DC Madam found dead

It has been confirmed by the Tarpon Springs Police in Florida that Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the woman known as the "DC Madam," has committed suicide.

Palfrey had apparently warned that she would be "suicided" — murdered but made to look like a suicide — both as far back as 1991 and more recently. Prison Planet's Paul Joseph Watson reports that the DC Madam feared for her life:

"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.

During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder. Palfrey had threatened to release the names of well-known clients of her upscale call girl ring in the nation's capitol, and had indicated that Dick Cheney may be one of them.

"No I'm not planning to commit suicide," Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance, "I'm planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government," she said.

Palfrey was found guilty on April 15 by a D.C. jury on charges of racketeering and money laundering related to her operating a prostitution ring. Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and former deputy secretary of state Randall L. Tobias both were tied by investigators to Palfrey's high-end prostitution ring. She had repeatedly denied the escort service engaged in prostitution, saying that if any of the women engaged in sex acts for money, they did so without her knowledge.

Palfrey faced a maximum of 55 years in prison and was free pending her sentencing July 24.

Palfrey had been staying with her mother, who found her this morning hanging from a nylon rope that she wrapped around a metal beam in a shed on the property. Suicide notes were found inside the mobile home, but their contents were not disclosed.