The so-called “D.C. Madam” hanged herself in Florida on Thursday, two weeks after she was convicted of running a call-girl ring that catered to Washington?s power elite, police said.
The death of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, is the second apparent suicide by hanging of a high-profile woman accused of prostitution in the mid-Atlantic area in two years.
Brandy Britton, 43, committed suicide in January of 2007, days before she was scheduled to stand trial on prostitution charges and be evicted from her $600,000 Ellicott City home.
Palfrey apparently hanged herself with nylon rope from the ceiling of a shed near her mother?s home near Tampa. Her mother discovered the body. Police said Palfrey left at least two suicide notes.
A federal jury convicted Palfrey on April 15 of running a prostitution service that catered to members of Washington?s political elite, including Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican.
Palfrey had 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.
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 likely faced about five or six years in prison and was free while she awaited sentencing on July 24.
“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.”
Before her death, Palfrey said that Britton, a former University of Maryland Baltimore County professor, was one of her employees.
“I guess I?m made of something that Brandy Britton wasn?t made of,” Palfrey said after she learned of Britton?s apparent suicide.
“She wasn?t making enough money, so she decided to do a little moonlighting,” Palfrey said during an interview with ABC newsmagazine “20/20.”
In her last interview before her death, Britton told The Examiner that she previously worked for an escort service called East Coast Elites, but she never mentioned Palfrey or her firm, Pamela Martin & Associates.
Britton?s Howard County police file makes no mention of Palfrey or her escort service. Police said Britton was working alone when arrested in January 2006, and they have not connected her case to Palfrey.
After Britton?s death, Howard police turned over more than 186 pages of their investigative file into Britton?s alleged criminal activities to The Examiner, including client lists dating from Nov. 16, 2005, to Jan. 8, 2006.
Although Britton said her clients included “police, lawyers and judges,” her notes don?t appear to include the names of prominent people.
They do contain many partial names and code names, including notes for appointments with men identified only as “Robert,” “Bernard” and “David.” Next to their names, she sometimes wrote the callers? purported occupations, such as “Dr.” or “Accountant.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
