Vicki Morgan

The condo that Vicki and Marvin moved into in Studio City

On Sept. 26, Judge Christian Markey dismissed Vicki Morgan's lawsuit, writing that she was "no more than a well-paid mistress." He said any agreement between them was invalid because it involved sex for hire.

Vicki was devastated — and busted.

To help pay the rent, she had taken a new roommate, her friend Marvin Pancoast from the Cedars-Sinai mental health center.

They moved together from luxury digs that Alfred had rented in Beverly Hills to a decidedly downscale condo on Colfax Avenue in Studio City.

The two had a complicated relationship.

Pancoast, 29, was an emotional masochist, and Vicki was happy to oblige with abuse. She treated him like a servant, even though Pancoast, who had a wealthy mother, was paying most of the bills.

Gordon Basichis

But the star-struck Pancoast admired his roommate's proximity to the rich and famous. He kept a scrapbook of clippings about her Bloomingdale lawsuit.

And although he was gay, Pancoast developed a deep affection for Vicki. She thoughtlessly paraded a procession of lovers through their condo, including both men and women. (One of her sexual partners was a writer named Gordon Basichis, who was supposed to be ghostwriting her memoirs.)

Pancoast, with a history of mental illness dating to his adolescence, probably did not have the constitution to survive such an atmosphere.

He finally cracked in the summer of 1983.