When unassuming librarian Lucy Coe first appeared on General Hospital on April 11, 1986, no one, from portrayer Lynn Herring to executive producer Gloria Monty, had the faintest idea of the hijinks to come. All they knew was that they needed a quick character to move the plot forward. The fans, though, had other ideas.

Actually, let’s talk about that librarian thing first, because folks like to marvel at how Lucy started out as a mousy librarian and grew into a powerful, scheming and seductive vixen with a penchant for Kevins. But really, that’s what she was from the start!

Yes, she was (allegedly) a librarian, and sure, she looked kind of mousy, but when we first met her, Lucy was taking the stand to give the sexy doctor she was having an affair with — Kevin O’Connor — a fake alibi in a murder trial. To make things shadier, it was for a murder that he actually committed!

Lucy’s certainly had a way with men over the years.

Actually, it was one of several murders he committed!

To her credit, while Lucy happily lied under oath for the married man she was sleeping with, she didn’t know then that Kevin was actually guilty as all hell. And once she found out he’d duped her, she fessed up to the authorities. And that was that. Lucy’s job was done, and it was time for the fans to say goodbye to just another plot device.

More: Celebrate Finola Hughes’ anniversary debut as Anna

The thing is the fans weren’t ready to let her go. They ate up this morally questionable minx and were starving for more. General Hospital’s ratings were only recently starting to bounce back from a slump, so Monty figured she could use all the help she could get. Why not keep Lucy around and see what happened?

And this is when things really got interesting.