From the Washington Post:

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, facing a likely prison term of four to six years for running a Washington area call-girl ring, apparently hanged herself Thursday in a storage shed behind her mother’s mobile home in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Photo of “D.C. Madam” Deborah Palfrey, courtesy of Getty Images

Dubbed “the D.C. Madam” after a grand jury in Washington indicted her 14 months ago on prostitution-related racketeering charges, Palfrey, 52, repeatedly told journalist Dan Moldea last year that she would rather die than live behind bars.

Palfrey had been previously incarcerated for 18 months in California in the early 1990s after being convicted of running a prostitution ring.

Palfrey was convicted April 15 of financial racketeering, money laundering and using the mail for illegal purposes. Allowed to remain free while awaiting her July 24 sentencing, Palfrey went to Tarpon Springs to stay with her 76-year-old mother. Palfrey’s body was found in a shed outside her home in Sun Valley Estates Mobile Home Park.

Upon entering the shed located on the west side of the residence, Blanche Palfrey discovered her daughter, Deborah, apparently hanged herself using a nylon rope from a metal beam on the ceiling of the shed. Police found 2 suicide notes.