Victor Jennings

Brad and Margaret Jennings welcomed their first-born son into the world on March 15, 1971. Brad was extremely proud of Victor and took him everywhere to show him off.

As Victor was growing up, he was spoiled rotten by both parents, but especially his father. Brad was grooming Victor to inherit the family fortune Brad's father had built selling supplies to the government during World War II.

Victor learned early in life how to get what he wanted. If Brad couldn't get something for him, Victor would charm and connive and cheat until he got it. No one was spared his ruthless pursuit of what he desired, not even his younger brother, Raymond.

When the boys were young, they got along fine, but as they got older, Victor began to believe his mother favored Raymond, and Victor didn't like that. He distanced himself from both Margaret and Raymond. By the time he graduated high school, Victor's only close tie was with his father.

When Brad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he made out a will leaving $1 apiece to Margaret and Raymond and everything else to Victor, including his most prized family heirloom: a music box Brad's father received from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When Margaret and Raymond learned about the terms of Brad's will, it drove the family even further apart.

Early in Victor's career as a literary agent, he hired Thomas J. Eldon III as his attorney. Over the years, the two formed a kind of partnership, each making sure the other had ample opportunity to get rich.

Thomas Eldon introduced Victor to his high-profile clients, some of whom went on to hire Victor to represent their books, including Mr. and Mrs. Hollywood, Michael and Samantha Hawke. In turn, Victor kept Eldon busy with plenty of legal work.

A lot of people sued Victor, from public figures who didn't like how they were portrayed in books he represented to clients who claimed he'd included unauthorized information in their books.

Eldon made sure none of the lawsuits ever went to trial. Some were settled out of court, reportedly for pennies on the dollar of the original damages sought. Others were dropped completely.

Victor also had brushes with the law from time to time, like when he was accused of getting some college girls drunk and sexually assaulting them. Eldon always took care of it, and no charges were ever filed.

Over the years, there was a great deal of speculation about how Victor always managed to wiggle out of trouble and how he became so wealthy. A possible answer to both questions came when the FBI arrested Victor on extortion charges involving Michael and Samantha Hawke.

Victor was awaiting trial on house arrest when his assistant, Lee Merryweather, found him dead in his kitchen.