The Worst Behaved Heiresses In History

The pixie-like socialite was the It Girl of the 1960s, falling into Andy Warhol's experimental Factory scene after moving to New York from Boston, where she studied art. She grew up on a ranch in California, though her family had historic New England roots. She was repeatedly institutionalized for mental illness, and had a fraught relationship with her father. Edie lived lavishly in New York at first, surviving off an $80,000 trust fund left by her grandmother, but, despite becoming a fashion icon in the pages of Vogue, starring in Warhol's films, and rubbing elbows with the glitterati of the '60s, her money began to deplete. She became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates, and, when living at the Chelsea Hotel, set her room on fire after falling asleep with a lit cigarette. She inspired songs by Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground, but her life was tragically short - she died of an overdose at 28.

[Photo via @chochochromatic]