LOS ANGELES -- Vicki Morgan was a striking beauty with ambitions to be a model and actress. But when fame came, it was because she told the world of a 12-year affair with a presidential confidant and department store heir more than twice her age.
Miss Morgan, 30, was beaten to death in her sleep and her male roommate turned himself in Thursday and confessed to the murder.
Miss Morgan filed a multi-million dollar palimony suit last July against department store magnate Alfred Bloomingdale, claiming the friend of President Reagan had promised to support her the rest of her life before he died last August at 66.
Miss Morgan said she met Bloomingdale, whose widow Betsy is one of first lady Nancy Reagan's best friends, while walking along Sunset Boulevard when she was just 17.
The chance meeting blossomed into a 12-year relationship that Miss Morgan said included sado-masochistic sex. The affair produced a pregnancy but Miss Morgan had it terminated.
In court papers filed to support her lawsuit, Miss Morgan claimed Bloomingdale told her 'White House secrets' and promised to give her a half interest in a pizza chain and support her for life if she would become his traveling companion.
But a judge ruled late last year that the relationship was 'no more than that of a wealthy, older, married paramour and a young, well paid mistress.' The judge tossed out the palimony sections of the suit but ruled Miss Morgan could pursue the claims based on contracts.
Bloomingdale had strong ties to the Reagan White House and was a member of the so-called Kitchen Cabinet of unofficial presidential advisers. Revelation of the tawdry affair scandalized Beverly Hills society and embarrassed the White House, which reportedly wanted the suit settled as quickly and quietly as possible.
Mrs. Bloomingdale found out about the affair, Miss Morgan said, when the couple was spotted in public by Nancy Reagan.
Miss Morgan had done some part-time modeling and had minor parts in several pictures but had not worked since filing the suit. The man who confessed to her murder was also unemployed.
Shortly before her death, her former attorney Marvin Mitchelson said Thursday, Miss Morgan had had 'several meetings' with the William Morris Agency concerning book and movie rights to her life story.
