Suicide was only ”exit strategy,” Palfrey wrote to mother, sister
The Associated Press
The Vallejo woman who became 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 prostitution ring in Washington, D.C., wrote to her mother that […]
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Times Herald Online
The Vallejo woman who became 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 prostitution ring in Washington, D.C., 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 Monday by police in Tampa, Fla.

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, R-La. 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 had remained 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 sparked widespread Internet chatter 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.

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.

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