The news yesterday that Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called 'DC madam,' hanged herself in a shed on her mother's property, was sad and rattling.

I did not cover her trial in DC, did not sit in on any of it or follow it particularly closely. But somehow her suicide feels closer to me than it rationally, objectively is. That may be partly because I did write about her famous client list a few times, earlier. My main interest was what effect, if any, the attacks of September 11, 2001, had on her business patterns. Answer: if anything, the burgeoning defense ...   more »