LOS ANGELES -- A jury decided Friday that the teenage son of the murdered mistress of Alfred Bloomingdale should receive $200,000 from the estate of the late presidential confidant.
The seven-man, five-woman jury deliberated less than six hours in the final phase of an $11 million palimony suit filed by Vicki Morgan, seeking a share of Bloomingdale's estate on the strength of a deathbed contract. Most of the suit was dismissed earlier.
'I had faith because I'd known Miss Morgan for several years,' said Michael Dave, an attorney for Morgan's estate. 'In some small way, she's been vindicated.'
Dave said Morgan's 15-year-old son, Todd, was owed the money because it was never paid his mother.
Attorneys for Bloomingdale's estate refused to comment.
'We found there was a legitimate contract,' jury foreman Carl Langaigne told reporters.'
'We believe there is a contract and that it was enforceable,' Dave told jurors Thursday in his closing statements at the civil trial.
Bloomingdale's widow, Betsy, a close friend of first lady Nancy Reagan, broke into tears earlier this week during testimony about her husband's affair, insisting she knew nothing about a deal with his mistress.
A judge earlier dismissed most elements of the 1972 Morgan suit, ruling there could be no legal contract because she, in effect, acted as a prostitute for Bloomingdale.
Dave, arguing in the remaining part of the suit, contended the department store heir and Diners Club founder signed two letters in February 1982, promising Morgan $10,000 a month for two years. He said $40,000 had been paid, leaving $200,000 owed to her estate.
Hillel Chodos, attorney for the estate, said Bloomingdale was not mentally sound when he signed the document and accused of Morgan of 'trying to squeeze the last drop of money' from a dying man.
Bloomingdale, a member of President Reagan's 'kitchen cabinet,' died of cancer in August 1982. He was 66.
In sensational court documents that also detailed 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.
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.
