Deborah Jeane Palfrey, convicted of running an escort service, has killed herself.

I spoke to her on a couple of occasions, and I liked her. I wrote a few posts -- not nearly enough -- to aid her cause. I did not communicate with her after she lost her case -- although I should have.

She always wondered why her service was targeted even though so many other sex workers in the DC area operate with impunity. Deride me if you will, but I have just enough of the conspiracy theorist left in me to wonder aloud if her suicide was genuine. She always implied (and not just to me) that she was holding certain names in reserve, and that she would reveal those names before serving one day in prison. Skeptics thought that she was bluffing.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found hanging in a shed attached to her mother's home.

Blanche Palfrey had no sign that her daughter was suicidal, and there was no immediate indication that alcohol or drugs were involved, police Capt. Jeffrey Young said.

Although my dialogues with her were limited, she did not strike me as the kind of frosty personality who could make such a decision with no outward sign of inner turmoil. The vast majority of women who commit suicide choose to ingest poison.

Update: Dan Moldea has reported that Palfrey told him that she planned on suicide instead of prison. She certainly gave no such indication to me. An old acquaintance of mine knew Moldea somewhat; this person told me what he advertised as the real story behind Moldea's egregious RFK book. I cannot repeat the tale here since I know it only at third-hand and cannot prove it. Suffice it to say, Moldea's pronouncement makes me lean toward the idea of murder.