LOS ANGELES -- An attorney for Vicki Morgan, the slain mistress of Diners Club founder Alfred Bloomingdale, made his closing statement Thursday, contending Morgan's son should get some of the millionaire's estate because of a deathbed contract.
The jury in the case began deliberations Thursday afternoon. It must decide if Morgan's 15-year-old son Todd can receive the $200,000 Dave says is owed him.
Bloomingdale's widow, Betsy, broke into tears when queried about her husband's affair and testified she knew nothing about a deal he made with his mistress before she was murdered.
A close friend of First Lady Nancy Reagan, Bloomingdale's Wednesday testimony came in the last phase of an $11 million palimony suit filed in 1982 by Morgan, who was murdered a year later. Most of the suit was dismissed earlier.
'We believe there is a contract and that it was enforceable,' attorney Michael Dave told jurors Thursday in his closing statements at the civil trial.
A judge dismissed most elements of the Morgan suit, ruling there could be no legal contract between Bloomingdale and Morgan, who, in effect, was a prostitute.
Dave contended the department store heir signed two letters in February 1982, promising Morgan $10,000 a month for two years. Dave said $40,000 was paid, leaving the remainder of $200,000 owed to Morgan's estate.
At the time the agreement for 'constant companionship' was made, Dave said, 'There couldn't have been any sexual services going from Miss Morgan to Mr. Bloomingdale in the hospital.'
Hillel Chodos, attorney for the estate, argued that Bloomingdale was not mentally sound when he signed and said Morgan 'was trying to squeeze the last drop of money' from a dying man.
Betsy Bloomingdale testified Wednesday she visited her husband every day at St. John's Hospital where he was being treated for cancer.
'If Miss Morgan was at the hospital, I never saw her,' she said, breaking a two-year silence about the well-publicized affair.
Bloomingdale, a member of President Reagan's 'kitchen cabinet,' died of cancer in August 1982. He was 66.
In court documents detailing intimate details of their sexual relationship, Morgan said her long affair with Bloomingdale began when she was 17 and claimed she disguised herself as a nurse to visit him while he was dying.
She accused the widow of burying her husband 'like a dog' because of publicity surrounding the palimony suit.
Bloomingdale broke into tears as she described her husband's cancer and insisted the couple had a happy 36-year marriage.
She said her husband's mental condition weakened between 1981 and early 1982, causing him to become 'disoriented' at the hospital where he allegedly signed documents providing for Morgan.
Morgan was bludgeoned to death last year by her roommate, Marvin Pancoast, who was convicted of murder this year and sentenced to life in prison.
