LOS ANGELES -- The judge in the Vicki Morgan murder trial refused to allow the former model's literary collaborator to name the people who appear in a book she was writing about her years as mistress to a friend of President Reagan.
Defense attorneys for Marvin Pancoast, accused of beating Miss Morgan to death in July 1983, asked writer Gordon Basichis if she had ever told him the names of reportedly high government officials who would be named in the book.
Basichis, who the defense is attempting to portray as a possible alternative suspect in the slaying, said he could and '... could go on for an hour.'
But when attorney Arthur Barens asked Basichis to name names, the writer began with the late member of Reagan's 'kitchen cabinet,' Alfred Bloomingdale, and was abruptly cut off by prosecutor Stanley Weisberg, who objected on the grounds the other names were irrelevent.
Superior Court Judge David Horowitz sustained the objection after a brief conference out of earshot of the jury, and Barens went on to other matters.
Outside the Van Nuys Superior Courtroom, Barens told reporters he plans to call Basichis as a defense witness, which will give him the opportunity to delve further into questions about the book.
Pancoast, 34, pleaded innocent and innocent by reason of insanity to bludgeoning Miss Morgan to death at the condominium they shared in a platonic relationship.
The former talent agency clerk confessed to the slaying several times, including once in a taped statement to police which the jury has heard, but his lawyers claim he is a 'chronic confessor,' and that Miss Morgan was really killed by someone else because of alleged 'sex tapes' showing government officials at orgies.
Existence of the tapes has been alleged but never proven.
Barens said the defense believes Basichis is a suspect in Miss Morgan's slaying, suggesting 'that guy has more of a motive' than Pancoast.
Under questioning Monday, Basichis said he was having an affair with Miss Morgan, who contracted with him approximately nine months before her death to assist in writing her memoirs.
Basichis admitted he faced the possibility of losing the book contract for failing to produce a sample chapter by Aug. 1, 1983, and was also questioned at length about a fight with Miss Morgan a week before her slaying.
The writer characterized the confrontation as a 'shoving match' and said he manhandled her because she was 'hysterical.'
