Los Angeles: Guilty in the Morgan Murder

A few hours after the late Alfred Bloomingdale’s notorious mistress, Vicki Morgan, 30, was murdered last year, her roommate, Marvin Pancoast, walked into a nearby police station and confessed. The homosexual Hollywood hanger-on, who had moved in with Morgan after she lost a $5 million palimony suit against Bloomingdale two years ago, said he had bludgeoned her with her son’s baseball bat to “help her sleep.” But when his trial opened last month, Pancoast, 34, pleaded not guilty. His lawyers accused unknown persons of killing Morgan to suppress videotapes that allegedly showed her having sex not only with Bloomingdale, a Reagan adviser and former head of Diners Club, but also with several high-ranking Government officials.

But the defense failed to provide evidence of either the infamous sex tapes or a conspiracy, and the jury seemed unswayed by defense contentions that Pancoast may have been hypnotized into believing he killed Morgan. They needed less than five hours to find Pancoast guilty. Next week the same jurors will consider a second Pancoast plea, of not guilty for reasons of insanity. If found insane, Pancoast will be sent to a mental hospital. If not, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.