Gloria Morrell

Gloria Morrell is the main villainess from "The Debt," episode 7.12 of Matlock.

She was played by Jennifer Bassey.

Gloria Morrell is the wife of lawyer Bruce Morrell, who was revealed to be having an extramarital affair with a younger woman. In the beginning of the episode, Bruce revealed to his former employee, fellow lawyer Peter MacIntyre, that he was deathly ill and had only 10-12 weeks to live. Gloria (who drove Bruce to meet Peter, due to Bruce's failing eyesight) knew about her husband's illness, but not about how long he had left, as he lied to her about it. She had also known about Bruce's affair, and was resentful of the fact that she would have to care for her husband for years after his betrayal. When she saw Bruce and Peter arguing, Gloria decided to use that in her murderous and vengeful scheme.

Late one night, Gloria drove Bruce to Peter's home, under the false pretense that Peter called him and needed to talk to him. After entering Peter's home, the evil Gloria grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her husband to death, and planned to frame Peter for the murder. After the murder, the villainess left Bruce's car at the scene and walked home; receiving a ticket for jaywalking on the way. Gloria's jaywalking ticket is what gave her away as the killer, as Leanne (Peter's ex-wife and defense attorney) presented it to her as evidence during Gloria's testimony. Leanne also revealed the truth about Bruce's longevity, and stated to Gloria that had she known that Bruce only had 10 weeks to live instead of 2-5 years, she wouldn't have had to kill him. Gloria was later arrested (off-screen) for killing her husband.