Phil Spector Convicted of Murder-Finally

April 20, 2009

Throughout much of Phil Spector's six-month-long second trial, the prosecution portrayed the 69-year-old music industry genius as a sadistic misogynist and produced extensive testimony from women who said that the famed music producer had terrorized them at gunpoint during bouts of heavy drinking.  Some of the women's testimony described events that occurred as far back as 30 years ago.  The 1989 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is well- known for his volatile temper, and prosecutors contended that Spector, at one point during the early morning hours of February 3, 2003, had pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver and blew off the lower portion of actress/model Lana Clarkson's mouth in the foyer of his 33 room castle replica home located in Alhambra, California, near Los Angeles.  Clarkson was 40-years-old at the time of her death.  When the police arrived at Spector's mansion, they found Clarkson slumped in a faux Louis XIV chair, with the revolver lying beneath her left leg.

The story, as many readers know, was not particularly complicated.  Spector, driven by a chauffeur in Spector's Mercedes S430 limousine, had gone out for the evening and had visited a number of Hollywood drinking establishments that included Dan Tana's and Trader Vic's, where he had purportedly drank a good deal of navy grog, typically a strong, heavy-duty drink comprised of various types of rum and other liqueurs, including Grand Marnier.  He ended his evening out at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip, located near Beverly Hills, where he met Clarkson, who worked there as a hostess.

Clarkson at first had reportedly thought that Spector was a woman because of his freak hair style, but management quickly corrected her and told her to treat him "like gold," which she did.  He eventually persuaded Clarkson to go home with him for a nightcap, and along the way they watched Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in the back of the limo, a rather chilling title considering the circumstances of how things turned out.  Nonetheless, during the wee hours of the morning Spector exited his residence and said, "I think I killed someone," which the chauffeur, waiting outside in the limousine, reportedly heard.  Spector, however, before the first trial, had said that Clarkson was the victim of an accidental suicide, and purportedly told one interviewer that "she kissed the gun."  His defense attorneys during his first trial had also attempted to explain away her death as a suicide.

However, the prosecution had gone to great lengths to show that Clarkson was not suicidal.  They cross-examined defense expert witnesses who said that suicidal people seldom kill themselves impulsively or on a whim, and almost certainly would not kill themselves at a stranger's home.  Prosecutors also said that Clarkson had purchased several pairs of new shoes just before her death, and argued that a suicidal person rarely purchases new things if they have plans to do away with themselves.

Unable to dispel the gruesome image of Clarkson with the lower half of her mouth blown away, the Los Angeles jury found the former hit-maker guilty of second-degree murder last week, on Monday, April 13, 2009, effectively bringing the six year ordeal to an end.  Judge Larry Fidler ordered that Spector be taken into custody immediately despite pleas from his lawyers to keep him out of jail pending sentencing.

"Public safety and public protection are paramount," Fidler had said.

After losing other high-profile celebrity cases in the past, such as those involving O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office was, naturally, elated by the guilty verdict.

"Celebrity cases are always a little different," said District Attorney Steve Cooley, who referred to the jurors who had acquitted Robert Blake as "incredibly stupid....sometimes the laws of gravity as we know them don't work in celebrity cases."

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office said that Spector had been the first celebrity to be convicted of murder in Los Angeles County in at least 40 years.

According to Spector's attorney, Doron Weinberg, an appeal of his client's conviction seemed likely.  Weinberg said at least one of the grounds for an appeal would be based on the judge's decision to allow testimony of women regarding events dating back 30 years or more in which Spector allegedly terrorized them at gunpoint.

"We believe analytically there is absolutely no legal basis for the admissibility of that evidence," Weinberg said.

Spector's sentencing date was set for May 29, 2009.  He faces a mandatory life prison term, and under current laws must serve at least 18 years before becoming eligible for parole.

An interesting footnote to this strange but tragic case is the hit song that Spector emerged onto the music scene with in 1958 when he recorded, "To Know Him is to Love Him," when he was 18. The title apparently had come from an inscription on his deceased father's headstone.  His father had committed suicide nine years earlier by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Related Link:
The Continuing Saga of Phil Spector

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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