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Chances are that four years ago,

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1:45

This

1:54

is Bruce Bernard Kornfeld and an outfit

1:56

called Investors Overseas Services.

2:00

Bernie Kornfeld is an American success

2:03

story. Born in Istanbul and

2:05

raised in Brooklyn, Bernie started his career

2:08

as a cab driver, became a social worker,

2:10

and then made a fortune as a mutual

2:12

fund tycoon. The

2:14

mutual fund industry was taking off in the late

2:17

1950s. Following the Great Depression, the

2:20

average investor had become more risk averse

2:22

and diversified. The pulled assets

2:24

of a mutual fund were the perfect response.

2:28

Bernie Kornfeld recognized which way the

2:30

wind was blowing, but he took a good idea

2:32

and made it even better. In 1956, Bernie moved to

2:35

Paris and established an offshore

2:37

mutual fund, meaning that his mutual

2:40

fund would invest in American mutual funds

2:42

but would be free from the annoyances

2:44

of US regulations and taxes. Ex-Pats,

2:47

service members, and foreign nationals did

2:49

not hesitate to buy in. Over

2:52

the next decade, Kornfeld's Switzerland-based

2:54

company Investor Overseas Services,

2:57

or iOS, became a two and a half

2:59

billion dollar financial empire. There

3:02

were over 1 million shareholders in 120 different

3:05

countries. iOS oversaw 60 banking,

3:08

insurance, and real estate subsidiaries, all

3:11

outside the law and the palm of

3:13

Uncle Sam. Bernie Kornfeld

3:15

called it quote, people's capitalism.

3:18

I'm convinced iOS is going to be the most

3:21

important economic force in the private

3:23

sector in the world, he said in an interview.

3:26

He would challenge his employees and investors with

3:28

the same question,

3:29

do you sincerely want to be

3:31

rich? Why not? Bernie

3:35

was certainly enjoying it. Why

3:37

have you chosen to live like this the way you do? It

3:40

happens to be a very agreeable way to live.

3:43

I think most people

3:45

would probably enjoy living this

3:47

way if they could and I'm

3:50

happy that I'm able to live this way. I try to surround

3:52

myself with interesting and attractive

3:54

and creative people generally

3:58

and certainly I'll attractive

4:01

women are a part of this and I

4:03

really enjoy having them around. They're one of the

4:05

things that make life awesome.

4:08

Bernie Kornfeld's lifestyle was legendary.

4:11

The small bearded man lived in an 80 room

4:14

13th century castle in the French Alps,

4:16

part of which he had redesigned to replicate

4:19

the Lower East Side apartment where he had grown

4:21

up. One of the rooms would be full

4:23

of young, beautiful women, drinking

4:25

wine and playing backgammon, shooting

4:27

daggers at Bernie through the mirrors on the ceiling,

4:30

waiting for him to get off the phone. In the

4:32

next room you might find Bernie's octogenarian

4:34

mother, who also lived on the premises. Down

4:37

the hall you might come across half a dozen bodyguards,

4:39

the four great Danes or the two ocelots

4:42

that roamed freely. Bernie

4:44

Kornfeld also had a townhouse in London

4:46

and an apartment in Paris. He visited

4:49

each one on a routine basis with the convenience

4:51

of a private jet, he had a speedboat,

4:53

sports cars, Rolls Royces and Cadillacs.

4:56

Bernie had it all. While he reveled

4:59

in his wealth, his sales force of up to 25,000

5:02

people were busy selling one of iOS's 18 mutual

5:05

funds door to door throughout Europe. iOS

5:07

even sold one mutual fund that invested

5:10

in nothing but other mutual funds. It

5:12

was called the Fund of Funds and it became a problem.

5:15

American Securities laws barred any fund

5:18

from owning more than 3% of any other fund. By 1965,

5:22

iOS's Fund of

5:24

Funds owned half of one popular mutual

5:26

fund and almost 30% of another. The U.S.

5:29

Securities and Exchange Commission took action. iOS

5:32

capitulated. Bernie Kornfeld

5:34

agreed to stop selling his products to Americans

5:36

stateside or abroad. It

5:39

stung, but iOS would survive.

5:42

The company's mutual funds were growing in popularity

5:45

among the Germans and the Arabs. There

5:47

wasn't much that could hurt iOS unless the

5:49

market tanked. Three years

5:52

later, the market tanked. Investors

5:54

panicked and began withdrawing their funds from iOS.

5:57

Plus the company was responsible for paying out

5:59

guaranteed debt. evidence, IOS

6:01

was losing up to $5 million a day.

6:04

In order to raise money to keep his funds afloat,

6:06

Bernie Kornfeld had no choice but to take the

6:08

company public. Employees, investors,

6:11

outsiders, and even Bernie himself purchased

6:13

the stock, which quickly plummeted

6:15

from $18 a share to $2.

6:19

By 1970, IOS's board of

6:21

directors was also panicking. They

6:23

voted to oust CEO Bernie Kornfeld

6:26

from his own creation and replaced him with

6:28

a 36-year-old businessman from New Jersey

6:30

named Robert Vesco,

6:32

who bailed out IOS with an emergency

6:35

$5 million loan. Vesco

6:38

has brought a sense of stability to

6:40

IOS. Investor confidence

6:43

is his biggest problem. He still has to clean

6:45

up the mess, the legacy of mismanagement

6:47

and lavish spending left by Kornfeld

6:50

and his associates.

6:52

What the board of directors did not realize

6:54

was that Robert Vesco was a

6:56

criminal whose own conglomerate was

6:58

in deep financial trouble. While

7:01

he pretended to be working on a cure for IOS's

7:03

financial woes, Vesco secretly

7:05

looted the company of its remaining worth $224 million.

7:10

Robert Vesco fled to the Bahamas in 1973

7:13

with the money in his bank accounts, then

7:15

to Costa Rica and then to Cuba. He

7:18

allegedly tried to return to the US by donating $200,000

7:21

to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, but

7:24

the plan was snuffed out. Robert

7:26

Vesco was eventually arrested in 1995, but

7:29

that's another story for another day.

7:32

Back to Bernie. I

7:34

feel that IOS was

7:37

an unusual,

7:40

even a beautiful company that was

7:44

doing an extraordinary job in the financial field

7:46

and that was destroyed by Vesco.

7:50

And obviously, I

7:54

can't have any kind feelings

7:56

for anyone that did that kind of thing. concern

8:00

isn't a process of trying

8:03

to have that skill put into jail.

8:06

My real concern is

8:08

trying to right some of the wrongs

8:10

that have been done.

8:12

Investor overseas services never

8:14

recovered. Its collapse took down a

8:16

few European banks with it and it

8:18

almost took down Bernie Kornfeld. Bernie

8:20

was arrested in Switzerland in May 1973. He

8:24

was charged with defrauding 350 employees out of 39

8:28

and a half million dollars for selling them

8:30

stock while knowing the company was failing. He

8:33

spent 11 months in jail before bailing out.

8:35

Time that Bernie described in the letter to friends

8:38

as, not as unhappy as I would

8:40

have expected. I'm alive. I'm

8:42

well. I've lost some weight, trimmed my

8:44

beard, and looked great. I'm doing

8:46

many of the things I wanted to do for the past

8:49

two years. Bernie

8:51

Kornfeld pleaded not guilty to the charges

8:53

and was later acquitted after several effective employees

8:56

testified at the trial that Bernie had done

8:58

nothing wrong. This is a picture

9:00

of Bernard Kornfeld. He

9:02

made millions of dollars selling mutual funds.

9:05

Then his firm iOS lost

9:07

millions of dollars and Kornfeld lost

9:09

his firm. He is no longer a tycoon.

9:13

He is living quietly in California

9:15

and here he is, the perfect picture of

9:18

a ruined millionaire.

9:22

The poor, ruined millionaire had to

9:24

move out of his 80 room castle into

9:26

a 40 room mansion in California,

9:29

the Grey Hall mansion to be exact. Beverly

9:32

Hills is second oldest residence. Other

9:34

notable owners include Mark Hughes from

9:37

Herbalife. At Grey

9:39

Hall, Bernie Kornfeld's party picked up

9:41

right where it had left off. The rooms were

9:43

filled with his favorite things, young

9:45

women playing backgammon while Bernie

9:48

was in his office making overseas phone

9:50

calls, trying to get back in the game. Overseas

9:53

phone calls were expensive back in the

9:55

day, so a more cost-conscious

9:57

Bernie Kornfeld allegedly instituted

9:59

the the use of what's called a blue box. Blue

10:02

boxes allowed people to make free, illegal,

10:05

long-distance phone calls by mimicking

10:07

the same 2600 Hertz switching

10:09

tome to trick automated telecom systems.

10:12

Over a four-month period, Bernie Kornfeld,

10:14

his girlfriends, and his employees made 343

10:17

free overseas phone calls

10:20

ripping off Pacific Bell Telephone Company for

10:22

more than $1,000. The FBI raided

10:25

Gray Hall mansion in 1975 and

10:28

recovered the blue boxes. Bernie

10:30

Kornfeld was convicted of telephone fraud

10:32

in 1976 and sentenced

10:34

to three months in prison. He maintained

10:37

his innocence and claimed he knew nothing about

10:39

the blue box and that his secretaries

10:41

had used it without his knowledge.

10:43

Some of those secretaries had even testified at the

10:45

trial that Bernie was telling the truth.

10:47

Other girlfriends testified that Bernie knew about the

10:50

blue boxes the whole time. Vicki

10:52

Morgan was one of those girlfriends. She

10:54

had lived at Gray Hall during the summer of 1974. Vicki

10:58

initially played dumb when questioned by the FBI

11:00

but ultimately decided not to commit

11:02

perjury. Vicki decided that

11:05

she was too pretty for prison. Besides,

11:08

her relationship with Bernie ended on a sour

11:10

note when she fled Gray Hall in his maserati

11:13

and he was more concerned about getting the car back than

11:15

getting her back. So fuck Bernie

11:17

Kornfeld, he could rot in prison for all she

11:19

cared. As for Vicki Morgan,

11:22

she would go back to the waiting arms of Alfred

11:24

Bloomingdale, her rich old

11:26

loyal and married sugar daddy and

11:29

she would be ruined forever. A

11:31

mistress' 12-year-long love affair

11:34

with an heir to a department store fortune

11:36

ends in violence and conspiracy

11:39

on this episode of Swindles.

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Nearly 25 years ago, Diners

13:34

Club introduced the first executive credit card.

13:38

Today, around the world, Diners

13:40

Club is still the first card. We're

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honored in 75,000 more places than any

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other executive credit

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card, including American Express.

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Diners

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Club, the first card.

14:01

Even before being dubbed father of the credit

14:04

card,

14:04

Alfred Bloomingdale breezed through life like

14:07

any other rich kid with a famous last name. Alfred

14:10

was the grandson of one of the brothers who founded

14:12

the Bloomingdale department store in New York City.

14:15

But Alfred only briefly worked for the family business

14:17

in the late 1930s after dropping

14:19

out of Brown University where he reportedly

14:21

studied football and female anatomy.

14:25

With the safety net strong enough to accommodate

14:27

many magnitudes of risk, like

14:29

many other children of wealth with similar

14:31

privileges, Alfred Bloomingdale decided

14:34

he was an artist. He became

14:36

the youngest producer on Broadway at the time. Most

14:38

of his productions were panned by the audience.

14:42

After World War II, Alfred Bloomingdale headed

14:44

for the West Coast where he reshaped

14:47

his delusion and started working on the business

14:49

side of show business. But he

14:51

soon grew bored. Alfred then took

14:53

a job as vice president of the Dine and

14:56

Sign Restaurant Charge Card, invented

14:58

by a businessman in New York who

15:00

had forgotten his wallet while eating

15:02

out one time. Alfred Bloomingdale

15:04

spearheaded the Dine and Sign Cards expansion

15:07

to the West Coast when, in 1952,

15:09

he was presented with the opportunity to buy

15:12

the company outright. So he made

15:14

that investment, took control and

15:16

expanded the company's vision beyond restaurants. Alfred

15:19

renamed the company to Diners Club,

15:22

the world's first multi-purpose charge

15:24

card.

15:25

Its popularity multiplied.

15:31

But, believe it or not, Diners

15:33

Club was not Alfred Bloomingdale's best

15:35

idea. His best idea was to

15:37

marry Betsy Newling, who Alfred

15:39

referred to as Nittwit, lovingly,

15:42

I think. Betsy Bloomingdale

15:44

had no interest in business. Her

15:46

only aspirations were social and nature.

15:49

She was the best dressed at every party. Alfred

15:52

Bloomingdale adopted his wife's lifestyle

15:55

and short-ordered the once-Jewish Democrat

15:57

from New York, metamorphosized into

15:59

a case. California Republican, the couple

16:02

moved to Bel Air, where Betsy Bloomingdale

16:04

would eventually meet and become best friends

16:07

with throat-dote Nancy Reagan.

16:09

I'm sorry that's uncalled for.

16:12

Even if the rumors were true that Nancy was known

16:14

for giving the best blowjob on the MGM

16:17

lot when she was an actress, that

16:19

didn't necessarily mean it was by choice. She

16:21

probably just wanted to get hired like anyone

16:23

else. And back then, sucking some

16:26

old smelly dick was usually part of the audition

16:28

process. Still is in

16:31

a lot of places. Nancy's

16:33

husband Ronald Reagan was wiping his

16:35

mouth a lot when he was elected governor

16:38

of California in 1966. The

16:40

Bloomingdales were now very well connected.

16:43

Unfortunately soon after, Alfred Bloomingdale

16:45

was looking for a new job. By

16:48

then American Express had come onto the scene,

16:50

followed by Visa and Master Charge.

16:53

Charge Club was losing market share. Alfred

16:56

Bloomingdale was bored with it anyway. In 1968

16:59

he resigned as chairman of the board and CEO.

17:02

It already sold his ownership in

17:04

the company. Alfred Bloomingdale's

17:06

hands were clean, just in time to find

17:08

a new passion that would consume the rest

17:10

of his life. And no, we're not talking

17:13

about international floatels, his

17:15

floating hotel business. The

17:18

story has multiple versions, but here's

17:20

the most widely accepted. Alfred

17:22

Bloomingdale, in his early fifties, had

17:24

a business meeting somewhere on Sunset Boulevard

17:27

in LA when he spotted the most breathtaking

17:30

young woman he had ever seen walking

17:32

into the Old World restaurant. Alfred

17:34

followed her in. He asked,

17:37

do you play tennis? He asked a tall,

17:39

thin, blonde teenager. I only

17:41

asked because I thought you might be a good partner for

17:44

my daughter. She just came back from school

17:46

in England and she's looking for someone to play with.

17:49

In fact, Alfred continued. You

17:51

look like my daughter. The

17:54

girl told Alfred that, no, she didn't

17:56

play tennis. He continued on with

17:58

some small talk about his wife. He mentioned

18:00

that he was lonely and he asked for the girl's

18:03

phone number for the tennis ride.

18:05

Of course. Alfred Bloomingdale

18:08

started calling the girl up to 20 times

18:10

a day. Her name was Vicky Morgan.

18:13

She was 17 years old. She was already married

18:15

to a clothing wholesaler 30 years

18:18

her senior. His name was Earl Long.

18:21

He wore a hair piece. Alfred

18:23

Bloomingdale didn't care. He practically

18:25

begged for a lunch date anyway. Vicky

18:28

Morgan had just moved to Los Angeles from

18:30

Montclair, California, about 30 miles east.

18:33

Vicky had dreams of becoming an actress, a

18:35

model, or both. But so far

18:38

she was having a tough go of it. She

18:40

had met Earl working as a restaurant hostess.

18:43

She needed him for security, but she

18:45

wanted him because she had attachment issues

18:47

and trauma. Up until that point in her

18:49

life, every man Vicky had met had

18:51

disappointed her. Working

18:54

with her father, who left the family high

18:56

and dry when Vicky was about three. He

18:58

sent a check every month, but she never saw him

19:00

again. Luckily Vicky's mother Connie

19:02

met a wonderful man afterward who dropped

19:04

dead from a heart attack when Vicky was nine.

19:07

The worst part is that Vicky stepped out of was in the process

19:10

of switching jobs and died during a window

19:12

when his life insurance had lapsed. Vicky's

19:15

mom had to return to work in a school cafeteria

19:17

where she stayed for the next 17 years.

19:21

Then when Vicky was 16 years old, her

19:23

high school boyfriend walked out on her when she got

19:25

pregnant. Vicky dropped out and

19:28

entered St. Anne's maternity home for unwed

19:30

mothers where they taught her how to operate

19:33

a cash register. Vicky

19:35

Morgan gave birth to a son named Todd.

19:37

She wanted more for him than Montclair could ever

19:40

offer. So with baby Todd, Vicky

19:42

moved to LA without ever looking back when

19:44

the opportunity presented itself.

19:46

A small town girl in the big city would

19:49

never even heard of the Bloomingdale department

19:51

store. Alfred Bloomingdale's name

19:53

did not impress Vicky at all, but

19:56

she gathered he was rich and persistent

19:59

after a thousand records.

21:22

started

22:00

wailing on their backsides with its belt. The

22:03

two women screamed for mercy, partly

22:05

because that's how he liked it, and it's what

22:07

the script calls for, and partly

22:09

because it really fucking hurt. Isn't

22:11

this fun? I'm a night-go-alford-building-dell-demanded-to-know.

22:16

Vicki Morgan later recalled that startling

22:19

scene. Alfred had a look

22:21

in his eyes. Believe me when I say this, a

22:23

look in his eyes and his face that scared

22:25

me to death. He was a different person.

22:28

Literally a different person. I

22:30

was scared to death to say anything but yes, and

22:33

you better believe I said, yes, this

22:35

is fun. Alfred

22:37

pulled Vicki across his lap and spanked her

22:39

bare bottom. Then he had sex with her

22:42

and made her shower with him. He told her not

22:44

to be scared. It's just a game, he

22:46

said. Alfred Bloomingdale

22:49

played the game up to three times

22:51

a week at that same house which Vicki

22:53

Morgan soon deduced he rented for that sole

22:56

purpose. Alfred had been extra

22:58

careful since he was blackmailed by a pimp who

23:00

had recorded his encounter through a two-way mirror

23:02

back in the fifties. Alfred was far

23:05

more comfortable if he was in control of

23:07

the environment. The

23:09

rules of the game remained consistent, but

23:11

the cast would change constantly. Alfred

23:14

would beat his catch of the day like a wild animal

23:17

while Vicki Morgan looked on in horror. It

23:19

was like Jekyll and Hyde, Vicki later said,

23:22

comparing Alfred's behavior to something you'd

23:24

see in a hospital or in a movie. He'd

23:26

almost completely lose control. Quote,

23:29

he had the girls crawl on the floor and he'd

23:31

sit on their backs and drool. Okay,

23:34

I mean, he'd drool. Vicki

23:37

Morgan thought this man must be out of his gorge.

23:39

A few months later Vicki Morgan

23:41

would be tied up right along with the other women and

23:43

taking beatings of her own and she kept

23:46

coming back for more. Vicki

23:48

Morgan is a sweet young thing, but

23:50

she was a lot stronger than most sweet young

23:52

things. She was a lot tougher than most

23:54

sweet young things.

23:56

Please stop saying that. That's

23:58

Gordon Basikis. He wrote the book about

24:00

Vicky Morgan. More on him later,

24:02

but yeah, part of Vicky enjoyed

24:05

the pain.

24:06

Alfred and Vicky's affair was in full bloom.

24:08

He started giving her an allowance of up to $5,000 a

24:11

month, which he hid through his company's payroll

24:13

as interior decorating consulting work.

24:17

Rumor has it that Alfred Bloomingdale paid off Vicky

24:19

Morgan's husband for her freedom, and

24:21

at the very least he threatened Earl Wham's livelihood

24:23

enough that he did not dare interfere. Vicky

24:26

Morgan moved out, and Alfred rented her a

24:28

house not too far from the one he shared with Betsy

24:30

and their children.

24:32

Vicky was now driving a Mercedes. She

24:34

had a full-time housekeeper, a private chef,

24:37

mostly for companionship because Vicky

24:39

Morgan hated being alone. Her son

24:41

Todd was back living with Grandma and

24:43

Montclair.

24:45

Vicky nearly had a second child in 1971. It was

24:48

Alfred Bloomingdale's, but he didn't want it.

24:51

He told her he was too old to start a second family,

24:54

and it wasn't a good time to divorce his wife.

24:56

He happily paid for Vicky's abortion, but did

24:59

not bother to show.

25:01

This was one of the first of many heartbreaks Vicky

25:03

Morgan would endure throughout her affair with Alfred

25:05

Bloomingdale.

25:06

At some point, Vicky had genuinely fallen

25:08

in love with the man, at least the closest

25:11

thing to love that she had ever experienced. Alfred

25:14

Bloomingdale kept Vicky Morgan on a leash and

25:16

a budget for years. He tried to help with

25:18

their acting career, centered a cooking school,

25:20

bought her a dog. He was Alfred's

25:22

worst kept secret. He would even drop

25:25

Vicky Morgan off at the same hair salon where

25:27

his wife and Nancy Reagan were regulars. Unsurprisingly,

25:31

this lack of caution caused problems. One

25:34

day an excited Alfred Bloomingdale embraced

25:36

Vicky Morgan on the street in public view without

25:38

realizing that his wife's best friend, Nancy

25:41

Reagan, was on the same block. She had

25:43

witnessed everything.

25:44

Again, this is the writer, Gordon Basikis.

25:48

And here's Nancy, aghast apparently,

25:51

because here is Alfred Bloomingdale, her good

25:53

friend, jamming his tongue down the

25:56

throat of this sweet young thing.

25:59

Anyway,

26:01

there was also an incident where Betsy Bloomingdale

26:04

and her daughter saw Alfred with his

26:06

mistress in public. Vicki

26:08

was unbothered. She wasn't afraid of Betsy.

26:11

In fact, Vicki kind of liked rubbing the

26:13

relationship on her face. Woman

26:15

in that kind of money, if they're faced

26:18

with it, if they're off in an iron in her house

26:20

and better with her husband, what is she gonna

26:22

do?

26:23

What was no secret was that

26:25

Vicki Morgan wanted to marry Alfred

26:27

Bloomingdale.

26:28

She wanted him to stop playing his sadomasochistic

26:31

sex games, and she wanted him to prove his commitment

26:34

by buying her a house she could call her own.

26:37

Alfred Bloomingdale was open to it. He

26:39

promised Vicki he would take care of her forever. They

26:41

would shop around, but then there would always be

26:44

some kind of falling out. They'd get caught

26:46

and have to cool off for a while, or Alfred

26:48

would have a health scare from his five-packs-a-day

26:50

smoking habit. Other times, Vicki

26:53

would get frustrated or bored, and

26:55

they'd go their separate ways. Sometimes

26:57

Vicki would go so far as to marry someone

26:59

else, mostly to make Alfred

27:01

jealous,

27:02

and it would work.

27:03

One time, Alfred drove through the gate of her new

27:05

lover's home with a folder detailing Vicki's

27:08

expenses from the previous year. Another

27:10

time, he demanded reimbursement for a $10,000 freezer

27:13

he bought for her rental home. When

27:15

Vicki told Alfred that she was getting married for a third

27:18

time, he reportedly wept and

27:20

offered her a million dollars not to go through with

27:22

it. Vicki agreed. Alfred

27:25

never paid. During

27:27

the lulls of her affair with Alfred Bloomingdale, Vicki

27:29

Morgan had brief relationships with the

27:31

King of Morocco, a plastic surgeon,

27:34

a heroin-addicted Saudi princess. At

27:37

her lowest, Vicki was fucking the switchboard

27:40

operator at her apartment building, as

27:42

well as the former bookie that lived a few floors

27:44

above her.

27:45

Most memorably, Vicki Morgan became

27:47

one of financier Bernie Kornfeld's

27:49

living girlfriends at Grey Hall, one

27:52

of about 40.

27:53

But no one could make Vicki feel as special

27:56

as Alfred Bloomingdale did, so

27:58

the cycle would repeat itself.

27:59

Vicki Morgan would end up flat broke and desperate

28:02

with a worsening drug habit. Alfred

28:05

Bloomingdale would rescue her and remind her that

28:07

she was too good to live like that. Something

28:09

Vicki Morgan already knew.

28:12

Or was she just delusional? Because

28:14

she'd been living like that for nine years now.

28:16

Living as the other woman, banished

28:18

to the shadows, holding onto empty promises,

28:21

waiting for someday. At 26

28:25

years old, Vicki Morgan checked into

28:27

the mental health center at Caesars-Sinai Hospital

28:29

in Beverly Hills to treat her drug

28:31

abuse and depression. Alfred Bloomingdale

28:34

paid for it. When Vicki got out, Alfred

28:36

rented her another house and another Mercedes

28:39

and started giving her an $18,000 monthly allowance.

28:43

Alfred Bloomingdale was in a good mood. His

28:45

buddy Ronald Reagan had just been elected President

28:48

of the United States.

28:49

As a major donor and member of what they

28:51

called Reagan's Kitchen Cabinet, which

28:54

was a group of long-time supporters and unofficial

28:56

advisors,

28:57

Alfred anticipated a major appointment

29:00

in the administration. The

29:02

Bloomingdales went to Washington, D.C.

29:04

Vicki Morgan was also in town for the inauguration,

29:07

although she had to watch from afar. Unexpectedly,

29:10

Alfred and Betsy's common interest in making 1980

29:13

America great again brought them closer

29:15

together than they had been in years.

29:17

Even though Betsy Bloomingdale's recent felony

29:19

arrest for concealing two Christian Dior

29:21

dresses from customs inspectors reportedly

29:23

cost Alfred his much-desired seat in the

29:25

administration, but the Bloomingdales

29:28

did have a seat at the Royal Wedding in July 1981.

29:31

Vicki Morgan was left behind, but

29:33

would have plenty of opportunity to spend quality

29:36

time with Alfred when he returned. It

29:38

was the beginning of the end. Alfred

29:40

was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer.

29:43

He had to have part of his esophagus removed, which

29:45

was followed by major complications, kidney

29:48

failure, ulcers, and loss of hearing

29:50

and speech. Betsy

29:53

Bloomingdale visited Alfred in the hospital when

29:55

she could, but as the first friend

29:57

of the First Lady, her calendar

29:59

was closed. He told me that his

30:01

wife was too occupied with her social life,

30:04

her shopping, her lunches with designers

30:06

and lady friends to give him the support

30:08

he needed," Vicki later said. He

30:10

said he wanted me to promise him that I would help get him

30:12

well no matter how long it took and

30:14

to supervise the nurses whom he said he

30:17

did not trust. He said he was afraid

30:19

of the nurses. On his deathbed, he's

30:21

afraid of his wife, not me. Vicki

30:24

spent hours by Alfred Bloomingdale's bedside

30:27

trying to make him comfortable. Sometimes

30:29

she would dress as a nurse just in case Betsy

30:32

bothered to pop in. Alfred and Vicki

30:34

wrote notes back and forth all day. It

30:36

was probably the most intimate they'd ever been

30:38

at any point during their 12-year fair.

30:41

It was quite nice, but eventually

30:44

Alfred was released to spend his final days

30:46

at home.

30:47

Vicki Morgan continued to visit Alfred

30:49

because Betsy was always out of the house. However,

30:52

one of the family's servants tipped off the wife

30:54

that Alfred had a regular female visitor.

30:57

Betsy was incensed, mostly

30:59

because she found out that Vicki's Mercedes

31:01

was newer than hers. Alfred

31:04

wrote a note to Vicki. There's no point

31:06

in trying to come over to see me. She's given

31:08

orders that year not to be allowed in, and

31:11

so the visit stopped, but as

31:13

the end grew nearer, Alfred Bloomingdale

31:15

convinced the nurse to take him to see Vicki for

31:17

lunch on Wednesday, June 16, 1982. Vicki

31:21

Morgan bought a new outfit and a $1,000

31:23

floral arrangement for the occasion. He

31:26

also hired a private chef even though Alfred

31:28

couldn't eat anything. It was a

31:30

thought that counted. When he arrived,

31:32

Alfred Bloomingdale needed assistance walking

31:35

as caretakers sent him down at Vicki's table

31:37

where he began to sob uncontrollably.

31:40

The lunch was cut short as his nurses whisked

31:43

him away. It was the last time Vicki

31:45

Morgan and Alfred Bloomingdale would

31:47

see each other.

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33:23

Alfred had told her for 12 years,

33:25

I'm going to take care of you the rest of your life. I mean,

33:27

he gave her thousands and

33:30

thousands upon

33:31

thousands of dollars over the 12 years. Millions, probably.

33:34

It was probably into the millions

33:36

if you calculate it right. And she had what? Nothing.

33:39

She didn't want to be alone. She

33:41

was petrified to be alone. I

33:43

would say she was paranoid. In June 1982,

33:45

two months before Alfred Bloomingdale died, Vicky Morgan

33:47

sued him for $5

33:52

million. It

34:00

was a palimony lawsuit for compensation

34:02

between an unmarried couple. Vicki

34:04

wanted the lifetime support that Alfred had promised

34:06

her. She had witnesses who had heard him

34:09

make that promise.

34:10

As his constant companion, confidant,

34:13

and business partner, the filing read,

34:15

Vicki Morgan agreed to give up employment opportunities

34:18

to instead devote her, quote, time, efforts,

34:20

and energies to Alfred Bloomingdale. In

34:23

her deposition for the case, among other things,

34:26

Vicki claims she basically acted as his sex

34:28

therapist to help wean Alfred

34:30

away from his SNM desires, which

34:32

Vicki described in great detail, in

34:35

which everybody else would learn about when the filing

34:37

became public. Which

34:39

never would have happened had the Bloomingdale settled

34:42

the lawsuit out of court, but they didn't.

34:44

With Alfred incapacitated with cancer,

34:47

Betsy Bloomingdale had taken over the family finances,

34:50

and a few weeks after Vicki filed the palimony

34:52

lawsuit, Alfred just happened

34:54

to find a new last will and testament, leaving

34:57

most of his assets to a family trust. Vicki

34:59

Morgan was not mentioned. However,

35:02

back on February 12, 1982, while

35:05

he was still in the hospital, Alfred Bloomingdale

35:07

had put his lifelong promise to Vicki in writing,

35:10

kind of. He wrote two letters, which

35:12

he sent to a business associate.

35:14

Both were submitted as evidence in Vicki's case.

35:17

The first was an agreement to pay Vicki Morgan $10,000

35:20

a month for two years, for a total of $240,000.

35:25

Should my lawyers, business managers, heirs,

35:27

or anyone else object to this agreement,

35:30

this letter will serve as your authorization

35:32

to follow through on the above. Signed

35:34

Alfred Bloomingdale. The

35:37

second letter transferred half of Alfred

35:39

Bloomingdale's ownership interest in a pizza restaurant

35:41

called Showbiz Pizza to Vicki Morgan.

35:45

Probably with the idea that it would provide Vicki with a future

35:47

income stream, but the business

35:49

was just starting, so there was no guarantee.

35:52

This is curious because, excluding his

35:54

steak in Showbiz Pizza, Alfred

35:57

Bloomingdale was worth an estimated $100 million. and

36:00

owned plenty of real estate. Why

36:02

was Vicky Morgan's future dependent

36:05

on a pizza franchise?

36:07

We will never know.

36:08

Arthur Blumdell died on August 23, 1982 before the case

36:10

could be heard. He

36:14

died alone at St. John's Hospital.

36:16

His wife, Betsy, was at a dinner party.

36:18

She found out when she returned home at 1 a.m.

36:22

The next day, the multi-millionaire was buried

36:24

in a $200 casket in a private

36:26

ceremony. Within days, Vicky

36:28

Morgan had found out which cemetery. She

36:31

visited Alfred's grave to leave a lonesome

36:33

rose. I was shocked by what she found.

36:36

I went to the cemetery and I found there was not one

36:38

flower on the grave except what I put there.

36:41

She told the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. When

36:44

I saw that, I was shocked. I still

36:46

am in a state of shock. That was,

36:48

believe me, all done because of Vicky

36:51

Morgan. She buried him and

36:53

excused my expression

36:54

like a dog.

36:55

This woman only thinks of one person, Vicky

36:58

said, when I'm excluding her children.

37:00

One of the Betsy, Betsy, Betsy.

37:05

The Palomone lawsuit continued after

37:07

Alfred's death but with a procedural change.

37:10

The Blumdell estate was now the name's

37:12

descendant instead of Alfred.

37:15

Vicky Morgan had amended the suit for an additional $5

37:17

million alleging that Betsy had

37:19

interfered with her contractual agreement with Alfred

37:22

by cutting off her $18,000 monthly

37:24

allowance. The public and the media

37:27

were sympathetic to the widow. Vicky

37:29

was upset with this perception. She blamed

37:31

her lawyer when she called on the phone, asked

37:34

for his astrological sign and then fired

37:36

him. His replacement fared no better.

37:39

Vicky Morgan's Palomone case was dismissed

37:41

on September 26, 1982. The judge

37:44

said Alfred Blumdell's agreement to support his

37:46

mistress for the rest of her life was illegal

37:49

because it involved sex for hire and

37:51

that he was just telling her what she wanted to hear to

37:54

get what he wanted. The judge described

37:56

the relationship as, quote, no more

37:58

than that of a wealthy old woman. married paramour

38:01

and a young, well-paid mistress. The

38:04

judge did, however, let stand the two

38:06

counts of action outlined in the signed letters,

38:09

the $10,000 a month for two years and the

38:11

joint business pizza venture ownership.

38:14

Unfortunately, a decision would not be made

38:16

on those items any time soon, so until

38:18

then,

38:19

Dickey Morgan was broke again. She

38:21

sold her jewelry and a Mercedes. She

38:24

moved into a duplex in Studio City.

38:27

She was driving a Jeep Cherokee. It

38:29

was awful. Dickey also tried to sell

38:31

some paintings Alfred had given her only to

38:33

discover they were worthless. It seemed

38:35

like the old man kept screwing her from

38:37

beyond the grave. Dickey

38:40

Morgan became angry, depressed, and

38:42

full of self-pity, completely

38:45

bitter towards the world and only 30 years

38:47

old. She got heavier in the drugs

38:49

and heavier into denial. Her

38:51

white wine intake was tallied by the bottle,

38:54

not the glass, and she was taking 10 to 15 items

38:57

every day. All Dickey Morgan

38:59

did was lay around her house feeling sorry

39:01

for herself. She lost a ton of weight

39:03

and stopped wearing makeup. She was too paranoid

39:06

about her notoriety to show her face in

39:08

a grocery store. Lucky for

39:10

Dickey, her mother, Connie, cared enough

39:12

to visit often.

39:14

Connie would clean Dickey's apartment, wash her

39:16

dishes, empty her ashtrays, and help

39:18

care for her teenage son, Todd. But

39:20

Dickey's family wasn't always available, and

39:23

notoriously, Dickey Morgan couldn't bear to

39:25

be alone. She started spending more and more

39:27

time with her friend Marvin when she'd met

39:29

in a mental hospital a few years earlier when

39:32

she'd tried to get sober.

39:33

Dickey and I just sat in the corner and laughed

39:36

at everybody else. Marvin reminisced.

39:38

Marvin Pankos has been

39:40

described as a completely average, well-spoken,

39:44

un-flamboyant gay man who left

39:46

the crushing shoulders with the celebrities. Famously,

39:49

one of Marvin's prized possessions was an address

39:51

book filled with celebrity phone numbers,

39:54

most of whom he had never met.

39:57

One famous face that Marvin Pankos did

39:59

actually meet. was Alfred Bloomingdale.

40:01

Vicky would invite Marvin to tag along

40:04

on trips with her and Alfred. Not only

40:06

did Marvin make for a great beard for the

40:08

affair in the presence of company, but he was

40:10

also a willing participant in Alfred's

40:12

game, which had evolved into dressing

40:15

Marvin up in diapers and spanking him.

40:17

Marvin Pankos had been in and out of

40:20

mental health facilities for most of his adult

40:22

life. He had been diagnosed with

40:24

multiple serious disorders, including

40:26

chronic schizophrenia. It was also

40:28

a conflicting diagnosis that Marvin was

40:31

HIV positive. Marvin told

40:33

the doctor that if he didn't have it,

40:35

he wished that he did.

40:36

Marvin Pankos was a masochist. This

40:39

might explain why he decided to move into

40:41

Vicky Morgan's duplex in the summer of 83.

40:45

Marvin had just lost his job at the William Morals

40:47

Agency and didn't want to move back in with

40:49

his mother. Vicky was still reeling

40:51

from Alfred's death and losing her palimony

40:54

suit and she had an extra room

40:56

at the duplex. Missouri loves company

40:58

and living with Vicky Morgan was

41:00

misery. Marvin Pankos quickly found

41:03

out. Pure hell, he would later

41:05

describe it. She never did

41:07

anything. The only time she moved was

41:09

when she was manipulating somebody and

41:12

usually she was manipulating Marvin Pankos.

41:14

He became Vicky Morgan's unpaid gopher

41:17

or as he called it, little slave.

41:20

Marvin cooked and cleaned for her, brushed

41:22

her hair, planted her toenails and massaged

41:24

her back and feet. He also left

41:26

the Queen of Sheba, as he called her,

41:29

borrow a Ford Mustang that he leased then.

41:31

Within days she had gotten drunk, he totaled it.

41:34

Vicky Morgan was exasperating.

41:36

It was Vicky's relationship

41:38

with a rider that truly sent Marvin

41:40

Pankos over the edge. Vicky

41:42

claimed she had learned a lot of dirt about the Reagan administration

41:45

from Alfred Bloomingdale and had been threatened

41:47

to write a book. She claimed it would be so

41:50

explosive that it might quote, bring

41:52

down the government.

41:54

Yet Vicky had difficulty selling the idea

41:56

without a sample so she was put in touch

41:58

with an unaccomplished freelance.

41:59

script writer named Gordon Basikis,

42:02

who had a fondness for sweet young

42:04

things. More importantly,

42:06

Basikis agreed to romanticize Vicky

42:09

Morgan's story as she wanted it to be. The

42:12

author and subject agreed to split the future profits

42:14

50-50. Gordon Basikis

42:16

and Vicky Morgan recorded hours of conversation

42:19

in preparation for writing the book. Within

42:21

five weeks, they were sleeping together. Eight

42:24

months later, not a single word of Vicky's

42:26

book had been written, but Gordon proved his

42:29

worth in other ways like buying her groceries

42:31

and paying her bills. Still with

42:33

no income, Vicky Morgan's financial situation

42:35

grew more desperate by the day, so

42:38

this month behind on her duplex ransom was

42:40

scheduled to be evicted on July 7, 1983, which

42:43

was only a few weeks away. Vicky

42:46

Morgan did not want to move back home with her mother

42:48

and Montclair, even though she did

42:50

not have many other options.

42:52

She floated the idea of moving in with Gordon

42:54

Basikis, but he didn't think it was a good idea

42:56

since he had a wife and a newborn. A

43:00

week later, Vicky Morgan wouldn't have even considered

43:02

it.

43:06

On Thursday, June 30, 1983, Gordon

43:08

Basikis excitedly presented

43:10

the first draft of the first chapter of Vicky's

43:13

book. He became incensed when

43:15

Vicky Morgan hadn't bothered to read it. Allegedly,

43:18

their argument turned physical and Gordon

43:20

forcefully set Vicky down on the couch by

43:22

grabbing her forearm. She also had a bruise

43:24

under her eye. She kicked Gordon

43:27

Basikis out of her house. She never

43:29

wanted to see them again. Fortunately,

43:32

Marvin Pankos came to the rescue. He

43:34

offered to take care of Vicky and Todd if needed.

43:37

Vicky and Marvin even joked about getting married so

43:39

she could be on his health insurance, too.

43:42

Marvin wasn't laughing.

43:44

Now, Marvin Pankos didn't have a job

43:47

or any other income per se,

43:49

but he did secure a $3,500 loan

43:51

from his grandpa to help him find a new

43:54

place. Marvin went apartment

43:56

hunting for him and Vicky, who couldn't

43:58

muster the energy to get out of bed.

44:00

bed enjoying him. The

44:02

lack of urgency was concerning. It was

44:04

July 5th. Vicky's stuff had to be out

44:06

of the duplex in 24 hours. Marvin

44:09

signed a lease for the most affordable and

44:11

immediately available place he could find. It was

44:13

a one bedroom condo in Burbank. We

44:16

returned to the duplex to share the news. Vicky

44:19

Morgan wasn't thrilled. Burbank?

44:21

You mean the boondocks? The middle of nowhere?

44:25

Living in Burbank was beneath Vicky

44:27

Morgan.

44:28

Marvin Pancoast was losing his patience

44:31

and his good will was tested even further later

44:33

that evening when Gordon Basica slid

44:35

back into Vicky Morgan's good graces. Gordon

44:38

came over around 10.30 that night. He

44:41

and Vicky sat on the couch discussing their

44:43

differences, drinking wine and snorting

44:45

Coke. They could hear Marvin Pancoast

44:48

pacing around in the upstairs bedroom directly

44:50

above them for hours. You need

44:52

to give Marvin a break, Gordon advised

44:54

her. The

44:57

next morning Marvin Pancoast went downstairs.

45:00

Gordon Basica and Vicky Morgan were still

45:02

awake on the couch. Go out

45:04

and get some breakfast things for us, Vicky instructed

45:07

Marvin

45:07

and we need coffee too. When

45:10

Marvin returned with the requested goods, Vicky

45:13

scolded him for buying the wrong brand.

45:15

Gordon likes chock full of nuts. You

45:17

should have got that. After eating the

45:19

bagels, Marvin Pancoast said Gordon and Vicky

45:22

went upstairs to bed. They

45:24

went up and she's fucking the rider. They

45:27

fucked until about 10 and then slept until 2.

45:30

Her mother and friends showed up, helped pack,

45:32

but she wouldn't get out of bed. She didn't

45:34

want to deal with anything.

45:36

The countdown to eviction was less than 20 hours.

45:40

When Vicky's mom and friend arrived to help pack, something

45:42

was obviously bothering Marvin Pancoast.

45:45

You go home, Connie told him. This is not

45:48

your responsibility. We'll handle things here.

45:51

No, I'm staying. I'm going to settle

45:53

this today with Vicky once and for all, Marvin

45:56

responded. Good, Connie said.

45:58

I hope you do.

46:00

Around 2 p.m. July 6, 1983, the

46:03

rekindled lovers came downstairs. Vicki

46:06

had Gordon drive her to check out the condo in Burbank

46:09

that Marvin had picked out. The rider

46:11

dropped her back off at the duplex about 45 minutes

46:13

later. Vicki immediately

46:15

vocalized her disdain for the property and

46:18

proclaimed that she wasn't sure what she was going

46:20

to do.

46:22

Around 9 p.m., Vicki's mother,

46:24

her mother's friend and her son Todd had

46:26

all left the duplex for the night. Marvin

46:29

Pankos and Vicki Morgan were the only ones

46:31

remaining in the house, besides Katie,

46:33

Vicki's doberman. One

46:35

of Marvin Pankos' daily chores was

46:38

to walk Katie. On this evening,

46:40

Vicki joined him, where she again

46:42

expressed her displeasure with the Burbank condo.

46:45

She told him she might rather put her stuff in storage

46:48

and stay with her mom for a while. Marvin

46:51

said Vicki Morgan complained and waffled

46:53

like this the rest of the night. She

46:55

reminisced about Alfred Bloomingdale and how

46:57

often he made her worries disappear. Marvin

47:00

Pankos just wished she would shut up. He

47:03

wanted to go to sleep because he had to wake up incredibly

47:05

early to retrieve the check from his grandmother

47:08

so that he and Vicki could continue to have a roof

47:10

over their heads. Marvin had invited

47:12

Vicki to join him to show some appreciation,

47:15

but Vicki said she'd rather

47:18

sleep. And now her constant yammering was

47:20

keeping Marvin awake. He tried massaging

47:22

her feet to calm her down, but that didn't work. I

47:25

want to listen to music, Vicki announced. She

47:27

demanded Marvin go downstairs to retrieve

47:29

her Michael Jackson cassette, and he

47:32

did. Marvin

47:37

pressed play and lay in bed next to Vicki

47:39

Morgan. He pretended to doze off

47:41

to the music, hoping Vicki would do the same.

47:44

Instead, Marvin could feel Vicki's body

47:46

jerked to the beat and she would start giggling.

47:49

Marvin became fed up and threatened to leave, but Vicki

47:52

begged him to stay. After

47:54

that, Marvin said Vicki Morgan gave

47:56

up on sleep. She set up in her bed

47:59

and started chainsmashing.

47:59

smoking, performing her trademark

48:02

act of snubbing out her cigarettes and half-chewed

48:04

pieces of gum. Marvin Pankos

48:07

couldn't take it anymore. He left the

48:09

room and went downstairs to the kitchen. He

48:11

sat at the table and ruminated for an hour

48:13

and 45 minutes, later telling the

48:15

Los Angeles Herald Examiner that this

48:18

was when he got the idea. He

48:20

was going to kill Vicky Morgan. She

48:23

wanted to be dead anyway, Marvin claimed. Vicky

48:25

had written some suicide notes in the past

48:28

and even attempted it on one occasion by

48:30

ingesting too many pills. Most

48:32

assumed that instance was for attention since

48:34

she knew someone would find her before it was too late.

48:38

So Marvin Pankos figured

48:39

he would do Vicky the favor since she

48:42

was too cowardly. He thought about strangling

48:44

her. He pulled the belt out of his bathrobe

48:46

and pulled it taut. Yeah, that

48:49

should do the trick. Wait,

48:51

Marvin Pankos stopped himself. What

48:54

about Todd's baseball bat? Marvin

48:56

remembered it was in the back of his car. He went

48:59

outside to fetch it, returned inside and

49:01

climbed the stairs. He walked into the

49:03

hallway bathroom and turned the faucets on full

49:05

blast to cover the noise. Marvin

49:07

said he waited until the light in Vicky's bedroom was

49:09

just right so he could sneak in unnoticed.

49:12

It was almost 3am. Vicky

49:15

Morgan was lying on her back but she was still

49:17

awake, experts say. Because

49:19

of when Martin Pankos landed that first forceful

49:22

swing of the bat into her skull, he sat

49:24

straight up screaming and used her arms

49:26

to block his face. Thud, thud,

49:29

thud. Marvin Pankos landed

49:32

at least six additional blows. He

49:34

kept hitting it had Vicky Morgan stop moving

49:36

in case she stopped talking and then he

49:38

laid the bat across her body and went downstairs.

49:41

He grabbed his pack of cigarettes, put them in

49:43

the pocket of his windbreaker, climbed

49:45

into his car and drove to the North

49:47

Hollywood police station.

49:54

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51:40

Los Angeles police said today that Vicky Morgan,

51:42

the former model who sued millionaire

51:44

Alfred Bloomingdale for palimony, was

51:46

beaten to death with a baseball bat this morning. Police

51:49

said 33-year-old Marvin Panko

51:52

was arrested in connection with that killing after he

51:54

turned himself in. Panko, who is said

51:56

to have lived with Miss Morgan, allegedly told

51:58

police they had a fight last night. The

52:00

31-year-old Miss Morgan filed a $10 million dollar

52:02

palimony suit against Ms. Bloomingdale last summer.

52:05

He died later. Parts of that lawsuit

52:07

were dismissed, but other legal claims are

52:09

still pending.

52:12

Marvin Pankos walked into the police station

52:14

at 3.20 a.m. on July 7, 1983. I

52:18

just killed someone. He told the lieutenant

52:20

on duty. She's

52:22

at 4171 Colfax Avenue, Apartment

52:25

D. I left the door open, but

52:27

look out for the Doberman. Officers

52:30

arrived at that address to find the door unlocked,

52:32

just as the man had described. Inside,

52:34

there were boxes everywhere. It looked like someone

52:37

was getting ready to move. With their

52:39

flashlights leading the way, the police slowly

52:41

made their way to the upstairs bedroom. They

52:44

flipped on the light switch and found a woman's body.

52:47

She was wearing a yellow t-shirt, blue

52:49

underwear, and red toenail polish.

52:51

She was still warm, but had no pulse.

52:54

It looked like the entire right side of her skull

52:56

had been bashed in. Her arms and

52:58

hands were battered and broken from a typical

53:00

defense response. There was blood

53:02

splattered on the wall,

53:04

and the Doberman curled up next to her

53:06

owner's bedside.

53:07

Not aggressive at all.

53:10

Back at the station, Marvin Pankos provided

53:12

a taped confession. I just couldn't

53:14

take it anymore, he told detectives, so I

53:16

hid her enough times on the head so that she would go

53:18

to sleep. Pankos made sure

53:21

to let them know who Vicky Morgan was, how she

53:23

had been Alfred Bloomingdale's mistress, how

53:26

she had sued him.

53:27

It was in the news.

53:29

Pankos also spoke about how Vicky bossed

53:31

him around, how she quote, needled

53:33

and manipulated him for the entirety of the

53:35

three weeks he lived at her duplex,

53:38

how she was to quote, coked out, valuamed

53:40

out, alcoholiced out to do

53:42

anything for herself. Pankos also

53:45

complained they had been paying for everything. I

53:47

kept on giving her moral support and believing

53:49

in her when other people didn't and didn't care

53:51

anymore, Pankos said. They called

53:54

me a hanger on, but it was Vicky

53:56

who was hanging on to me.

53:59

Marvin Pankos

53:59

Vicky co shared plenty more details, some

54:02

conflicting about what led to the murder

54:04

and jailhouse interviews with seemingly every

54:06

media outlet that asked, I expect

54:08

to die in the gas chamber, he told the Herald

54:10

Examiner. There was no doubt in his

54:13

mind. Well

54:15

that was easy, it appears to be an open

54:17

and shut case.

54:18

Great,

54:19

let's all go home. Not so fast.

54:22

Four days after the murder, the same day

54:24

Vicky Morgan was buried, there was

54:26

a massive discovery.

54:28

Dan Coast was under arrest within

54:30

hours of the killing, but all the way to

54:32

Washington people were still worrying

54:35

about the murder. They weren't concerned about

54:37

Vicky, they were thinking about what she

54:39

might have left behind. Had

54:41

she been hoarding pornographic tapes of

54:44

top Republicans? Steinberg said

54:46

the tapes quote, are things of high risk

54:48

to the national security of the country.

54:51

He added, there are elected officials in the government who

54:53

are videotaped. It's the kind of thing this

54:55

country doesn't need right now. Steinberg

54:57

said it reaches

54:58

all the way to the head of the country.

55:01

There were tapes,

55:02

according to this man. It looked to me

55:05

like I was taking a home film or

55:07

the old time stag film in the frat. It

55:10

was a very amateurish

55:12

photographic type of thing.

55:14

Robert K. Steinberg,

55:16

a 46 year old widely respected

55:18

criminal defense lawyer who had never met

55:21

Vicky Morgan.

55:22

However, he told a pack of reporters he had gathered

55:24

that two days after Vicky's murder, a

55:26

blonde mystery woman walked into his office

55:29

with a Gucci bag full of Betamax video

55:31

cassettes.

55:32

Steinberg said the woman told him that what was in the bag

55:34

would help Marvin Pankos' defense.

55:38

I didn't get more than 40 words out of her,

55:40

recalled the lawyer.

55:41

She did very little talking. It was take

55:43

it or leave it. These are yours now. Use them or

55:45

don't use them. If you don't, I'll go somewhere

55:48

else.

55:49

Robert K. Steinberg accepted the tapes and

55:51

watched them. And what did

55:53

he see?

55:55

40 minutes of black and white amateur

55:57

shot footage of a group of people engaging

55:59

in what

55:59

appears to be playful sadomasochistic

56:02

sexual activities. For example,

56:05

in one scene,

56:06

an unidentified dominatrix is pinning

56:08

carnations to the pubic hairs of several

56:10

men.

56:11

Who are these men?

56:13

Well, one of them was clearly Alfred

56:15

Bloomingdale. His

56:16

frame was unmistakable.

56:19

The others, according to Robert Steinberg, were

56:21

unnamed Reagan administration officials and

56:24

executives of the construction and oil

56:26

and gas industries.

56:28

We are appointed. One is

56:30

elected.

56:31

The others are prominent businessmen. They're

56:34

known to the president.

56:36

There were half as many women in the videos. One

56:39

of them was definitely Vicki Morgan. Steinberg

56:42

said he'd only shown the tape to two other people. He

56:45

said he didn't want to name names because he didn't

56:47

find the footage relevant to his client, Marvin

56:49

Pankos' case, in any way.

56:52

He assumed the videos were surfacing only to

56:54

embarrass and humiliate.

56:55

And Steinberg felt that that's not what the country

56:59

needed at the present time. I am

57:01

calling the president tomorrow, Steinberg

57:03

told the press.

57:04

If he wants to look at these tapes for whatever reason,

57:07

I will deliver them to him.

57:08

Otherwise, they will be destroyed. Robert

57:11

K. Steinberg tried to answer every question that came

57:13

his way over the next several hours,

57:15

but holes were emerging in the story. The

57:18

lawyer took offense out of his credibility being

57:20

questioned.

57:22

I've been in Vietnam for four years. I

57:24

was a prosecutor eight years,

57:26

and I've killed people.

57:28

Two days later, around 8.30 AM,

57:31

the Los Angeles County District Attorney's

57:33

Office instructed Robert Steinberg to

57:36

preserve the tapes as potential evidence and

57:38

not destroy them.

57:39

Someone would be by later to pick them up.

57:42

A few hours later, Robert K. Steinberg

57:45

called them back.

57:46

Yeah, you know those sex tapes

57:48

you wanted to borrow? I hate to tell you

57:50

this, but

57:51

they were stolen. Someone from

57:53

the press corps went into my library this morning

57:55

and removed those tapes. How do you know

57:58

that's true? We know which one of the two would love.

57:59

and there's some investigation right now.

58:03

Robert Steinberg claims he was planning to play

58:05

racquetball that day, so he just threw

58:07

everything, including the tapes, into his gym

58:09

bag. He said when he got to his office

58:12

he got worried that someone would steal the bag from

58:14

the trunk of his car, so he went back outside

58:16

to retrieve it.

58:17

Steinberg says he brought the bag inside and

58:19

left it in his law library, where some

58:22

reporters later gathered. One of them

58:24

walked off with it. Steinberg said he knew

58:26

which one it was too.

58:28

This story fell apart quickly.

58:30

The parking lot attendants at Steinberg's law

58:33

office never saw him come back outside to

58:35

retrieve a bag that day. Reporters

58:37

were in the law library that day, but

58:39

none recalled seeing a bag. Robert

58:42

K. Steinberg's trustworthiness took another

58:44

hit when the publisher of Hustler

58:46

magazine Larry Flint came forward

58:48

with the claim that he had a one million dollar deal

58:50

in place to buy the tapes from the lawyer, but Steinberg

58:53

never showed up to the meeting.

58:55

Robert Steinberg responded by claiming he

58:57

had never spoken to Larry Flint.

59:00

After reporters did more digging and found

59:02

blatant falsehoods on Robert K. Steinberg's

59:04

resume,

59:05

a narrative emerged that the tapes probably

59:07

did not exist,

59:09

and that the entire thing was a hoax, a

59:11

ruse by Robert Steinberg to

59:14

weasel his way into the defense attorney role

59:16

in a high-profile murder case.

59:18

Despite Steinberg's previous claims that he represented

59:21

Marvin Pankoest, that also was

59:23

patently untrue. According to Arthur

59:25

Barrens, Marvin Pankoest's actual

59:28

defense attorney.

59:30

However, Marvin Pankoest

59:32

claimed what Robert Steinberg was saying about

59:34

the sex tapes was true.

59:36

They do exist, Marvin confirmed. Dicky

59:39

Morgan herself had shown them to him. It

59:41

was why she was paranoid all the time, he said. That's

59:44

probably why someone had her killed,

59:46

Pankoest claimed.

59:53

Marvin Pankoest recounted his confession.

59:56

He said he woke up next to Vicki's dead body.

59:58

He said he could smell something sweet like it had

1:00:01

been knocked out with chloroform. Marvin

1:00:03

said he crawled out of the bloody bed around 3 am

1:00:06

and he was hungry so he started driving

1:00:08

to get a hamburger

1:00:09

and somehow ended up at the police station confessing

1:00:12

to a murder.

1:00:13

It was just one of those days.

1:00:30

On August 13th 1983,

1:00:32

Marvin Pankos pleaded not guilty to

1:00:34

first degree murder and not guilty

1:00:37

by reason of insanity.

1:00:39

At the trial, the defense would argue that Pankos

1:00:41

was a victim of a conspiracy. A

1:00:44

conspiracy to suppress a book in

1:00:46

which Vicki Morgan would expose the embarrassing

1:00:48

sexual habits of some government officials.

1:00:51

A conspiracy to smother embarrassing

1:00:53

videotapes that could ruin careers

1:00:55

and families. As a result, Vicki

1:00:58

Morgan lived in constant fear and

1:01:00

it was justified.

1:01:02

To support this theory, Marvin Pankos' lawyers

1:01:04

pointed out the botched murder investigation.

1:01:07

The baseball bat was sealed in a plastic

1:01:09

bag instead of a paper one. The resulting

1:01:12

humidity destroyed all fingerprints, hair,

1:01:14

and blood evidence. The blood tests that

1:01:16

were performed weeks after the murder were almost

1:01:19

certainly worthless. There was no presence

1:01:21

of valium or cocaine in Vicki's blood,

1:01:23

despite multiple eyewitnesses saying that

1:01:25

there definitely should have been. Furthermore,

1:01:28

the crime scene had not been sealed. The

1:01:30

front door was left unlocked. Drawers

1:01:32

were opened, boxes were dumped on the floor,

1:01:35

reason enough to believe that someone may have raffled

1:01:37

through the duplex unattended.

1:01:39

If it's not an inept police investigation,

1:01:42

then it's a deliberate cover-up, Marvin

1:01:45

Pankos' attorney claimed. But

1:01:47

what about his taped confession? Full

1:01:50

of factual inaccuracies, the

1:01:52

defense said. This mentally

1:01:54

ill man was a habitual confessor.

1:01:57

Marvin Pankos tried taking credit for the murder.

1:01:59

Manson Family murders after they had already

1:02:02

been solved, and Pankoast has since

1:02:04

admitted to shooting Marvin Gaye even though

1:02:06

he was already behind bars for another murder

1:02:08

that he did not do. Someone

1:02:11

else killed Vicky Morgan, Arthur Barrens,

1:02:13

for the court.

1:02:14

Marvin Pankoast loved her.

1:02:17

So,

1:02:18

who killed Vicky Morgan if it wasn't

1:02:21

Marvin Pankoast?

1:02:22

Was it the FBI? Was it the Mafia?

1:02:26

Something like that, the defense assumed.

1:02:29

Unfortunately for their case, the sex tape

1:02:31

testimony had been disallowed. The

1:02:33

tapes were never found. Robert K.

1:02:35

Steinberg pleaded the fifth on every question

1:02:37

at the trial. He was later slapped with a

1:02:39

misdemeanor criminal contempt charge for

1:02:42

refusing to answer or provide the tapes.

1:02:44

Model Vicky Morgan was murdered with

1:02:47

a baseball bat. Did her roommate

1:02:49

Pankoast do it, or stumbling linked

1:02:51

with her former lover, the politically powerful

1:02:54

Alfred Bloomingdale, member of President

1:02:56

Reagan's kitchen cabinet?

1:02:57

According to the defense, there was

1:03:00

also another suspect,

1:03:02

Gordon Basikas, the writer who

1:03:04

had a recent falling out with Vicky Morgan over

1:03:06

a failing book deal. Basikas

1:03:09

was also well versed in the art

1:03:11

of hypnotism, the defense claimed.

1:03:13

Perhaps Marvin Pankoast had been hypnotized

1:03:16

into confessing. Maybe

1:03:18

not.

1:03:19

Gordon Basikas had an alibi. He was

1:03:21

at home that night watching the Major League Baseball

1:03:23

All-Star game with his wife,

1:03:25

the American League One,

1:03:27

13-3.

1:03:29

Marvin Pankoast was found guilty of

1:03:31

first-degree murder on July 6, 1984. The

1:03:34

same jury would appear at a second hearing at

1:03:36

the end of July, where they determined that Pankoast

1:03:39

was indeed sane at the time. Marvin

1:03:43

Pankoast broke down crying when he heard the decision.

1:03:46

The 34-year-old was later sentenced to 26 years

1:03:49

to life in prison. A

1:03:52

few months later, a jury ruled that the leather

1:03:55

signed by Alfred Bloomingdale to transfer

1:03:57

funds to Vicky Morgan were indeed

1:03:59

enforceable. contracts. Unfortunately,

1:04:02

the ownership in Showbiz Pizza was worthless,

1:04:04

so Vicki Morgan's estate was awarded only $200,000. Her

1:04:07

son Todd received the money. Don't

1:04:11

worry, Betsy Bloomingdale got by

1:04:14

just fine without that $200,000. She died in 2016 at 93

1:04:19

years old.

1:04:20

Marvin Pankos died in a prison hospital 15

1:04:23

years earlier, in 1991, at the age

1:04:26

of 42.

1:04:27

Complications from AIDS,

1:04:29

just like he'd wanted.

1:04:32

Let's just say there were plenty of times when Vicki

1:04:34

and I discussed how it might end, Marvin

1:04:36

Pankos said in an interview with authors Joyce

1:04:38

Milton and Anne Louise Bardock for

1:04:41

the book Vicki. But she always

1:04:43

said if it happened, it would have to be in a

1:04:45

way that would do credit to Alfred.

1:04:47

Do credit to him? How? the authors

1:04:50

asked. By getting a lot of publicity,

1:04:53

she wanted to make Betsy squirm.

1:05:10

Swindled is written, researched, produced,

1:05:12

and hosted by me, a concerned citizen,

1:05:14

with original music by Trevor Howard,

1:05:17

aka Deformer, aka We

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Young Thing. For more information about

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Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow

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us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok,

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at Swindled Podcast. Or you can

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send us a postcard at P.O. Box 6044, Austin, Texas 78762.

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But please, no packages. We do not

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trust you. Swindled is a completely

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independent production, which means no network,

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no investors, no bosses, no shadowy

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money men, no palimony. And

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we plan to keep it that way, but we need your support.

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Become a valued listener on Patreon, Apple Podcasts,

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or Spotify at valuedlistener.com.

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For as little as $5 a month, you will receive early

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and everything is 100% commercial free. Become

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Or if you want to support the show and need something to wear on

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your trip to the Grey Hall mansion, consider

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There are t-shirts, patches,

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Remember to use coupon code CAPITALISM to

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you don't want anything in return for your support, you

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can always simply donate using the form

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on the homepage. That's it.

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Thanks for listening.

1:06:37

My name is Rebecca from

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Mauveen in the French Alps. My name is Shay

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from California. My name is A. I'm a swindler. I

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am a concerned citizen and a valued listener. And will always be one. I am

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a concerned citizen and a valued listener. And will always be one. I am a

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concerned citizen and a valued listener.

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Je apprécie tout comme vous.

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Merci.

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