Addicted to drugs, Lois began to pawn her jewels (including a sapphire and diamond-studded makeup compact that was a wedding gift from England's Queen Elizabeth.) In order to retrieve her jewels, she started calling and begging Alex to send her more money, often threatening him with a palimony suit. When he did, she would go to the Ace Pawnshop in Santa Monica and buy back the jewels. When the money Alex sent was no longer sufficient to support her growing drug habit, Lois began to sell the pawnshop receipts. Eventually the money and jewels were gone.
After numerous drug arrests in Los Angles, and internments in a drug rehabilitation center in Lexington, Kentucky, alone she returned to New York and turned to prostitution. Desperate for money and drugs Lois was selling herself on the streets of Harlem.
The last time I saw the Princess Radziwill was after a drug bust in Los Angeles. She was in a courtroom where she was being sentenced for possession and dealing. Poor, broken, her arms covered with needle marks, she was a bloated shadow of her past. Wearing a faded and out-of-date Dior suit, she turned to me as the police led her away. With a wan smile, she repeated her favorite adage about the moon and stars, but added "don't ever get involved again with people like me Larry. Look what I did with my gift."
I never saw her again, but heard a rumor she'd died of cancer in prison.
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