”Phil Spector’s Pyrenees Castle”, as the large hand-painted sign outside proclaims, is quite the rock-star mansion. Perched on a hilltop in the unglamorous Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra, the 33-room home is all turrets, whitewashed walls and terracotta tiles. Surrounded by palms and pine trees, it commands the neighbourhood, offering an eyrie from which the reclusive rock icon can survey all around him.
For the past four years, the man behind the ”wall of sound” production technique defined by echoing string and percussion instruments, has stayed within the walls of this 1926 castle on $1-million bail. But next week that all changes as the 1960s record producer goes on trial for the February 2003 killing of Lana Clarkson, a 40-year-old actor and waitress who was found dead inside the hall of the Pyrenees Castle.
The prosecution alleges that, early on the morning of February 3 2003, Spector’s chauffeur Adriano DeSouza was sitting in the producer’s black Mercedes outside the Pyrenees Castle when he heard what sounded like a shot. As the driver got out of the car to investigate, Spector apparently emerged from inside wearing a white jacket and carrying a gun.
”I think I killed somebody,” he is alleged to have said.
Alcohol
Two hours earlier, DeSouza had driven Spector to the House of Blues — the fourth stop of the night. The Sunday-night tour had taken Spector to some of his regular haunts — exclusive Hollywood spots such as Dan Tana’s and Trader Vic’s — and seen him apparently enjoy a large quantity of alcohol, an allegation that will be key in his trial.
After initially refusing Spector admission to the club’s VIP area, Clarkson was told by the management to treat him ”like gold”. When Spector suggested a nightcap at his castle after the club closed, she agreed. DeSouza drove Spector and Clarkson to the castle.
What happened next is known only to Spector and it is possible that he does not remember.
The chauffeur called the police, who found a lifeless Clarkson sprawled on a chair, her head tilted back. The bottom of her mouth had been blown off and a 36-calibre Colt revolver was found under her left leg.
Spector appeared dazed, according to police reports, alternately railing against the officers and apologising for the misunderstanding.
His state could have been the result of shock, alcohol, the medication he was on or the 50 000 volts of electricity he received when police fired a Taser gun at him after he failed to remove his hands from his pockets.
In her report, police officer Beatrice Rodriguez quoted Spector as saying: ”What’s wrong with you guys? I didn’t mean to shoot her; it was an accident.”
Legal case
Spector was arrested and taken to the police station. Twelve hours later, he was released on bail in the company of his lawyer, Robert Shapiro, a member of the defence team in the OJ Simpson trial.
He was not charged with murder until November that year. Since then, the case has lurched and stalled.
Spector seems to have taken a leaf from Michael Jackson’s book in preparing for his court appearances, sporting Cuban-heeled boots, blond Afro hairstyles, tinted glasses, frock coats and jewel-encrusted brooches. Outside court, it has been difficult for the lawyers to control their client.
Spector, who in an email to friends written shortly after the shooting had referred to Clarkson’s death as an ”accidental suicide”, went further in an interview with Esquire magazine, claiming: ”She kissed the gun.”
In his deposition, Spector appeared erratic, with a haphazard memory for names and facts. ”I found out I owned a lot of weapons,” he said, when asked about the results of the police search of his castle. Revealing that he had been taking seven prescription drugs at the time of the murder, he described his mental state as: ”No sleep, depression, mood changes … hard to live with … a hard time getting through life.”
Shifting attention
His defence team, now led by flamboyant New York attorney Bruce Cutler, who has counted Mafia boss John Gotti among his clients, has taken a page from the Simpson defence by trying to shift attention on to the conduct of the investigation.
The defence will suggest that there is little to tie the gun to Spector. Unlike the other weapons in the house, the gun used to shoot Clarkson was not registered to Spector. According to legal analysts, Cutler may choose to pursue a mental-state defence, arguing that Spector was not responsible for his actions because of the combined effects of alcohol and medication, or a technical defence, asserting that Clarkson’s death resulted from the gun misfiring.
The case is the latest in California’s seemingly relentless stream of celebrity trials: from Simpson to Jackson. But though Spector’s trial, like Simpson’s, will be televised it could also slip out of focus.
”It is another celebrity trial, but we’ve had so many that have been more notable,” says Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor. ”Spector is definitely on the second tier. In any other town this would be big news, but this is Hollywood. There’s no shortage of celebrities that are getting arrested in this town.”
Born on December 26 1939, Spector grew up in the Bronx to a seamstress mother and a steelworker father. When he was nine, his father committed suicide. The family moved to Los Angeles, and at 17 Spector wrote a song with a title taken from the inscription on his father’s grave. He formed a band called the Teddy Bears and they recorded To Know Him Is to Love Him. Spector’s career was under way.
For four years in the early 1960s, Spector changed the sound of pop music, producing 20 top-40 hits between 1961 and 1965, including Da Doo Ron Ron, Then He Kissed Me, Be My Baby, Baby I Love You and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’. To their producer and occasional composer, the aching anthems to unrequited teen love were ”little symphonies for the kids”.
As the 1960s ended, Spector got left behind. As his artistic reputation foundered, so another reputation grew: that of an eccentric, unpredictable control freak, as likely to scream a string of profanities at the person nearest to him as to pull a gun on them. He took to wearing different guns to match his outfits. After seeing The Exorcist he wore an enormous crucifix. ”He wasn’t taking any chances,” a friend explained.
But by the time of Clarkson’s murder, according to those who knew him, Spector was going through a relatively level period.
”I am trying to get my life reasonable,” he told an interviewer in January 2003. ”I’m not going to ever be happy. Happiness isn’t on … But being reasonable is an approach. And being reasonable with yourself. It’s very difficult, very difficult to be reasonable.”
But if he was getting his life back together, the next month it fell apart again.
A kind of fame
”I’ll be no man’s slave and no man’s whore,” Lana Clarkson declared in the defining role of her B-movie career. ”And if I can’t kill them all, by the gods, they’ll know I’ve tried!”
Clarkson’s appearance in the lead role of Amethea in director Roger Corman’s two Barbarian Queen films gave her a sort of celebrity, but also illustrated the limits of her achievement: the blond, leggy Californian seemed stuck with the stereotype.
Clarkson’s early career reads like a pop-culture checklist: she appeared in CHiPs, Happy Days, The Love Boat, Hill Street Blues, Laverne & Shirley and Fantasy Island. She also appeared in one of the key 1980s youth-culture films, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as the sex-bomb wife of the school science teacher. But while that movie kickstarted the careers of Forest Whitaker, Sean Penn and others, for Clarkson it merely confirmed her position as a Hollywood bimbo.
As she neared 40, her career started to fade and attempts to persuade others that she was a serious actor failed. She tried other avenues, as a stand-up comic and a children’s entertainer. In 1991, she broke both hands and wrists after tripping over a rug at a children’s party. Depression followed, but friends and family say that at the time of her death she was again making plans for a new career. — Guardian Unlimited Â