In Newsletters, 'D.C. Madam' Gave Advice, Scorn

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May 01, 2007 9:31 AM

Even call girls get performance reviews, at least the ones who worked for Jeane Palfrey's Washington, D.C., escort service.

"Without being overtly vulgar, a pair of tits and an ass, without accompanying brains, sophistication, LOOKS and carriage, just won't cut it in this business or at least, not with this particular agency!!"  wrote Palfrey in a monthly newsletter sent to the women who worked for her. 

Calling herself "Miz Julia"  or "the management,"  she regularly offered criticism, beauty advice and warnings about undercover police during the 13 years her business, Pamela Martin and Associates, was in operation.

D.C. Madam Affair Unfolds in Pictures.

In a January 1994 newsletter, she wrote, "Congress is back in session. This always helps to boost business."

In another edition, she complained, "That damn Monday night football...ruines [sic] business every single Monday night!"

Not all were racy. In several dozen issues reviewed by ABC News, much of the content would almost be recognizable to anyone who's pulled shifts in cubicle land: exhortations to improve organization and efficiency; handy tips for improving employee performance; updates on company policies.

"Nail color is to match the lipstick color. The lipstick color is to compliment a person's natural coloring," she advises, along with passing on details of a "fat cream for the thighs" and retin-A so "a gal of 40 can shave off 4-6 years realistically. Mgt. encourages such."

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Palfrey was a stickler for punctuality.

"Organization and efficiency need to be, No, must be the bedrock from which the on-call escort service operates," reads one passage from 1993. In that particular article, Palfrey encouraged her employees ("girls," as she called them) to invest in cellular phones.

"Searching for pay phones in strange places and driving in circles when lost are extraordinarily exasperating and frustrating experiences, which need not be," Palfrey counseled.

Palfrey used her newsletters to instruct women in her employ to destroy all records or notes connected to the business, complaining about one of her girls arrested in a police sting in Alexandria, Va., "The bimbo kept records."  "Destroy the data immeidately [sic]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she wrote, while repeatedly demanding the women save all newsletters and adhere to the policies and procedures they dictated.

Prosecutors obtained a number of the communiqués and used them to build their case against Palfrey.  In one court filing, prosecutors used passages like "INTENSE SCRUTINY OF ANY DWELLING SPACE (HOME, OFFICE, HOTEL), VISITED BY PAMELA MARTIN, IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY ON-CALL!" to bolster their argument she was running a prostitution ring.

Palfrey maintains she ran a sexual fantasy business that was legal and that if any of the women who were working for her had sex, they did so in violation of her rules and without her knowledge.

In one newsletter,  she explains "adult service or fantasy escorts" command $200 an hour "because of the risky and sexual nature of these appointments. Obviously, the more liberal the booking or act, the more $ one makes." 

But she warned the girls they are "damned fools" if they think they can go on calls, "collect the $200 and 'just talk.'" "We do not sell social appointments, but adult fantasy ones here at Pamela Martin.  Anyone who believes otherwise, will find themselves unemployed."

In a clucking, sometimes sharply remonstrative third-person voice, Palfrey also issued directives on how to be a better escort.  Don't smoke before an "appointment" because "clients" complain. It's permissible to leave an appointment early if your "routine" ends before the allotted time, but try to stay for at least half of a 90-minute appointment. You can stay the entire time, if you like, but "there should be no feeling of obligation on your part to do so!" Palfrey counseled.

Employees' unfamiliarity with the Washington, D.C., area was a source of serious exasperation for Palfrey, the newsletters show. "The Agency recently hired a gal, who doesn't seem to have a clue in hell, as to how to navigate the roadways and streets of the metropolitan D.C. area," read one entry from 1994.

Partially blaming the girl's "poor sense of direction," Palfrey used the opportunity to chastise any of her women who had trouble answering the following questions:

"The streets of Washington, D.C. run 3 ways, i.e., east-west, north-south and diagonally. Which streets are designated alphabetically(?); numerically(?); have state names?" (In Washington, lettered streets run east to west; numbered streets run north to south; and streets named after states typically run diagonally.)

"North, South, East Capitol Streets and the Mall divide Washington, D.C. into 4 sections. (True or False.)" (True.)

"Of the streets designated by a letter, all letters are used except 3.  What 3 letters of the alphabet are not utilized, here?" (Trick question: Four letters never got their own streets. While Palfrey may have been recalling there are no X, Y or Z Streets in Washington, there is also no J.)

When Palfrey was in more charitable moods, she gave affirmative advice and tips. In another issue from 1994, she told her employees how to clean up their credit reports by asking credit agencies to remove negative information from their record.  In yet another, she tipped her girls off to the advantages of being a model at a hairstyle show ("free colorings and cuts").

In one issue, Palfrey even gave a product endorsement. "Victoria's Secret," she wrote, "is the only place a Pamela Martin girl shops."