Deborah Jeane Palfrey, convicted last month of running a high-end prostitution service in Washington, hanged herself in a shed outside her mother's mobile home in Florida today, officials said.Right, fool me twice.
One of the escort service employees was former University of Maryland, Baltimore County, professor Brandy Britton, who was arrested on prostitution charges in 2006. She committed suicide in January before she was scheduled to go to trial.Or per this account:
This multi-talented woman, who was popular with friends and johns alike, was found hanged in her home on Saturday. Police do not suspect foul play in the incident...
I wonder what's going to become of that list they were talking about making public? It's not like any powerful, famous people with serious connections were on it...
Quite simply, I don't believe any government official saying these were both suicides. I may be wrong, I may have no evidence other than circumstantial coincidence, and it could in fact be exactly that, two sad, broken women unwilling to endure a looming ordeal, but I don't believe it.
The tragedy about that is I don't believe it because I have witnessed too many government lies. If I hadn't, I'd be less inclined to give conspiracy theories credence. But I have. We all have. To where I don't know who in power to believe any more. Boy who cried wolf and all. No corrupt, depraved or foul act committed under color of authority surprises me any longer.
I don't believe my government. How pathetic is that?
That's a hell of a thing to swallow for someone whose prime motivation for involving myself in the public opinion forum is that I love my country. If it didn't anger me so, and strengthen my resolve to help fix things, it would break my heart.
Meanwhile, nothing to see here, move on...
[Via Zachary G]
18 comments:
First thing I said, "Murder".
Shades of Vince Foster.
Fight islam Now
Who reading here HASN'T remarked at some time, "I'll die before I'll let them put me in prison"?
Ironic that politicians who've used her services care more about their law-and-order reputations than a human life. Pathetic that people still believe those politicians are who they represent themselves to be: real Middle Americans who care about YOU.
"Too convenient" was my first tho't. Her list will never see the light of day.
46 POUNDS of phone records, 15,000 names.
Hillary's good at hiding files...
Local paper put "hangs herself in her mother's shed" in the HEADLINE. Usually, it would say something like "found dead at parent's home." Trying REALLY HARD to make sure we all understand it was NOT foul play, no sir. Those politicians buy campaign ads.
"If taken into custody, my physical safety and most probably my very life would be jeopardized," she wrote in August 1991 following an attempt to bring her to trial, "Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me," said Palfrey in a handwritten letter to the judge accusing the San Diego police vice squad of having a vendetta against her.
prisonplanet.com
I wonder how often the providers of sexual services "kill themselves" if their clients are NOT powerful people?
I thought at first that it was uicide, but now that you bring up these others, I wouldn't be surprised if the well-connected DID have them murdered.
I haven't believed my government for quite some time, now. And you're right, David. It is pathetic that we can't trust them anymore.
She did release her cell phone records about a year ago. I downloaded all of them when she originally released them because I realized how significant they were after hearing her on several radio interviews. One big issue in the case was the government's use of civil asset forfeiture to take all of her assets ahead of her criminal trial so that she could not afford to mount a proper defense. So much for "fair play."
Here is neat site that allows you to look up the phone records by area code and telephone number. It shows you the actual scanned image of the phone records for the telephone number in question.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/DCmadam_db/
Someone from my city has had made contact with her in the past, and that person(s) called from a work number at a very prominent corporation that is based in my home town.
Kent McManigal said: "I wonder how often the providers of sexual services "kill themselves" if their clients are NOT powerful people?"
That pretty much sums it up.
My very first thought was "clean-up crew". Come to think of it, it is the only thought I have had about it.
Like you, I do not believe my government anymore. Not because I am a conspiracy theorist, but because I am rational.
There are easier ways to discredit and dismiss any statements she would have made or evidence she had than killing her. However, if you wanted to plant a phony list to frame someone who had never used her services she would have to go. Something to keep in mind if a list suddenly appears, especially if the person exposed is dead also.
Well we can be assured that Teddy (The Pontiac) Kennedy was not the person who killed them, they were hanged instead of drowned in a classic old Pontiac
My first comment was "Sure she did." and seeing that there were others makes it even harder to believe. I have my doubts about names on the list being revealed, unless of course they are Republicans.
Gmac
A couple of questions.
Exactly which "government"? The one that investigated, prosecuted, and publicised the cases and made the names available?
The local police departments and medical examiners in the women's home towns?
So powerful, and yet unable to make one a "suicide" and one an "accident".
And it seems to me that if one intends to kill witnesses to silence them, it makes little sense to wait until they have had two years to reveal what they know, multiple opportunities to testify, and are awaiting sentencing.
If I were able to provoke murder with my knowledge, I damned well would use it to get out of the charges. I certainly wouldn't leave it alone when I was on trial.
And finally, if I believed I was going to prison I'd kill myself too.
Looks like two sad suicides to me.
stags, could be right. However, lists of clientele could have been used as leverage by both sides.
The prosecution could promise leniency if the defendants refuse to divulge. The defendants could promise not to divulge for receiving only a slap on the wrist.
When the deal went south and both were hammered hard, the threat of divulging the lists unless their sentences were reduced and some of their fortune returned as per the original agreement could have been the death warrant.
This seems as likely as anything. And since I don't believe my government anymore, I must consider it.
Just a minor quibble: what the post describes is a coincidence, not circumstantial evidence. That several hookers and pimps died before trial is a coincidence, that is, "the appearance of a meaningful connection when there is none."
Circumstantial evidence is "a collection of facts that, when considered together, can be used to infer a conclusion about something unknown. Circumstantial evidence is usually a theory, supported by a significant quantity of corroborating evidence. Corroboration is normally supplied by one or more expert witnesses who provide forensic evidence."
Circumstantial evidence would be the fingerprints of a government operative found at the scene of one or more of the supposed suicides, or some other "CSI" type evidence.
This difference is what makes conspiracy theories so easy to believe, and so hard to disprove. An absence of evidence is not evidence of absenc. And reoccurring events can have the same or different reasons for their occurrences, but those reasons may have everything or nothing to do with the theory proposed.
I like reading Stanislaw Lem for this very reason. As a Czech writer under communist government, he wrote politically safe science fiction and mysteries, but subversivly included criticisms of the government in his stories. For example, he once used a plethora of objective facts as a means of pointing out that the important facts often get overlooked. Namely, that while the communists could claim that many facts supported the superiority of their totalitarian rule versus democratic government, the one fact which trumped all those were that the government was totalitarian.
The one fact which trumps your conspiracy theory is that the pimp's phone list is already public.
"As a Czech writer under communist government..."
Stanislaw Lem was Polish, not Czech.
The discussion about coincidence vs. circumstantial evidence is important. It is rational and logical. That said, doubt can be cast in both directions, and sometimes people do things that, to a rational mind, seemingly defy logic and rationality. However, to a mind bent on vengeance, they are quite logical and rational. e.g.; You out me. I kill you.
The sheer number of names and numbers released by the DC Madam actually provides cover for a killer because it presents so many people with a motive to kill her that it would be almost impossible to sort out who the killer might be, if, in fact, she was murdered. Additionally, there could be tremendous political pressure to NOT investigate the case because the well-connected persons implicated in her alleged prostitution ring do not want any additional exposure, especially since their outing by the DC Madame might be construed as evidence that presents a motive for murder.
once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.-Ian Fleming
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