LOS ANGELES -- The man who confessed to slaying Vicki Morgan, the late millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress for more than 12 years, told detectives he beat the woman to death to end her misery over her mounting financial problems, it was learned today.
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.'
'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.'
The 30-year-old Miss Morgan's skull was fractured by repeated blows from a baseball bat as she slept early Thursday in a rented three-bedroom condominium, the coroner's office said. Pancoast was booked for murder after he walked into a police station and confessed to the killing.
Detectives said Thursday the couple was planning to move today to separate residences -- one year after Miss Morgan shocked Beverly Hills society and the White House with her suit against the late department store heir, who was a close friend of President Reagan and a member of his 'kitchen cabinet.'
Pancoast, who reportedly has a history of mental problems, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
Police Lt. Dan Cooke said Thursday that Pancoast entered the Police Department's North Hollywood station and asked to see someone in homicide. Asked if he had witnessed a crime, Pancoast replied, ''No. I just killed someone,'' Cooke said.
Miss Morgan's attorney, Michael Dave, said Pancoast had known his client for four years and said the couple 'were definitely not lovers.'
Describing his client as a 'very tragic figure,' Dave said, 'She wanted very much to have peace and love and she neverfound it in her life.'
The attorney said Miss Morgan was supporting herself by selling gifts from Bloomingdale, including a Mercedes-Benz, but the money was exhausted and 'she was destitute.'
Miss Morgan, who did some part-time modeling and had minor parts in several movies during her 12-year affair with Bloomingdale, had not worked since she filed the suit July 8, 1982, Cooke 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. 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 testified in a sworn deposition filed last September that Bloomingdale often shared 'secret and delicate' details of White House inner workings with her.
In her palimony suit, Miss Morgan sought financial support for the rest of her life from the estate of the Diners Club founder 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.
In other depositions, Miss Morgan described Bloomingdale as having a Marquis de Sade complex, whose strange and sadistic bedroom behavior frightened her.
