Vicki Morgan

Morgan's early life was marked by instability. Her parents divorced soon after her birth, and her mother remarried, but that husband died when Vicki was about nine. They relocated to Montclair, California. At 16, she became pregnant, dropped out of Chaffey High School, and gave birth to a son, Todd. Leaving Todd with her mother, she ran away from home in 1968. She found work as an usher at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles and soon married 47-year-old Earl Lamb.

In August 1969, while still 17, she met 53-year-old financier Alfred Bloomingdale in a restaurant on the Sunset Strip. Bloomingdale, a married multi-millionaire, took her as his mistress. When she turned 18, he offered Lamb a large cash payment to end the marriage and provided an apartment for her. As his mistress, her social circle included politicians, businessmen, and the wealthy playboy Bernie Cornfeld. With his financial support, she lived lavishly. In 1973, Bloomingdale's wife, Betsy, learned of the affair and told him to break it off. He complied, and Morgan spiraled into poverty and depression.

By 1979, she had been through two more marriages and periods of sex work, and had become a drug addict. She entered rehabilitation, where she met Marvin Pancoast, a gay man infatuated with her stories of the high life. They vowed to live together after treatment. Three years later, Bloomingdale was diagnosed with terminal cancer and assured her she would be well cared for. But her financial situation became desperate. She hired palimony attorney Marvin Mitchelson to file an $11 million lawsuit. Pre-trial coverage revealed details of their sexual relationship, causing embarrassment among Bloomingdale's friends in Washington, D.C. When she learned Mitchelson had dined with President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy, friends of Betsy, she lost trust, fired him, and hired Robert Steinberg.

Morgan sold jewelry and her expensive car to support herself. She was reportedly preparing a tell-all book that would name influential clients. Bloomingdale died less than two months after the lawsuit was filed. She moved in with Pancoast, returned to prostitution, and their relationship was occasionally sexual. Pancoast, thinking he had contracted HIV, became distraught and unstable after his counseling sessions were terminated. On July 7, 1983, he confessed to murdering her, beating her to death with a baseball bat. She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills. Pancoast received 26 years-to-life and died in 1991 of AIDS-related illnesses.

Morgan's palimony lawsuit continued on behalf of her son Todd. She had referred to a contract for $240,000 but was given only $40,000. The judge ruled the agreement unenforceable as "sex for hire." In 1984, a jury awarded her estate the remaining $200,000. She was an American Caucasian.