical Republican Fundamentalist Christian Neocon culture? A woman who was only supplying what all those Neocons love to get, when its not males they want, murdered by that very establishment which is guilty of murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians with its illegal and criminal invasion of a sovereign nation? I'm 70 years old, and let me tell you, this is a fascist government in all but opening up concentration camps for liberals and others they consider to be enemies of their criminal regime.

[LeBelAge]

No way did this woman kill herself. She gave an interview to Alex Jones that she was afraid she would be killed by powerful people. Women don't take their lives that violently. Its usually with pills.

[aintnogod]

All you gotta know is that the Federal agencies which might have killed her are intelligent enough to do the deed and make it look like suicide. We have her word that she was not suicidal, expressed more than once and vehemently, that if she was found "suicided", we were to know that she had been killed. Now what do we know about the Tarpon Springs Police Department and its personnel and their possible connections with federal agencies?

[BannedFromCommenting]

Oh heck yeah she was murdered.. she was "facing" a certain sentence.. not YET sentenced...
You can often face the possible worst, but when it comes down to it, it never as bad.. (though I know it can be).. I could see her making such a choice after sentencing.. only her family will know her and if she really would do it.. everyone else will have been coerced to tell the media "Uh, yeah, thats right she told me she would, uh kill herself, ya know.. probably hanging, as she liked westerns.. uh yeah thats the ticket yeah..."

[Izadora]

With all due respect but:
a- she made lots of money but why she did not buy her Mother a decent Home?
b-she could killed herself in other place, why she chose her Mother's? And why hanging? I don't
think she cares about her poor Mother at all. Definitely she was a selfish!

[PhillyQuaker]

As a mother, I have to agree with you about Paltrey's incomprehensible decision to take her life at her mom's.

It's very sad she thought this was the only way to deal with the situation; I am sorry for her mother, too.

What a tough way to lose a daughter.

[gopwreckedusa]

What kind of country are we running here? Murdering women now? WTF?

[bmermaid]

Not one of the women that worked as "escorts" or the men that hired them was ever charged, to my knowlege. Certainly none of the men got any jail time. Yet it was the men who paid the money and got what they paid for.
When it is men in the position of Ms. Palfrey, as in "pimps", they are hardly ever punished.
This is the way it works in this country and around the world. Women are the "whores" and men are simply rsponding to thier base insticts. Must be the women that are at fault.
Societies exist to protect the weaker individuals and to encourage more acceptable behavior, for the betterment of the group. Our society fails in this way.
Just one more reason to believe that if more women were in positions of authority, things might be different in this world.
Think about it.

[freebeer]

You are quite right to note that no men were punished in this bmermaid.

But Palfrey had decided to retire before she was charged. She knew way too much about powerful lawmakers in Washington.

She was not punished for being a woman, but she was a problem for the George W Bush crowd for many reasons. So they offed her.

If you want to know some of those reasons and circumstances, I suggest you follow the link provided below by SiriusMrE.

[SiriusMrE]

This stinks.
http://www.infowars.com/?p=1945