Police were called to the home of DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey’s mother on Thursday to investigate her apparent suicide. Police have confirmed that the dead person is Palfrey who was 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, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering, but she had not yet been sentenced…
"I am sure as heck am not going to be going to federal prison for one day, let alone, you know, four to eight years here, because I’m shy about bringing in the deputy secretary of whatever," Palfrey told ABC last year when she released phone records that revealed some of her clients. "Not for a second. I’ll bring every last one of them in if necessary."
Some suicides are a surprise. Some suicides are in the heat of the moment, like anguish at being convicted. But this one feels like neither. Palfrey’s brazen and confrontive behavior has been something unusual from the very start – like her threats to release her "little black book" or her parading in the media. Some people are able to engage in relatively up-front criminal behavior because of a comforting thought – "if I get caught, I’ll just kill myself." Criminality is just one of the places where such pacts occur. Others make such pacts as a way of not accepting life’s realities – "if [such and such thing] doesn’t happen by [some arbitrary time], I’ll just kill myself."
But also, Palfrey also seemed to really think that her open blackmail threat would protect her. And one of her employees, University of Maryland, professor Brandy Britton, had already committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.
Whatever Palfrey’s internal thinking, it was an angry act [like hanging herself in her mother’s home]. It would be no surprise if that "little black book" is forthcoming – an angry farewell present. Sad business…
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