DC Madam as Feminist Entrepreneur

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.