Who Is `Miss Vicki` ?

Victoria Lombardi calls herself a close friend of Rabbi Fred Neulander.

She has supported Neulander through his trial and conviction on murder charges. The woman once called "Miss Vicki" is defiantly defending her relationship with the rabbi.

"What other people think is really none of my business," Lombardi said.

In 1969, Miss Vicki didn't care what people thought about her when at age 17 she married pop singer Tiny Tim.

Now, 33 years later, the 50-year-old woman doesn't care what people think about her relationship with Neulander.

She and Neulander write each other and talk on the telephone.

"We never discuss his case. When we spoke on the phone, my role was to cheer him up and tell him about my day," Lombardi said.

Lombardi told Taylor that she met Neulander in 1998 while he was out on bail. Her sister introduced them, and she said that they became very good friends. How close, she wouldn't say, but some of her friends, who didn't want to be identified, said that the two began dating shortly after their meeting.

"I was there to support him because unfortunately and sadly no one else was. I understand no one was in the courtroom on his side," Lombardi said.

Whatever the relationship, the rabbi trusts Lombardi enough to have his mail forwarded to her south Jersey apartment.

"My past is exactly that, and there's nothing I'd like to talk about. Nothing," Lombardi said.

"It's been decades since Victoria Lombardi was linked to a controversial man. In the 1960s the man in her life was pop singer Tiny Tim. With 45 million people watching, "Miss Vicki," as she was known then, married Tiny Tim on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.

"I was a teenager. It was the 60s. Hello. I'm normal, I think. Who's to say what's normal. I have a life, and it's a good life," Lombardi said.

But that life now includes a convicted murderer in Rabbi Fred Neulander. Lombardi said that her sister introduced them in 1998 and they became very good friends.

However, some of Lombardi's friends, who did not want to be identified, said that the two are more than friends. They say that the couple began dating four years ago.

"Do you love him? I care a great deal for him, and think he's a wonderful person, and incapable of doing such harm," Lombardi said.

Their friendship is so close that Neulander's mail has been forwarded to Lombardi's south Jersey apartment; and the car she drives belongs to the rabbi. It was the same car that Carol Neulander drove before her murder.

Lombardi doesn't understand why anyone would care.

"It's a car. It's not like I'm wearing her nightgown. It's a car. It was his car. He had been driving it. It was the only car he had," Lombardi explained.

While Lombardi supports Neulander 100 percent, she did not attend either trial and she wasn't in court when the jury decided the rabbi would serve life in prison.

"He did have a reputation as quite a philanderer, and now some other woman -- I didn't think that would look very good for him," Lombardi said.

Lombardi said that she and the rabbi write each other and talk on the phone. She said that, to this day, they have never discussed the case because she has never questioned his innocence.

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Author: Copyright 2002 by NBC 10. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.