Vicki Morgan was the kind of woman people fell in love with instantly. Her lovers were numerous and legendary. Her naughty exploits could make a sailor blush. She captured the heart of a powerful businessman and had the American government itself take notice. Vicki Morgan lived loud and large her whole life…until it was too late. Discover the sordid history of America's beautiful bad girl.
1. She Never Knew Her Father
Victoria Lynn Morgan was born on August 9, 1952, in Colorado Springs to Constance and her Air Force husband Delbert—but this was no happy family. Delbert Morgan ran away with another woman before Vicki even turned one. He left Vicki without any positive male role model growing up—a vacuum that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
2. She Tragically Lost Her Stepfather
Things seemed to turn around for Vicki when Constance married Ralph Laney, a good-hearted factory man, in 1956. The family moved to the LA suburb of Montclair, California, giving Vicki some much-needed family structure. But in 1961, tragedy struck; Ralph suffered a massive heart attack and didn't survive. Vicki could only pick up the pieces of her former life and do her best to carry on, though her world was going to get worse before it got better.
Vanity Fair Confidential, Investigation Discovery
3. They Lived In Poverty
Without a husband to help pay the bills, Constance had to pick up the slack. She took a job as a cafeteria worker in the local high school. The pay was mediocre at best, and funds were always meager in a five-person, single-parent household, but the family managed to survive. Still, Vicki spent much of her childhood days wanting more—more money, more attention, more love. And she would do whatever it took to get it.
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4. She Was Pregnant At 16
By the time she became a teenager, Vicki no longer lacked attention, especially from the opposite gender. She may not have been the strongest student in her grade, but at 5”10, with blond hair and dark catlike eyes, she certainly stole the spotlight. But all that male attention came at a steep cost: At 16, Vicki discovered that she was pregnant.
5. She Hid With Sisters
All at once, it seemed like Vicki had lost her chance at a bright future. The family sent her to a Catholic home for girls to carry out the rest of her pregnancy and to hide the scandal from their small town. She brought her new baby, a son named Todd, back to her mother’s house, when the realization dawned on her—she wanted more out of life than this. But there was one problem: She didn’t know how to escape.
6. She Waited For Her Opportunity
Vicki wanted to be an actress—she wanted fame, fortune, affection, even adulation. She figured that the best place to start would be the bright lights of Hollywood. She started working as an usher for Grauman’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, hoping that someone might see her star potential. Little did she know, that someone was just around the corner…
7. She Caught The Eye Of A Wealthy Man
His name was Earle Lamb, and he was a well-to-do clothing manufacturer. At 47 years old with a toupee and a rotund belly, his thick wallet represented most of his appeal. He saw Vicki as the flat-chested underage object of his twisted fantasies. She saw him as her ticket out of the drudgery of her life. When he invited her over to his swanky LA penthouse for an affair, she had no idea what she was getting into. She agreed.
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8. He Asked For Her Hand
Lamb showed Vicki the ritzy, star-studded version of LA that she could barely fathom from the heights of his West Hollywood penthouse. He wined her and dined her and gave her all the attention that the 16-year-old had lacked all her life. And when Lamb proposed only a few weeks after their first meeting, Vicki didn’t hesitate—she said yes. They flew off to Las Vegas and married that day.
It was only after that Vicki would discover his dark secret.
9. He Involved Her In His Swinging
Lamb didn’t want to keep their intimacies limited to the privacy of their bedroom—he was an active member of LA’s swinging scene and expected Vicki to participate with him. Excited by her underaged looks, Lamb dressed Vicki up as a “naughty schoolgirl” and took her to join all the craziest soirees in the city’s underbelly—whether she wanted to be there or not.
10. The Marriage Turned Sour
Lamb was sweet and caring when Vicki participated in his adventurous play, showering her with all the affection and attention she could want. But he turned mean and violent if she ever said no. Vicki felt trapped. She lashed out by going to the seedy nightclubs and parties on her own. When Lamb caught her there, leaving with another man, he took her outside and punched her senseless.
Vicki wanted nothing more than to escape. Soon, the opportunity presented itself.
Vanity Fair Confidential, Investigation Discovery
11. She Encountered The Bloomindale Heir
She ran into him while walking outside of the Old World Restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. His name was Alfred Bloomingdale, heir to the Bloomingdale fortune, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. “You look like a tennis player,” he said out of the blue, “I have a daughter about your age, and she's looking for a tennis partner". She gave him her number, not knowing that this encounter would forever change her life.
12. He Left Her With A Gift
After a few minutes of small talk, Bloomingdale gave Vicki a present that left a major impression—a check made out in her name for $8,000. Just an impromptu gift, claimed Bloomingdale, a pick-me-up for a pretty girl whose smile lightened up a boring day. Lamb was more suspicious, however, seeing the check as leverage to secure her “favors” for the future. Either way, the gift left Vicki intrigued.
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13. He Wouldn't Take "No" For An Answer
Vicki soon heard back from Bloomingdale—he called her phone, day after day, almost 20 times a day, insisting that they have lunch together at the same restaurant where they met. No matter how many times Vicki refused, Bloomingdale wouldn’t hear it. And after three weeks, his campaign proved successful—that lunch began a love affair that shaped the course of both their lives.
14. He Introduced Her To His Naughty Side
Bloomingdale’s love came at the cost of his kinks. On their second lunch date, he brought along a working girl named Samantha to show Vicki exactly what he wanted—an S&M session for his eyes only. Vicki, after her marriage to Lamb, remained unfazed. He drove the two girls to meet Mistress Kay, a domme, at his place on Sunset Plaza. When everything was said and done, Bloomingdale was hooked.
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15. He Paid For Her Divorce
Bloomingdale became obsessed with his new lover, asking to see her three times a week at his place for his salacious sessions…but even that wasn’t enough. Bloomingdale wanted Vicki all to himself. He called Earle Lamb and offered to pay him to divorce his wife. Lamb needed little convincing. He approached his lawyer to file an alienation of affection suit. Vicki was Bloomingdale’s problem now.
16. He Tried To Work Out His Kinks For Her
Now that she was his full-time mistress, Vicki started calling the shots of their S&M adventures. When she told Bloomingdale that she found Mistress Kay unattractive, he found a parade of new dominatrices more to her liking. She hired 15 sex workers for his 54th birthday in 1970. But when she admitted that the full-time S&M lifestyle wasn’t for her, he started attending therapy for his “Marquis de Sade syndrome".
She had Bloomingdale wrapped around her finger.
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17. She Started Living Lavishly
Bloomingdale set up his new mistress in style. From providing her a high-end apartment (later upgraded to a small-scale mansion), to coughing up a monthly allowance of $5,000 to $10,000, he treated Vicki like a queen. And she started living like one on her own. She ate at the ritziest restaurants, shopped for designer labels, and lived large just like the wealthiest socialites.
But living like a socialite brought her straight to her nemesis: Betsy Bloomingdale, Alfred’s wife.
18. They Were Caught In the Act
In 1973, the unthinkable happened—Betsy caught her husband in the arms of his mistress while she was out on the town. Her rage was understandable. Betsy threatened Bloomingdale with divorce unless he dropped his mistress, and he conceded. She kept a fixed eye on his spending and where he was each night, leaving him no room to philander. Suddenly, Vicki’s life of splendor came crashing down around her.
19. She Didn't Let It Stop Her
Vicki refused to go down without a fight. She filed a lawsuit against the Bloomingdales, arguing that the sudden stop to her monthly allowance constituted a breach of verbal contract since Alfred promised her support. After drumming up some publicity and fueling Betsy’s ire, the case quickly ended up down the drain. For the first time since she was 16, Vicki had to fend for herself.
20. She Started Using
Vicki’s new circumstances brought their own consequences. To cope with the highs and lows of her new life, Vicki started using whatever she could get her hands on—mainly Valium, quaaludes, and coke. All the fancy connections she made as Bloomingdale’s mistress happily supplied her with whatever substance she desired. Friends and family worried as her drug usage increased.
She was a ticking timebomb—it was only a matter of time before disaster struck.
21. She Explored Other Options
Without Bloomingdale footing her rent, Vicki moved to a much smaller apartment that she shared with a string of gay roommates to split the costs. Meanwhile, she branched out—she spent some time in 1974 at Grayhall, Bernie Cornfeld’s pleasure-filled palace in Beverly Hills, the alternative to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion. She also purchased a set of bosom implants that she thought would help her land modeling gigs. Whatever life would bring her next, she’d be ready for it.
22. She Had A Brief Marriage
Surprisingly, life brought her a husband next, a thoroughly age-appropriate actor named John David Carson. The two married in 1975 in Las Vegas out of the blue with only his mom as the witness, settling back in LA as newlyweds. But Carson soon learned the truth about Vicki Morgan—she wouldn’t let something as simple as “marriage” tie her down to one person.
23. She Was The King’s Lover
In 1976, Vicki traveled to Morocco for a shady modeling gig. She soon discovered the ruse for what it was—a ploy to get her into the bed of King Hassan II, ruler of Morocco. She agreed to the secret affair, visiting Morocco twice that year to "entertain" the monarch himself. Vicki Morgan left the Middle East with many gifts from the royal family…but returned to a husband who couldn’t live with her infidelity.
Their marriage ended as quickly as it had begun.
24. Bloomingdale Came Back
Vicki wasn’t alone for long. With the dissolution of her marriage, Bloomingdale came knocking at her door once again. She gave him two rules before allowing him back into her life: no more call girls and no more group play. Bloomingdale happily agreed. Once again, he set her up in a house, this one in Stone Canyon Reservoir, where she lived most of the year with Todd (Remember? She had a son!).
But Vicki wasn’t yet finished with other men.
25. She Took Another Husband
In 1978, Vicki was alone during the Christmas season when she bumped into an old friend and former lover from Grayhall, Robert Shulman, a well-to-do real estate developer. For the third time in her life, she spontaneously darted off to Vegas and married him in a quick ceremony. Shulman was a decent man who deeply cared about his bride…but he couldn’t compete with the other man in her life.
26. Bloomingdale Made Him Go Away
Shulman did his best to create a real future with Vicki—but it seemed impossible with Bloomingdale hovering at the edges of their lives. The final straw came when a desperate Bloomingdale offered to pay the real estate mogul $1 million to take off for good. Even after all these years, he wanted Vicki to himself. Shulman saw the writing on the wall. He gave his bittersweet goodbyes and left.
27. She Seduced A Princess
After the dust of her third marriage settled, Vicki had her most shocking affair yet—with Princess Jawaher bint Saud (called J), daughter of the Saudi Arabian King Faisal. She met J through her Moroccan connections, and the princess found Vicki just as intoxicating as Lamb and Bloomingdale did. Their affair landed them on a luxury cruise to Hawaii…when things started to get out of hand.
28. Her Partying Got The Best Of Her
The yacht trip to Hawaii was an endless party, the likes of which Vicki had never seen before. She'd been around the block, but the carnal pleasures offered were beyond anything she’d ever encountered, and Vicki indulged in it all. Things got so out of hand that the captain terminated the cruise before even reaching Hawaii. By the end, Vicki was high out of her mind and barely keeping it together. She needed to stop before it was too late.
29. She Checked Herself Into A Mental Facility
Luckily, Vicki had the chance to recover from all the intoxicants and indulgences of the last ten years. In 1979, she checked herself into Thalians Mental Health Center in Beverly Hills, where they diagnosed her with addiction and depression. At Thalians, she got the treatment she needed and a community to support her…but some members of that community posed more danger than others.
30. She Befriended A Dangerous Man
He was Marvin Pancoast, a 29-year-old gay man with schizophrenic tendencies and a history of attempts on her own life. Despite his mental instability, he remained a visible part of the Thalians Mental Health Center community and became the best of friends with Vicki. The medical team thought that their friendship benefited them both. Tragically, they were wrong.
31. Her Lover Was Diagnosed With Cancer
Vicki emerged from the facility in a more stable state of mind…only to have the rug pulled out from under her. She learned that Bloomingdale, now a vital financier for the Reagan administration, received the bleakest of diagnoses from his doctor: He had throat cancer, and only a few months to live. Vicki and Bloomingdale cleaved to each other, committing to spend that time together.
32. He Wanted To Support Her
Bloomingdale saw his diagnosis as an opportunity to take up with his mistress once again—he reinstated her allowance at $10,000-$18,000 a month and spent his days with Vicki at his side, both in and out of the hospital. But even more shocking, he dictated two letters in February 1982 that willed half of the profits from one of his business deals to Vicki following his passing…a will that his wife did not care for.
Vanity Fair Confidential, Investigation Discovery
33. His Wife Was Not Amused
By the time that Betsy discovered the renewed monthly payments and letters of intent in June, it was too late—she couldn’t argue with a man on his deathbed. The sting of humiliation hit her with full force. Betsy took swift action—she halted Vicki’s monthly allowance and rescinded the deal in its tracks, leaving the mistress with nothing.
In Vicki’s eyes, this was a declaration of war, and she was quick to retaliate.
34. She Sued For Palimony
Armed with California’s best palimony attorney, Marvin Mitchelson, Vicki slapped the Bloomingdales with a lawsuit for over $11 million in order to secure the money that Alfred promised her. The case, and its 231-page deposition on all the gory details of their affair, became a massive media spectacle and an embarrassment to the Reagan White House. But the fight was far from over.
35. They Tore Apart Her Character
Vicki may have won the battle, but Betsy and her team of lawyers aimed to win the war. They defined Alfred’s letters of will as “contracts for prostitution,” legally null. They smeared Morgan's character, calling her a greedy bimbo eager for the last pennies in Bloomingdale’s pockets. Betsy further fueled the flames by calling her a “little child,” dependent on men to make her decisions.
But there was yet more heartbreak headed Vicki’s way.
36. She Mourned Her Lover
On August 23, 1982, in the middle of the court case, Alfred Bloomingdale lost his fight against cancer, and Vicki could hardly bear the devastation. In a narcotic-fueled rage, she called up the LA Times and ranted about Betsy: “She buried him…like a dog". Vicki felt the walls closing in around her, and she didn’t know what to do. Still, the worst was yet to come.
37. They Dismissed Her Case
Vicki received the news about her lawsuit on September 26—the judge dismissed her case. Calling her “no more than a well-paid mistress,” he described any agreement between her and Bloomingdale as non-binding because of the involvement of prostitution. Betsy walked away with her head held high, not knowing the ramifications of her actions.
38. She Fell Into A Depression
Grieving, broke, and a social pariah, Vicki lost more than the suit that day—she lost a vital part of herself as well. Family and friends barely recognized the post-Bloomingdale version of Vicki, a mere shadow of the charismatic, electric woman who left a string of infatuated men and women in her wake. With nothing left of Bloomingdale but memories, Vicki slid further and further down the spiral of depression…until she could barely see the light.
39. She Struggled To Stay Afloat
Financially, Vicki found herself in hopeless straits. Most of her savings went to cover the costs of her high-powered attorney. She sold her jewelry and her Mercedes from Bloomingdale to keep her head above water and drummed up some interest in her upcoming tell-all book on her various sexcapades. But it wasn’t enough. Desperate, she reached out to an old friend to help her out—a fatal mistake.
40. She Moved In With An Old Friend
When Vicki asked Marvin Pancoast, her friend from the mental health facility, to share the rent of a tiny Studio City condo, he accepted without question. He had only just emerged from another stay at the institute and wanted to get back on his feet. He believed that he could help pull her through this depression—but little did he know, she was about to drag him down with her.
41. They Had A Toxic Relationship
Even though he preferred men, Pancoast was one of the long line of people completely starstruck by Vicki. And Vicki enjoyed the attention that Pancoast gave her. But soon, their relationship turned sour. Vicki, unused to fending for herself, took advantage of Pancoast’s affection for her and ordered him about. Pancoast, riddled with insecurity, couldn’t stand up for himself—even when she pushed too far.
It was a recipe for disaster.
Vanity Fair Confidential, Investigation Discovery
42. They Faced Eviction
Tensions soared when the pair couldn’t pay their rent—landing them an eviction notice on their door. Vicki, still in the depths of her depression, did nothing to help. She put the responsibility of finding a new apartment on Pancoast while rejecting every option that he brought. Pancoast, inching closer and closer to his breaking point, still said nothing—not knowing the cost of his silence.
43. She Blamed Her Roommate
On the day of their eviction, July 7, 1983, Vicki remained as listless as ever. She made Pancoast and her mother do all her packing as she watched from her bed. She made Pancoast pick up after her and attend to all her needs. And when Vicki’s mother went home for the night, she threw a tantrum at Pancoast, yelling and screaming at him for not finding them a new home.
Pancoast, overtired and overcome, couldn’t take it any longer.
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44. He Snapped
Pancoast, in a fugue state, went outside to his car and found a baseball bat left by Vicki’s son Todd. He grabbed the bat and headed back to Vicki’s bedroom at midnight. “I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said after the fact, “I just had to shut her up". When he came back to himself, he found Vicki’s body on the bed, bloodied and still, a blood-soaked bat on the floor. He backed away in horror.
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45. He Confessed To The Offense
At 3:20 am, Pancoast found himself at an LAPD station, barely aware of how he got there. An officer at the front desk asked, “How can I help you?” and Pancoast replied, “I just killed someone". The detectives at the station kept Pancoast there for the rest of the night, listening to his series of damning confessions. Yet what many assumed was an open-and-shut case ended up becoming a sensationalist conspiracy—featuring Vicki Morgan, the queen of sensationalism herself.
Vanity Fair Confidential, Investigation Discovery
46. She Became Part Of A Conspiracy
Robert Steinburg, one of Pancoast’s attorneys, brought forward evidence of a conspiracy—he claimed that a “mysterious woman” dropped off some tapes at his office the day after Vicki’s funeral. These tapes, recorded at some of Vicki’s more scandalous group sessions and kink parties, exposed various high-powered members of Reagan’s administration.
Steinburg claimed that someone framed Pancoast for Vicki’s “hit” because she knew too much.
47. Her Legacy Lead To Doubts
The “Vicki Morgan Tapes” garnered massive media coverage and public speculation—paired with Pancoast’s unbloodied appearance at the station and the lack of fingerprints on the bat, it planted a firm doubt in the jury’s mind whether Pancoast was at fault. But when the prosecution pressed Steinburg to produce these tapes, he claimed that someone had stolen them.
With no proof that the tapes ever existed, Steinburg himself even faced charges of contempt.
48. They Found Him Guilty
Without the key evidence of the “Vicki Morgan Tapes” to prove the conspiracy, the jury assumed Pancoast’s guilt by default. Though he made a plea of insanity, they deemed him capable of understanding the immorality of his actions, and therefore legally sane. The jury sentenced Pancoast to 26 years in prison—which is where he was when he succumbed to AIDS-related illness in 1991.
49. She Won Her Palimony Case Posthumously
Michael Dave, Vicki’s old friend and lawyer, couldn’t let things rest the way they were. He forced a repeal against the judge’s dismissal of her palimony suit and represented Vicki Morgan’s estate. In a shocking twist of events, the jury ruled that Bloomingdale’s letter represented a legal contract, awarding Todd Morgan, Vicki’s only living heir, $200,000.
50. Her Lifelong Friend Wrote Her Memoirs
Dave wasn’t the only one concerned with Vicki’s legacy. Gordon Basichis, Vicki’s former author friend and lover, spent the days before her demise helping her with a tell-all book of memoirs. In 1985, he published that book. Beautiful Bad Girl: The Story of Vicki Morgan became a bestseller. Vicki’s life continues to fascinate and bewitch people—just as she did.
Vanity Fair Confidential, Investigation Discovery
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