D.C. Madam Found Dead in Florida

Police in Tarpon Springs, Fla., are investigating the apparent suicide of convicted D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey, according to news reports. (Click here for The Associated Press report and here for the ABC's report)

Her body was found in a shed near her mother’s home this morning. Police say there was a suicide note but would not disclose its contents.

A federal jury convicted Palfrey earlier this month of racketeering, money laundering, and using the mail for illegal purposes in connection with an escort service she ran for 13 years in the D.C. metro area. Click here for our story leading up to her trial.

“This is tragic news and my heart goes out to her mother," said Palfrey's lawyer, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's Preston Burton. "It was a sad case all the way around."

Montgomery Blair Sibley, Palfrey's civil attorney, said in an e-mailed statement: "I am personally devastated and regret the loss of a good woman's life."

Several Washington officials were linked to her service, including Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and former State Department official Randall Tobias, who resigned last spring when his phone number appeared in Palfrey's records.

Palfrey's sentencing before U.S. District Judge James Robertson was scheduled for July 24. She faced up to 50 years in prison, though the advisory guidelines called for a substantially lesser sentence.

Palfrey was sentenced to 18 months in jail in 1992 for a felony pandering conviction in California. In her sentencing memorandum, Palfrey said that she did not think she could "bear a repeat performance."

Comments

[W.R. Chambers]

Another consequence of combining the judgment of the Bush crowd with the power of the DOJ.

[Mark]

She had far too much information on way too many powerful people. Of course Republican voters will think she actually committed 'suicide'.

[Marilyn]

Who commits suicide in a shed? The Nazis said, "We have ways of making you talk." The DOJ says, "We have ways of making you silent."

[Linda Sohl]

Like so many before her, she was murdered, and it was made to look like a suicide