Model and aspiring actress Vicki Morgan, the mistress of multi-millionaire financier Alfred Bloomingdale, was murdered in 1983, bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat. But due to her background of intrigue and mystery, conspiracies abounded about who really killed her.
This week’s episode of Vanity Fair Confidential delves into her life and death — and questions whether all was as it seemed. Morgan was just 30 when she was killed but had already lived an extraordinary life after running away from home in 1968 to the glittering lights of Hollywood.
As a teen she married a 47-year-old, Earl Lamb, and not long after became the mistress of married tycoon Bloomingdale, who was a member of Ronald Reagan’s “Kitchen Cabinet”.
As Bloomingdale’s mistress she wined and dined with some of America’s elite, but was later dumped by the heir to the famous department store fortune at the request of his wife Betsy.
He later reportedly visited her in rehab after she suffered depression and became a drug addict and sex worker, telling her he’d take her back if she once again became his sexual slave. Not long afterwards, Bloomingdale died after a battle with terminal cancer.
Vicki later sued his estate for palimony, and during coverage of the lead-up to the trial juicy headlines about Vicki’s life with Bloomingdale abounded. It later emerged she was also planning to write a tell-all book revealing the identities of rich and powerful men who she had previously had as clients — but then she was murdered.
Her roommate and alleged best friend, Marvin Pancoast, who she had moved in with after meeting him in rehab, walked into a police station and said he murdered Vicki with a baseball bat. He was sentenced to 26 years-to-life for her murder, but was there more to the story?
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelThis week’s ‘Murder Most Obsessive’ episode of Vanity Fair Confidential, produced by Truly Original and Condé Nast Entertainment, investigates. Read the description below, and watch our exclusive clip above.
In 1983, a man walks into the police station and confesses to killing his alleged best friend and roommate, 30-year-old aspiring actress, Vicki Morgan. He says he crushed her skull with a baseball bat.
The case grabs the media’s attention when the press find out that Vicki Morgan was the mistress of Alfred Bloomingdale, the millionaire and member of Ronald Reagan’s “Kitchen Cabinet.”
The case appears to be open and shut until investigators receive a tip that puts Washington power brokers and some of the country’s richest men in the spotlight. The information leaves a trail of conspiracies. Who really killed Vicki Morgan? And why?
Vanity Fair Confidential airs Monday at 8/7c on Investigation Discovery.
As much of a true crime fanatic as I am, why have I never heard about this? Talk about sordid! And sad.