Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Vicki Morgan wanted the whole world

to know she had something to say.

LEAH CARROLL: Vicki wanted to be a model.

She wanted to be rich, she wanted to be famous.

MARA WILES: Alfred Bloomingdale

took that from her

when he made her his mistress.

NARRATOR: A gilded cage, a leather whip, and allegations

of members of Ronald Reagan's kitchen cabinet on tape.

REPORTER: Steinberg says his 40 minutes

of color tape show Morgan, Bloomingdale,

and five other unnamed Reagan friends

and office holders engaging in sex acts.

CARROLL: Vicki was privy to a lot

of secrets of a lot of really powerful men.

NARRATOR: But Vicki was dead before she could say her piece.

- Vicki was a younger woman in her late 20s

when I first met her.

She was looking for somebody to tell her story.

- Vicki was born into... a lower-middle-class

family in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Her father left the family.

Her and her mother and her sister

are basically left behind.

The family then moves to the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Her mother remarries,

and by the time that Vicki is

nine years old, her stepfather dies.

NARRATOR: Her stepfather's death left the family penniless.

By the time she was in high school,

Vicki was looking for an escape.

BASICHIS: Vicki was very tall and willowy.

She toyed with being a model.

She was just looking to get into a world of power

and wealth.

WILES: But in 1968,

right after her sophomore year,

Vicki got pregnant with her high school boyfriend's baby.

- The boyfriend abandons her.

BASICHIS: She did not know what to do.

NARRATOR: 16-year-old Vicki made

the tough decision to follow her dreams.

She gave her son to her mother and left

for L.A. to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.

CARROLL: She's struggling.

You know, she has to have a job to pay her rent.

AZARI: Hollywood was not as promising

as Vicki thought.

Vicki marries Earl Lamm,

who is a clothing wholesaler in Las Vegas.

Earl is 47 when Vicki is just 17.

BASICHIS: Vicki said to me, her father

and other people who abandoned her,

to compensate for the abandonment,

had given her money, so therefore money was love.

NARRATOR: Vicki was still pursuing modeling,

hoping to be discovered.

And one day she caught the eye of a very influential man.

BASICHIS: Alfred Bloomingdale in the '70s

was the heir to the Bloomingdale department stores.

He was also the creator of Diners' Club,

which was the first credit card company in the United States.

- He is one of the richest men in America.

- Alfred Bloomingdale is 54.

He is married to Betsy Bloomingdale,

a darling of the fashion world.

She's also Nancy Reagan's best friend.

Alfred was very involved

in politics and in, basically, just being

a businessman and a power broker.

- In the summer of 1970,

Alfred Bloomingdale is driving down Sunset Boulevard and...

Vicki catches his eye.

Alfred follows her.

- ♪ Having to wait around town for you... ♪

AZARI: He asks if she plays tennis

and tells her that

his daughter plays tennis.

That is how Alfred gets

Vicki's phone number,

under the guise of, you know,

"I'm gonna have my daughter call you."

He slips Vicki a piece of paper,

which I think we all assume would have

his phone number on it.

Vicki opened it up.

It was an $8,000 check.

NARRATOR: $8,000 in 1968

was the equivalent

of $50,000 in 2020.

BASICHIS: Alfred said to her, "I'll give you

"anything you want whenever you want it.

I'm that rich."

Vicki at the time, demurred, largely.

She said she'll think about it,

because she was still married to Earl.

- Just after meeting Vicki, Alfred

literally buys her divorce from Earl Lamm

so that she could be Alfred's mistress.

- Power impressed Vicki.

So Alfred paying off Earl

was very impressive to Vicki.

It gave her a lot of pleasure to see Alfred

dominating whoever it was that she was with.

CARROLL: When he began this relationship with Vicki,

he essentially ends any chance

she had of becoming

successful on her own.

NARRATOR: Becoming Alfred's mistress

would lead Vicki down a path of power,

wealth, and ultimately,

her death.