NPR: High School Friend Calls 'D.C. Madam' Shy, Serious

High School Friend Calls 'D.C. Madam' Shy, Serious

Filed under: News

Debbie Hudspith Blozik recalls her friend Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

"D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey, outside the courthouse after her trial hearings in September, was once a majorette and a member of the Future Nurses Club.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

When the news broke Thursday that "D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey had been found dead in mother's Florida home, an apparent suicide, Debbie Hudspith Blozik was home in Alabama sorting through papers. Blozik looked up to see that her high school friend was gone.

Blozik and Palfrey grew up together. They attended Charleroi Area High School in Pennsylvania's Mon Valley. "I wouldn't say that we were at the top of the class," she remembers, "but our grades were important to us."

Blozik describes her friend as caring and loyal. Palfrey was convicted last month on federal racketeering charges stemming from what prosecutors described as a high-end prostitution ring. Palfrey told her friend she didn't know the women who worked for her were trading sex for money. Blozik expected her to appeal. "She felt like she didn't do anything wrong," Blozik says. "She truly believed that. I felt that she would be one that would want to prove that, and I felt that this was where this was headed."

Laura Conaway

5:27 PM ET | 05- 2-2008 | permalink

Send a Comment

Comments are reviewed and edited by NPR prior to display. All comments will be read, but not all will be posted.

NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its Web site or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:	» List of local stations (PDF)
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
May we contact you with information about NPR programming and services? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)

Host

Alison Stewart

Welcome to 'The Bryant Park Project'

This new radio show from NPR comes to you weekdays, straight out of New York City. You can find audio and video from us here and in our podcasts. Bryant Park is not a talk show, but it is a conversation. Intrigued? Read our frequently asked questions and discussion rules.