Original subtitles

REPORTER: Vicki Morgan was murdered this morning,

almost penniless, about to be evicted

from her North Hollywood apartment.

- [distorted, echoing voice]

SARA AZARI: In the early hours

of July 7,

the police find Vicki dead in her condo.

Her fingers were broken, which indicates

that there was struggle.

Her face is basically unrecognizable

when they find her.

GORDON BASICHIS: Vicki's death was a shock to the system.

The fact that she was gone

was pretty tragic.

- I was the defense attorney

during the trial for the murder of Vicki Morgan.

It's my opinion

that when the police arrived at the scene,

their primary interest was to investigate

whether there was evidence that could be problematic

for the administration of Ronald Reagan,

rather than who

killed Vicki Morgan.

♪

REPORTER: According to police, 33-year-old Marvin Pancoast

turned himself in early this morning, saying,

"I just killed someone."

AZARI: Vicki's roommate, Marvin Pancoast,

walks into the North Hollywood LAPD station.

LEAH CARROLL: Marvin says, between the hours

of 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning

Vicki Morgan is sleeping.

He enters with a baseball bat...

...and strikes her with it.

There is a huge struggle.

[bat thuds]

AZARI: She died from blunt force trauma to the head.

She had multiple fractures to her skull.

- Marvin resented Vicki, because Vicki treated him

not well at all,

and he became her servant to a great degree.

CARROLL: He essentially admits to the crime.

The strange detail is that he has no blood on him

when he does it, so the police don't necessarily beliee him.

- The murder weapon, the baseball bat,

was not anywhere near Vicki.

Almost like somebody staged the crime scene.

NARRATOR: When investigators examined the bat,

there were no fingerprints.

- I do not think Mr. Pancoast was responsible for his actions

on the night of the homicide, and I...

I am not sure myself how competent he is

to meaningfully assist me in the preparation of his defense.

I was the defense attorney for Marvin Pancoast.

There was a doubt as to whether Marvin actually was

the perpetrator of the homicide.

AZARI: Just two weeks after Marvin Pancoast admitted

his responsibility for Vicki's murder,

he recanted his confession, furthering the public's doubts

to his motive and story.

- This was a woman who had a lot of dirt

on a lot of really, really powerful men,

and who was writing a tell-all book.

- Now, in addition to everything else,

White House officials are being asked questions

about so-called "sex tapes,"

tapes that allegedly involve the late Vicki Morgan.

REPORTER: The only person talking about the tapes

is a Beverly Hills criminal lawyer, Robert Steinberg.

He says a mystery woman handed him three videocassettes

over the weekend.

- Vicki Morgan's lawyer appeared

at a major press conference at his office,

claiming that he had possession

of a rather graphic sex tape.

REPORTER: Steinberg says his 40 minutes of color tape

show Morgan, Bloomingdale

and five other unnamed Reagan friends and office holders

engaging in sex acts.

NARRATOR: But just as quickly as Vicki was killed,

the alleged sex tapes seemed to disappear.

- When he was asked for the tapes,

he said, "Ah, my office was burglarized,

"and I filed a police report

with the Beverly Hills Police Department."

REPORTER: Steinberg says

he showed the tapes to two attorneys,

including a friend in the Justice Department,

but he won't identify either man.

So tonight, there's no corroboration

of Steinberg's story, and apparently, no tapes.

AZARI: On June 10, 1984, the trial

of Marvin Pancoast begins.

BARENS: Our defense was lack of motivation,

lack of convicting evidence.

- All that the jury had

was a confession by Marvin Pancoast and...

the murder weapon, which was the baseball bat.

- It was easy for them to say, "Well, there was nobody else

offered up that killed her."

AZARI: In July 1984,

Marvin is found guilty

of first degree murder.

He's sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

BARENS: I think in a lot of people's minds

there was an issue that arose

of whether Marvin was a fall guy.

AZARI: I do see that the rich,

with their power and their money,

they're able to subvert justice,

they're able to get away with it.

NARRATOR: More than a year after Vicki's death,

the palimony case she brought against the Bloomingdales

was ruled in her favor, and she was awarded

$200,000, which went to her son, Todd.

If Vicki had had the chance to write the book,

it could have been a lot more than just this lurid tell-all.

It could have been

a woman reclaiming the narrative

and telling the story of her own life,

and really living on her own terms

for the first time ever.

It was what she originally came to Los Angeles to do,

and she might have actually had the opportunity to do it

if she'd lived.

NARRATOR: In the end, Vicki was unapologetic

about her role in Alfred's life.

When questioned by the media, she simply said,

"I was the prize, honey.

I was a symbol of power and status."