Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Do you recognize the woman on the left in this recent news photograph? That's Deborah Jeane Palfrey, recently convicted   of running a Washington call-girl ring. You may have heard her referred to by her media nickname, the D.C. Madam.

The woman on the right in the picture is Deborah's mom. She was in the news last week  too when she found her daughter's body swinging from a nylon rope in her Florida home. It is unusual that suicide notes are released to the public, but she left three.

The first was for whoever found her body:

The second (on the other side of the above Do Not Revive note) was to her mother:

And the third was to her sister Bobbie (Click on each to enlarge):

If you've got  both the time and the interest, do yourself a Google search on "Palfrey murder" and see how the blogosphere has exploded with theories as to why, despite the medical examiner's certainly, this was not a suicide but a murder. Some even suggest the notes are forged, citing "evidence" like this:

Why would her note say, "I cannot live the next 6-8 years behind bars for what both 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."  They point out that most legal analysts expected her prison sentence, scheduled to be handed down July 24, to be more in the two-to-three year range and that she also stood to make millions to write a book in which she named the names of her famous D.C. clients.

Unrelated Editor's Note: One of you will post the 3,000th reader comment on this blog today since going live seven months ago. Thanks to you and everyone else who chooses to make this daily visit interactive.

 

Comments

[kimmy]

Guess I'm not #3000, huh? But I LOVE that theory. Yes, indeed. Murder makes MUCH more sense. Which of the powerful Johns took it upon themselves to make that happen? I think it had to be someone with powerful enough connections to transfer money from her accounts to her mother's. But how hard could that be? FBI? CIA? SEC? FDIC?

[Geo]

Oh the stories she could have told!

Unrelated blog note: Did I win did I win!!!!

[Edmund F]

It's fitting that I am the 3000 post, cause I'm me. Yeah it was probably a Senator client of hers that off'd her. I'm thinking it's a Kennedy. Couldn't be a Republican cause she didn't deal in underage males.

[brother john]

There are no doubt many potential suspects in her little (or not so little) black book, who would have the motive and means to coerce her to write those notes and hang herself. The U.S. government is not among them. If the FBI,CIA,etc. wanted her dead they could have arranged it before they made her famous and avoided all the inane speculation.
I think conspiricy theorists feel a need to believe in whacko scenarios because they don't want to accept that personal responsibility accounts for the poor outcomes many people reap.

[Raul]

The writing on the letters is very unique. If someone forged the letters they have to be really good. I'm sure they will have a writing expert examine the letters compared to other letters she wrote. They can determine how hard she presses, which way she crosses her T's so on so forth. If there isn't a match, they will know.

BTW...I still think Chris Benoit's case was a Murder

[Chris G.]

The world is overrun with conspiracy theories. Perhaps the D.C. Madam had the goods on J.F.K. and they both had to go?! Nah, I guess the timelines don't work.

I wonder how big the "surprise" was in the BofA account?

Winner?!?!

[j.thorn]

opednews.com/articles/opedne_gustav_w_080506_abc_news_shielding_c.htm
she crossed the boss.

[Ana]

Hey Bean, she's today's Marilyn Monroe.

[bruin]

My theory, she was auditioning for INXS.

[Diane]

When I heard the newsbite on this, my first reaction was that it had to be a murder. The Mayflower Madam and other big time madams did ok for themselves after serving time . . .

[LS]

Maybe it was your comment about the 3,000th post that prompted me to respond.
Who knows why people kill themselves. I have attended 2 funerals for suicide deaths.
One was for a 22 year old woman---former cheerleader and prom queen, who, after maimed in a motorcycle accident wasn't the same person.
Another was for a 43 year old man-- brilliant professor--quite accomplished, married and very likable.
Did both of these individuals have a lot going for them? Yes. Did they suffer from depression? Obviously. For whatever reason, the DC Madam couldn't handle the stress of her situation. Does any one remember Vince Foster? He killed himself when Clinton was in office. Was that an inside job? Or another person who couldn't handle the mess they were in? Only they know the answer and they're dead. Some questions will never be answered.

[Liz]

3000 comments?! WOW you're sooo popular Bean!!!!

[Sketchbook by chris]

Murder was the first thing I thought of when I heard about the suicide. She has way too much information about way too many people and what she was killed for was probably not in any of the records she kept. It was something or someone she knew that wasn't going to help her and they were afraid that she would turn on them. Our govt can't find or kill anyone outside the USA but if you are within the borders, they can kill with precision.

[Steven]

Maybe it wasn't the government that faked her suicide.

Maybe it was Scientologists. WhoooOOooOOOoo.

[db]

Did I win? am I caller 3,000? About the suicide/murder- I first thought was that she got snuffed but someone on her client list but since she has that crazy look about her but I didn't know her in any way...nope never called her at all nope...not on the list nope

[karlee]

yay wow murder suicide cover up. excellent. now i must go waste work time to look further into this fantastic bloggy.
people who commit suicide are quitters. nothing can ever be that bad. unless you are the person who set that poor doggy on fire! then you should kill yourself. may i suggest setting yourself on fire. better yet why doesn't someone set him on fire and make it look like a suicide. i got plans to make. later

[Conspiracy Theorist]

blah, blah, blah... who cares?

[Gail]

Three suicide notes??!
And after tellilng her mother how much she loves her she decides to hang herself in Mom's garage. She could have gone to the Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland) and jumped off her hotel balcnoy as a recent guest did. I guess it may have been the only way to get that "It's a Small World" song out of his head.

[cathy g]

is there a prize for being 3000th???

[Casey]

Maybe prostitution should be legalized and controlled, then no one would have to die because politicians can't behave themselves sexually. They can kill people for other reasons.

[Glen Quagmire]

Yea - the prize is a slap on your fat ass!

OOOHHH Yea!! Giggety, giggety!!

[Rose]

There seems to be a human tendency to have deaths "mean" something. If we can't look at a given case and immediately see why it happened, we want to construct a narrative. The narratives fit neatly with whatever notions we already have of the deceased. Screw Occam's Razor; we want story.

And so we collectively come up with conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, each telling us at least as much about the teller as the subject, because we have to fill in the blanks.

But we don't want to hear that the deceased was in the grips of a mood disorder with a logic of its own. We want to hear that there were more exotic forces involved. We want to hear that there was a "reason" beyond what we can tell: That a situation triggered an illness, and that that illness was either well-hidden or overlooked or brushed off by the people around her.

Uh, not that I've spent a lot of time thinking about this or anything.

[LiLa]

Did I win? May I have my choice of prizes? Perhaps dinner with Bean at Denny's?

[Glen Quagmire]

Rose -

What in the Hell are you talking about? Sounds like you have spend way too much time on your Shrink's couch.

All I heard was wah, wah, wah, wah.

[Phil]

Bean, Congrats on being able to stick with something so involved for no apparent motive other than to enlighten the scores of us who read your blog-
May the next 3,000 comments be as alternately dull and interesting as the first 3,000 have been!

[Vic Rattler]

Fight all you want over comment #3,000 on Blog #2, I own #1 on #1.

As a great man... baby once said;
VICTORY IS MINE!

[alisa]

call me morbid but, i would sure like to see a book of suicide notes. congrats on the 3k bean. you're one interesting guy.

[Michael]

Your blog is a very enjoyable way to pass time that otherwise would've been spent trying to earn a paycheck.