On this day, July 7, in 1983, Vicki Morgan, the mistress of Diners Club founder Alfred S. Bloomingdale, was beaten to death with a baseball bat.

Bloomingdale, an heir to the department store fortune and a member of President Reagan's "kitchen cabinet," began an 12-year affair with Morgan when she was 18 and he was 54. Bloomingdale lavished her with cars, jewelry and kept her in a luxurious apartment.

After Bloomingdale died in 1982, his wife cut Morgan from the estate.

Morgan filed a palimony suit and prepared a tell-all book that was promised to embarrass politicians and businessmen.

Three weeks after being forced from her lavish digs, her new roommate, Marvin Pancoast, walked into a police station and confessed to murdering Morgan.

He died in prison.

-- Scott McCabe