LOS ANGELES -- The man who confessed to killing Vicki Morgan, mistress to the late millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale, told detectives he beat the woman to death in her sleep to end her misery over mounting financial problems, it was learned Friday.
Two sources close to the case, who spoke on the condition they not be identified, told UPI that Marvin Pancoast, 33, who had shared a condominium with Miss Morgan for three weeks, suffered from mental problems and 'thought he was doing the right thing in his confused state.'
Pancoast walked into the North Hollywood police station about 3:20 a.m. Thursday and told officers he had just beaten Miss Morgan, 30, to death with a baseball bat as she slept.
'The woman was very, very depressed,' one source said. 'She had gone from $18,000 a month from Bloomingdale to absolutely zero. He (Pancoast) thought it was a mercy killing.'
Pancoast, who was booked for murder and was being held without bail at county jail, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
Miss Morgan filed an unsuccessful $11 million palimony suit last July against Bloomingdale, founder of the Diners Club, a long-time friend of President Reagan and a member of his 'kitchen cabinet.'
Miss Morgan's attorney, Michael Dave, said Thursday that Pancoast and Miss Morgan, who had known each other since 1979, 'were definitely not lovers,' but the lawyer refused to characterize their relationship.
Dave described her as a 'very tragic figure. She wanted very much to have peace and love and she never found it in her life.'
The attorney said Miss Morgan was supporting herself by selling gifts Bloomingdale gave her during their 12-year affair, including a Mercedes Benz, but the money was exhausted.
'She was not just in financial trouble,' he said. 'She was destitute.'
Pancoast was a :lerk at the William Morris Agency, the world's largest talent agency, for about 18 months and left the job last January, said Roger Davis, executive vice president of the firm.
The suspect's niece, Tammy Pancoast, told the Los Angeles Herald Examiner that her uncle was suffering from leukemia, which prevented him from working for the last several months.
Miss Morgan, who did some part-time modeling and had minor parts in several movies, had not worked since she filed the suit July 8, 1982, police said.
Bloomingdale died last Aug. 23 at age 66, but Miss Morgan continued to press her suit against his estate and widow Betsy Bloomingdale, one of Nancy Reagan's closest friends and a frequent White House guest. Miss Morgan said the affair ended last year when Mrs. Bloomingdale discovered her ailing husband had been giving his mistress up to $18,000 a month.
Miss Morgan sought financial support for the rest of her life from the estate based on alleged promises. Attorneys for the estate never denied the affair, but argued the millionaire's mistress was, in effect, a prostitute.
Superior Court Judge Christian Markey agreed and threw out the palimony portions of the suit last September, ruling that Miss Morgan was a 'well paid mistress.' He allowed her, however, to pursue actions seeking financial support on the basis of written contracts.
Miss Morgan described Bloomingdale in court documents 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.
