DC Madam as Feminist Entrepreneur

Memoir reveals small-town go-getter with a 'touch of class'
By Paul Stinson,  Newser User
Posted May 6, 2008 9:49 AM CDT
DC Madam as Feminist Entrepreneur
Deborah Jeane Palfrey, left, accompanied by her lawyer Montgomery Blair Sibley, right, arrives at the U.S. District Court House in Washington, Friday, September 7, 2007.    (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Most know her as the feisty DC Madam who riled up the media by releasing her clients' phone records, but a half-finished memoir obtained by Newsweek reveals Deborah Jeane Palfrey's personal side. A small-town girl turned "fuddy-duddy white lady," she overcame a stifling childhood to turn feminist entrepreneur.    

Her "little literary undertaking," as she called it, portrays a law school dropout, unlucky in love and stuck in waitressing. Turned off by the “druggies and fools” who ran San Diego escort services, Palfrey opened her own to add a “touch of class” to her "little cottage industry"—and laid the groundwork for a business that eventually led to her downfall. (More K Street stories.)

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