The woman dubbed the DC Madam killed herself yesterday, police said, just weeks after she was convicted of running a prostitution ring that catered to highly placed US government officials.
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 52, became a tabloid celebrity in the US after her escort ring led to criminal charges and she threatened to reveal the names of the men who patronised her "erotic fantasy" service.
Police yesterday said Palfrey hanged herself at her mother's home in the town of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Her mother, 76, discovered the body in a shed on the property and remained "very distraught", a police spokesman said. Police said there were a number of suicide notes, but did not disclose the contents.
"Handwritten notes were found on scene that describes the victim's intention to take her life, and foul play does not appear to be involved," said Captain Jeffrey Young in a statement.
A jury in Washington convicted Palfrey of money laundering and racketeering last month. Palfrey's lawyer, who represented Monica Lewinsky during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, argued that she marketed legal fantasies and was unaware that her employees sold sex. She was due for sentencing in July and faced a sentence of around five years.
Palfrey caused a storm in Washington when she claimed to have a client list of more than 10,000, including political officials, chief executive officers and other members of the Washington elite.
At one point, she sought to sell her list of telephone numbers to help pay for her looming legal costs. But a judge blocked her from doing so, and ultimately few big fish were caught in the net. Randall Tobias, an ally of George Bush and senior official in the state department, resigned immediately after he surfaced as a Palfrey client. Another, the conservative Republican senator David Vitter, held on to his career after apologising for the "serious sin" of associating with her.
The salacious chapter of US political history that Palfrey's case opened is likely to close after her death.
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