LOS ANGELES -- Vicki Morgan, the late Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress who exposed their affair by filing an $11 million palimony suit, was beaten to death with a baseball bat today in her condominium.
Marvin Pancoast, 33, who shared the apartment with Miss Morgan was arrested for the killing after he turned himself into police, Lt. Dan Cooke said. He said the couple had been arguing over money and was being evicted from their home today.
'Pancoast entered the North Hollywood division station and asked to see someone in homicide,' Cooke said.
Asked if he were a witness to a crime, Pancoast replied, ''No. I just killed someone,'' Cooke said.
Miss Morgan's partially clad body was found in her bed. A baseball bat was lying nearby,
Cooke said Pancoast and Miss Morgan, 31, had been arguing over financial problems. Miss Morgan, a former model, had not worked since she filed the palimony suit against Bloomingdale last year, Cooke said.
Pancoast, who moved in with Miss Morgan three weeks ago, worked as a clerk at the William Morris Agency, the world's largest talent agency, for a year and a half before leaving in January.
'He gave indications they were having financial difficulties,' Cooke said. 'They had been arguing over a lot of things involving money.'
Pancoast waited for Miss Morgan to go to sleep and then beat her with the bat, Cooke said.
Miss Morgan filed a palimony suit last year against Bloomingdale, the department store heir and close friend of President Reagan, seeking financial support for the rest of her life based on alleged promises.
Superior Court Judge Christian Markey threw out palimony claims of the suit last September, ruling that Miss Morgan was only a 'well paid mistress' to the presidential confidant, but allowed her to pursue actions seeking financial support on the basis of written contracts.
During the sensational suit, Miss Morgan described Bloomingdale as a sadistic 'Jekyll and Hyde' whose strange bedroom behavior scared her to death. She claimed she acted as a therapist to help him overcome his Marquis de Sade complex, a tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain on others.
Miss Morgan said she met Bloomingdale at a popular Sunset Strip restaurant in 1969 when she was only 17. She married twice during their affair and had one son.
