LOS ANGELES -- Marvin Pancoast was probably traumatized by the rejection of a doctor he sexually desired and was in a 'frenzy' when he beat Vicki Morgan to death with a baseball bat, a psychiatrist testified Thursday.
Dr. William Vicary said Pancoast was 'explosively angry' when he repeatedly struck Miss Morgan, the longtime mistress to late presidential confidant Alfred Bloomingdale.
'He was in a fury -- a frenzy,' Vicary testified in the sanity phase of Pancoast's trial.
Pancoast, 34, was convicted of murdering Miss Morgan July 7, 1983, at the North Hollywood condominium they shared. The jury must now decide Pancoast's sanity and either commit him to a state mental hospital or sentence him to prison.
Vicary, a psychiatrist and lawyer testifying for the prosecution, maintained Pancoast's rage did not meet the requirements of legal insanity.
'I would say, even in his frenzy, if someone had grabbed him at the time (of the murder) and asked him, 'What are you doing? Don't you know this is wrong?' he would have been able to recognize it was.'
Vicary agreed with earlier testimony from another psychiatrist that Pancoast had been deeply hurt when Dr. Paul Cantalupo terminated their almost daily counseling sessions two days before Miss Morgan's death.
'I think the defendant became quite emotionally close to Dr. Cantalupo and that he cared a great deal about what Dr. Cantalupo thought and felt about him,' Vicary said.
On his reports, Cantalupo noted that he thought Pancoast was sexually attracted to him.
Termination of the sessions, coupled with Pancoast's frustrating relationship with Miss Morgan, could have made him acutely ill, Vicary said.
Pancoast believed Miss Morgan wanted to kill herself, Vicary said. To Pancoast, 'it was like she was going down the drain.'
Killing her, said Vicary, 'was consistent with wanting her wish fulfilled.'
