LOS ANGELES -- It started with a routine telephone call.
The attorney had been identified in the Los Angeles Times as Marvin Pancoast's lawyer and a UPI reporter wanted to ask him how his client would plead that afternoon in the slaying of Vicki Morgan, long-time mistress of presidential confidant Alfred Bloomingdale.
Attorney Robert K. Steinberg was about to become very well known.
He explained he was no longer on the case, in part, because of disagreement with another lawyer about 'the tapes.'
What tapes?
'There are elected officials in the government who are videotaped,' he said. 'It's very embarrassing. It's the kind of thing the country doesn't need right now.'
Steinberg explained he had been given three videotapes July 9 -- two days after Pancoast confessed that he had beat Miss Morgan to death with a baseball bat. He would not say then who gave him the tapes or where they were.
The lawyer said Bloomingdale and Miss Morgan appeared in the tapes at 'sex parties,' and would not specify the number of people involved and identified them only as elected and appointed officials.
He said another attorney and a Justice Department official also viewed the tapes during the weekend, but he refused to identify either person.
But by week's end, Steinberg was facing a possible charge of filing a false report for saying the tapes had been stolen. He was reported considering admitting the claim was false to avoid prosecution.
The bar association, law directory ratings and several prominent attorneys contacted by UPI described Steinberg as a respected lawyer who practiced in the Los Angeles area for 20 years. His clients included several celebrities.
Arthur Barens, the attorney handling Pancoast's defense, said he was aware of 'senIitive material' that involved prominent people and that his client had told him about videotapes, but he would not confirm or deny their existence.
Asked if he believed his client, Barens replied, 'I have reason to believe there are tapes.' Two days later he explained he actually meant audio tapes.
Steinberg told UPI he had discussed the tapes with 'my partner,' attorney Vincent Bugliosi, the best-selling author and former Los Angeles deputy district attorney who prosecuted Charles Manson.
After UPI left a message with the secretary the attorneys share at their Beverly Hills office, a woman called UPI and said Bugliosi was returning the call.
The reporter, who had never spoken to Bugliosi before, asked the caller in the presence of several other people, 'Vincent Bugliosi?' He said yes and answered several questions about Steinberg and the tapes, claiming that Steinberg had told him the tapes show people close to President Reagan at 'sex parties.'
'There were people who would definitely embarrass the president, just like Mr. Bloomingdale -- people that are close to the president and know the president,' the caller said.
Following that interview, UPI moved its first story on the videotapes to its newspaper and broadcast clients throughout the world - pointing out that Steinberg had not offered evidence his claims were true.
Dozens of reporters and camera crews ruINed to Steinberg's office. He answered hundreds of questions -- some very hostile -- in the next 12 hours and was interviewed live on at least one network and several local television stations.
After releasing the story, UPI received a call from Bugliosi. He said he had been told of the report of the tapes by a person on a Chicago newspaper and that he had never spoken to the UPI reporter. The first caller to UPI, he said, was an imposter.
Bugliosi said he had briefly spoken to Steinberg about the case Monday in their law library but had no knowledge who was on the tapes or if they actually existed. The former prosecutor vehemently denied Steinberg's continued claim that he recommended the tapes be destroyed.
Steinberg became wildly inconsistent and began contradicting himself under increasingly hostile questioning as the story wore on.
The number of people allegedly shown on the videotapes and their jobs kept changing. First he was going to destroy the tapes, then he was going to offer them to the president.
Despite the fact UPI was unaware of any information about the alleged tapes before talking to Steinberg, the lawyer told Ted Koppel on ABC's 'Nightline' that it was wire service's 'persistent questioning' that led to the story being released.
A woman claiming to be a friend of Pancoast said INe asked Steinberg to visit the suspect in jail Saturday, and the attorney told her about the material Saturday afternoon.
Hustler magazine publiINer Larry Flynt said he did not know if tapes existed but was willing to pay $1 million for them.
Steinberg, who reported the tapes stolen Tuesday, was now reportedly telling friends he would admit he made up the story to avoid prosecution on a misdemeanor charge that he filed a false theft report. Steinberg's attorney, Leonard Levine, refused to comment on that report.
All that is known for certain is that Vicki Morgan is dead and a lot of secrets went to the grave with her.
