Mugshots: Phil Spector - House of Blues Murder | Forensic Files

[Music] the wall of sound was Phil specker sound and he would have like three or four
bases five six seven guitars always four pianos we used to do crazy stuff just to
make to make sounds Phil love that stuff he's known for carrying guns into the recording studio there are many
recording artists who talked about Spectre pulling a gun during a recording session Leonard Cohen the songwriter had
a record that Spectre produced in the 70s and and Cohen says that at one point Spectre leaned over and put a gun at his
throat and said I love you Leonard and and Cohen's response was I certainly hope so she walked in and pretty much
stopped the whole party she was 6' tall blonde beautiful had a spectacular dress
on within the first 10 minutes of knowing her she had me crying I was laughing so hard I don't think I've ever
met a woman who was so funny fun was what Spectre needed when Lana Clarkson appeared before him Clarkson told him
she was Moonlighting at the House of Blues but that she had a career as an actress in films directed by Roger
Corman she had energy and enthusiasm and it came across on camera she loved talking to people and Phil
Spectre would have been such an exciting place for Lana to be just to talk to that man for 5 minutes then one star
cross night on the Sunset Strip The Faded Legend and a be movie Queen teamed up to produce a real life Hollywood
mystery story [Music] [Music] a [Music] Phil Spectre is a rock and roll original
The Man Behind Some of the biggest stars in modern music producing hits like he's
a rebel for the crystals to You've Lost That Loving Feeling for the Righteous Brothers to imagine for John Lenin he is
known for a distinctive style called the wall of sound but on February 3 202 Spectre made headlines he didn't
want when a woman was found dead in in his home writer Steve Pond says the trouble began Just Before Dawn with a
phone call is at 5:00 a.m. his chauffeur who was in the car in the driveway of his house in alhamra called the police
because he heard a gunshot from inside the house the police came very quickly and showed up at the house they found
Clarkson lying down dead they found Spectre in the foyer apparently he resisted arrest of some sort they
subdued him with a taser or a taser like device and arrested him and and took him
in police arrived to the 10 bedroom Chateau just outside Los Angeles The Chateau is a retreat that Spectre had
shared with very few people the police found a woman on the imported marble floor of specter's foyer she was dead
from a single gunshot wound they indeed found a uh a female white adult suffering from a gunshot also at the
scene was Mr Phil Spectre the woman would turn out to be Lana Clarkson a be movie actress known for her role as the
Barbarian Queen she had met Spectre a few hours earlier at a nightclub called the House of Blues where she was working
one of Lana's girlfriends Athena Massie said Lana had made a terrible mistake she obviously didn't know his reputation
because I think if she would have known that I really don't think she would have
been where she was and I can't find two people that are more more opposite than Lana and Phil I mean fate threw them
together somehow ill fate uh there she was the House of Blues you know what attracted her to him what can we
speculate it certainly had to be his name it certainly had to be his reputation it could not have been his
looks um and he invited her back to his place I I you know there are so many odd
elements to this story the man lives in a c Castle the castle is in alhamra alhamra is not Beverly
Hills um and off she went I I mean the whole series of circumstances also given the hour of the night and uh and you
know drinks were pouring spectre's reputation for violence included the accusation by his ex-wife of virtually
keeping her a prisoner in their home musicians have also claimed he brandished weapons during recording
sessions it is a history that is part of the living legend that is Phil Spectre we learned later that he had a
reputation with women of sort of threatening violence and even messing around with weapons his exwife Ronnie
said you know he threatened to uh kill her if she ever left him and once took her downstairs and showed her a coffin
and said this is yours if you ever try to leave me um she wrote that that in her autobiography how did this wildly
successful record producer end up a murder suspect yeah he gave an interview in I
believe December or January to a British paper which in many ways was the first sign that something was wrong because
all of spectre's friends had been saying that for the past 3 years he hadn't been
drinking he'd been becoming more social he'd been happier he was going out more he was more adjusted the answer may be
found in his [Music] youth both spectre's parents immigrated from Russia they were also first
cousins it was a typical scene in postwar New York city where the neighborhood kids all played together
the whole neighborhood were all immigrants either they came from downtown up here bouses the moved here
or they came from Europe we used to have a pond right here on the back we used to go ice skating in
the wintertime we would put our skates on and walk from here in the back of this apartment house a shortcut right
into the pond where the ice was Phil's childhood innocence was shattered when he was 8 years old his
father committed suicide he's buried in the Beth David Cemetery the phrase to know him was to love him is on The
Headstone the young Phil Spectre couldn't know at that time that those words would one day make him a
star his mother moved the family from the Bronx to Los Angeles and settled not far from the Santa Monica Pier a
classmate at Fairfax High Carol Connor would be one of the first singers to team up with a young Phil Spectre in a
group he named the teddy bears he said I'm going to write a song for your voice I went yeah sure fine right and I went
did my homework and the phone rang about 2 weeks later and he said uh this is a song and I said what song in August 1958
the teddy bears recorded a song to know him is to love him it was based on the epitet on his father's Tombstone it was
a promise he made to his father's memory I was the first girl to come out with this sort of delicate to no no no him
you know voice very Angelic and the record sold a 100 then another 100 300 a th000 and we said maybe we have a hit
here the song went to number one on the national charts to know no know him is to love love love him he directed me but
he and he knew what he wanted and I understood what he wanted and I think that what happened was he honed himself
on that he saw that giving direction was really one of the things that he was bril iant at even though there wasn't a
lot of direction to give because it wasn't like it was the wall of sound where he had layers and layers and
layers of of of you know violin things and drums and this was a very simplistic song but there was an honesty to it
there was an honesty in his Melody which he once said to me was uh he took part of it from aarian Opera why can't he see
da da da da da you know it's very classically oriented but Phil was classically oriented and I was
classically trained in music so I understood where he was coming from but the teenagers went their separate ways
and the teddy bears broke up journalist Steve Pond suggests Spectre in spite of this success appeared to have trouble
fitting in to the Los Angeles scene he wasn't a surfer kid and I and I think the combination of violent death in the
family and the fact that he was in a place where he didn't really belong he clearly had a troubled childhood and the
seeds that were swn there were with him his whole life he was very bright very very bright um at times yeah I think
Phil was a loner but there was another side to Phil that was very funny he was really quite the character he loved
Lenny Bruce loved Lenny Bruce he thought he was absolutely staggeringly bril brilliant and Jonathan wyers and he
would memorize all of their comedy bits and then he would do them on me he was not a popular kid in high school he uh
was not well-liked he kept to himself and when he showed up at the 10-year High School reunion he brought
bodyguards he brought three bodyguards he strd it around he made it very clear that he was a huge success and he didn't
want to have anything to do with his old high school classmates but he wanted to
see he wanted them to see him as a huge success and one of his fellow classmates
said basically he had the bodyguards there to keep the rest of us away and apparently he said after the fact that
he wanted to treat his classmates the way they treated him when he was in high school in 1960 Spectre returned to New
York City as a professional songwriter back where he felt he belonged he worked in the brill building alongside the
fabled group of songwriters such as Neil Sedaka who hit where the boys are helped
make Connie Francis a household name Spectre ran erins but got a break and co-wrote Spanish Harlem for Benny
King he then got a shot producing for a few artists and within the year broke off and started his own record company
back in La Carol Connors remembers hearing one of spectre's songs on the radio I love how your eyes Clos for one
Split Second in time I did not know it was not me and I pulled over to the side of the road and I wept because I knew
that Phil had copied my sound or the sound he had created which was really my voice had created that sort of innocent
sound and knew that there was a formula there and took it to somebody else in less than 2 years years the
label had its first number one hit he's a rebel by the crystals Spectre was 21 and a millionaire I mean he's known for
the wall of sound you know and not all musicians really liked it the Beatles hated it they thought there was too much
music too much sound in this wall of sound but it did establish him I'm you know without him you know would we have
the Righteous Brothers uh he also gave us a lot of the girl group in the early 60s I I mean he deserves his spot in the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but success did not bring happiness and Spectre spoke openly with the Press about his
paranoia I know he gave an interview in the mid-60s when he was becoming really really successful revolutionizing pop
music and and becoming arguably the most dominant production force in rock and roll and he said I feel hated for some
reason and dating back to his childhood his high school whatever I think he always felt like people were against him
everybody was out to get him I think Spectre definitely wanted people to notice him he wanted people to to say
wow there's Phil Spectre isn't isn't he great isn't he scary he wanted a reaction out of people he wanted people
to know that Phil Spectre had been in the room that Phil Spectre had had been in the restaurant he he was not a person
who wanted to be the life of the party and wanted to be everybody's friend but he sure wanted everybody to know that
that he was around and and that he had been there a place in Califoria during the 60s pop music was
booming around the country and particularly in Southern California where Phil Spectre opened the
studio Hal Blaine a drummer who worked for Spectre remembers Spectre style Phil had a big sign on the Studio door no
entry closed session well anyone stuck their head in Phil would grab him and say hell give him a tambourine give him
a cowbell something to hit and make noise with Lane was an important collaborator Spectre would record and
re-record Blain's drum riffs and then overdub them to make a more powerful sound almost pop symphonic everything
went on the record and that was I guess what you call the wall of su the wall of sound was the sound of
teenage angst emotional anthems that were more Opera than rock and roll Phil used to be in the booth here he was
Burns and he would be conducting we used to do crazy stuff to make sounds between
1961 and 1966 Phil Spectre was the most successful pop music producer in the world Phil knew what he had in his head
and what he wanted and Phil spent hours with guitarist saying put your finger on
this string put your finger on this string put your finger on this you getting exactly the sound that he
wanted and that was his genius he did the same thing with the pianos you know I want this octave here I want you and
this this this this use your fingers this way Etc he did that with everybody until it came together exactly the way
he wanted it and then we would be ready to record and that was part of his genius meanwhile he would be in the
booth while we're taping and he would be conducting he would be looking at the horns back here or something more more
give me more take it easy now here here come we we want drums here hell go crazy
give me this uh you guys on the guitars you know we couldn't hear him but you knew what he was saying because he was
conducting he had more than 20 top 40 hits with groups like The Ronettes the Righteous Brothers and the singing
sensation Connie Francis and for the first time the producer was the star his sound was being imitated by many in the
music business and he was getting very very rich when we got our little 3540 $50
that was wonderful but at the same time Phil was was getting his 354 50,000 or more when Spectre was 22 he
married his longtime girlfriend Annette morar in 1963 before he was 23 he'd left
her for Ronnie Bennett of his ronet he played the role of young genius to the hilt but all the while he was making
calls from the studio to a psychiatrist because he knew he had problems people let them do whatever
because they are a genius quote unquote and nobody says hey wait a minute Spectre that's not exactly appropriate
behavior by this point spectre's aggressive behavior might have been unpleasant but not
threatening the hit stopped coming and Phil Spectre basically retired he married Ronnie in
1968 and moved her into a 23 room mansion in Beverly Hills immediately he put bars on the Windows a barbed wire
fence around the property and H up for days in a darkened room with a gun if there's nobody there to do checks and
balances on you then all your sort of cute little idiosyncrasies when you were younger become
rampant then two years later Phil Spectre began a spectacular comeback The Beatles were breaking up and had
abandoned hundreds of hours of their final recordings Lenin asked Spectre to Salvage their tapes he added his
trademark strings and choirs and the album was released as Let It Be although the record was not a critical success it
got Spectre back in the game he continued working co-producing solo records for John lennin and George
Harrison Phil had the genius to tell everybody what he wanted and how he wanted it and he would work individually
with everyone in the studios meanwhile his behavior at home was more bizarre than ever Ronnie Spectre claimed Phil
was holding her prisoner often at gunpoint in 1972 she literally ran away spectre's
last recording session with John Lennon was in 1973 for an album called rock and roll
the session ended amid stories that Spectre had shot up the studio but friends tried to downplay the incident
the only Gunplay that I ever even heard about was the bullet hole in the ceiling
in one of the studios when we were doing the John lenon sessions just prior to his death after that Spectre sessions
produced more notorious stories than popits like reports he pulled a gun on singer poet Leonard Cohen Cohen says
that at one point Spectre leaned over and put a gun at his throat and said I love you Leonard and and Cohen's respon
was I certainly hope so we have arrested Mark David Chapman for the homicide of John lenon
Mr Chapman came up behind him and called to him Mr Lennon as he arrived at that doorway and
then in a combat stance he fired he emptied the Charter Arms 38 of a gun that he had with him and U shot John
lenon after the murder of John Lenin in 1980 Spectre shut himself off from the world for 15 years he lived in seclusion
and faced some personal hardships his 9-year-old son died of leukemia his third marriage ended in divorce and his
ex-wife Ronnie Spectre pursued a court case for royalties then in 1995 there was an
attempt to produced songs for Seline Deon the sessions ended badly but Spectre was back on the public
scene and so were his guns this worried Carol Connors who had remained friends with Spectre over the years we were all
leaving the Polo Lounge and uh this lady took a look at Phil's hair and was a little shocked by it and Phil became
enraged in his mind this woman had made fun of him and all of a sudden I saw a gun it was in his hand he didn't do
anything with it but there was still a weapon fearful of what might happen Connors left that night and never saw
Spectre again in 1998 Spectre bought the Pyrenees castle in the workingclass suburb of alhamra he was a king and he
wanted a castle and the only place he could find a castle on top of a hill was alham the following year he began to
take medications for manic depression and stopped drinking so the drugs would work in recent years he was often seen
on the town often wearing a shoulder-length wig a lot of people thought that Phil is
on the right track Phil is healthy Phil is happy Phil is not drinking but by the
dawn of 2003 Spectre suffered a series of professional setbacks which further depressed him most importantly ly Paul
McCartney announced plans to re-release let it be stripped of spectre's production clearly Phil was still
tormented by by many many [Music] things in the winter of 2003 Phil Spectre broke his self-imposed silence
in an interview with the London Telegraph London was a special place for Spectre because of his work with the
Beatles he wanted to get back to work and he went to England to produce an album for a British band called star
sailor and apparently the sessions didn't quite go the way he wanted and he didn't get to produce a whole album and
he gave an interview to a British paper where he basically said he felt like largely he was insane that he was
bipolar that he just had mental problems and that things were very dark in his life and they always had been and I
think that interview came as a shock to a lot of people Spectre could not escape
the memories of his music that continued to be played in London Spectre had not produced a hit for over 20 years and
found himself out of step with contemporary music it's very possible that Phillip was setting himself up for
some kind of a fall just Weeks Later his chauffeur driven Mercedes pulled up at dantana's restaurant a show business
hangout on the edge of Beverly Hills Phil arrived at dantana apparently sometime around 11:00 p.m. or so with a
woman they had what other diners say seemed to be a date he sat in the back corner in a booth that's farthest away
from the door U he ordered a drink which was unusual because he'd been coming to
dant tanas for years and in recent years he had not been drinking and it was unusual enough that the bartender came
over to check and make sure that the order was right because he was used to Phil coming in and and having seven up
or something um so he ordered a he ordered a drink um he was there until probably sometime
between midnight and 1:00 a.m. another customer in the restaurant who was a talent manager found out who Spectre was
and came up to give him his card and and apparently according to this guy Spectre
didn't say a word just glared at him and basically the message was get back to your table and leave me
alone um the other customer also said that Spectre appeared to be sweaty kept going to the bathroom and he said he
appeared to be under the influence of something but he didn't know what he he had a couple drinks and he had a small
salad not much the check came to $55 uh and he left a $500 tip which he was known to be a very big Tipper but
$500 is a little extreme for a $55 check even for Phil Spectre [Music] [Music] it was nearly 2:00 a.m. closing time
when spectre's Mercedes arrived at the House of Blues and it was there that Spectre would meet Lana Clarkson a
chance meeting that would forever change his life I first met Lana Clarkson when
I was casting our picture Death stalker which was a sword and sorcery picture we
did in Argentina in the mid 1980s I was looking for one of two leading ladies the part we eventually
gave to Lana was of a warrior woman I wanted a woman who was goodlook uh had a good figure was tall
enough and commanding enough to give the impression of a warrior and also be a good actress Lana is absolutely the kind
of person that would be fascinated by somebody as prestigious as Phil Spectre to have the opportunity to have a
conversation with him and to speak with him would be her privilege and she'd be so excited to be able to do that anybody
that was um a a a success in their industry in an industry that fascinated Lana was a wealth of information was a
source of inspiration for her she loved interviewing people she loved talking to
people and Phil Spectre has 40 years of being in the music industry and that would have been such an exciting place
for Lana to be just to talk to that man for 5 minutes inside the blues Club Spectre sat alone in a booth drinking
and listening to the music spectre's skills had helped build the success that produced places like the House of Blues
but on this night that fact brought him little Joy when Lana Clarkson the club's
Hostess appeared before him she was an obvious attraction and distraction for the deeply depressed Spectre according
to the producer of this program who had coincidentally spoken with Miss Clarkson
a day earlier she walked in and pretty much stopped the whole party she was 6 foot
tall blonde beautiful had a spectacular dress on within the first 10 minutes of knowing her she had me crying I was
laughing so hard I don't think I've ever met a woman who was so funny she's fun she's always like the life of the party
um she's just funny she's entertaining fun was what Spectre needed Clarkson told she was Moonlighting at
the House of Blues but that she had a career as an actress in films directed by Roger
Corman she had energy and enthusiasm and it came across on camera one of the great things about Lana was
that she did not look down her nose at doing a medium budget or a lowbudget film she had the attitude that most
successful actors had have when they're starting and doing lowbudget films for instance some of the actors who' started
with me were Jack Nicholson Sly Stallone Bob dairo uh Charlie Bronson uh it goes
on and everyone who had success later on did their best and respected their craft
and the project in a low-budget film and Lana had that same attitude others who knew her say she was ready to give up
the amaz on Warrior roles and wanted to try her hand at standup comedy we talked
about how she had projects on the table and there was a direction she was going to take her career that she was very
comfortable with and she was very excited about while Spectre wasn't familiar with her career he had always
been drawn to people with a sense of humor knowing Lana's Mo I can see Phil introducing himself to Lana and them
striking a conversation I can see Phil saying you know there's an Afterparty over it
so and so's house over at some famous person's whether it was Jack Nicholson or a music person's house and we're
going to go I'm going to go by do you want to join me you know I can see her saying you know I'm wide awake and I
don't really feel like going home and um I'm feeling great I'm I'm with Phil Spectre and he wants to take me to an
Afterparty at Shaka Khan's house or you know some fabulous person's house and he
said oh I want to stop by my house and pick up a demo tape that I just recorded this is where my mind goes he went
upstairs to the Foundation Room which is a private room for members and guests up
on the top floor of the House of Blues and he was in there probably for a half hour or so as the club was was starting
to close down um he did have more to drink there um he probably had a bottle of champagne and he left the House of Blues
um as it was closing probably after 2: a.m. 2 2:30 in the morning and the employees there did see him in the
parking lot speaking to Lana Clarkson as she was getting her car and as it turned
out the two of them left together in spectre's chauffeur driven Mercedes probably around A4 to 3: in the morning
none of us know what happened um from the time she left the House of Blues until uh the time she was
reported dead so you know it's it's hard to really say um I just think that she obviously
didn't know who Phil Spectre is um she obviously didn't know his reputation his uh affiliation with crime
drugs violence and just the history of what kind of a person he is she is tall beautiful
vivacious loves animals is not violent has no is not into drugs is not into guns violence anything and he is a short
unattractive man that's old enough to be her father that has a huge history with
violence and guns sometime after closing Spectre and Clarkson got into the backseat of his
Mercedes and were driven to his Mansion what happened over the course of the next couple of hours has not been made
public Just Before Dawn spectre's chauffeur reports hearing a gunshot and calls 911 at around around 5:00 a.m. police
find the body of Lana Clarkson in Phil spectre's foyer the phone R it was Michelle she
said Daddy I don't know what to do I said Michelle you call Robert Shapiro right
away let him handle everything attorney Robert Shapiro most famous as part of OJ
simpsons's dream team became Phil spectre's defense attorney the sort of sick joke was well
murder is legal in California you know Saturday Night Live for said it with OJ and uh one wonders uh you Robert Blake
OJ and Phil Spectre I got a call from my mother at about 10:30 on Monday night and she said
honey when did you see Lana last and I said yesterday why she said when did you you talk to Lana last and I said
yesterday when I saw her I said why Mom and she said well honey they're reporting on the news that Alana
Clarkson has been found shot dead at some guy's house and I said what and she says
they've reported that she was shot dead Lana Clarkson actress 41 and I went mom I'll call you right back and I called
her cell phone and I said Lana it's neie honey call me and I called her at home and I left a message and I called her on
her pager and I left a message and I called her pager and I put my phone number in and then I tried getting
through to the house of the Blues just in case she was working and I couldn't get through and I called my mom again
and I said Mom what else did you hear please tell me everything she said somewhere in
alhamra a Woman by the name of Lana Clarkson so I got on the phone to the police station and I asked for somebody
and I explained who I was and I got to like the second or third person it ended up being a detective Rosenberg I believe
and I said my name is neie Hudson my best friend is Lana Clarkson she's 40 she's an actress and
it wouldn't be unheard of for her to know a famous record person please tell me how do I find out who this is and
detective Rosenberg asked me a few questions to validate who I was to verify that I was
a legitimate friend and he said are you alone are you sitting down and I started to shake and he said
um I'm so sorry to tell you that that was your friend that day I heard that Phil Spectre had shot someone and that
it was a 25-year-old blonde girl and I was just amazed that Phil Spectre shot someone so I watched CNN all day
long and I it wasn't until about 10:00 at night that um Suzanne Perry a friend of mine called and said Sunny oh my God
Lana's been shot by Phil Spectre I'm like what are you talking about she goes I just heard it and they just released
the name and you have to find out if it's true so I just called Lana's house it's the
first place that I called and fawn picked up and I go Fawn is it true and she just said yeah I said I'll
be right there Los Angeles County Sheriffs brought in a forensics team to Phil spector's Mansion shortly before Dawn
February 3 2003 Lana Clarkson was was identified as the dead woman who suffered a single gunshot wound Spectre
was arrested on suspicion of murder when it came on the news that day I fell off
the chair I mean I went oh my dear I mean this is so off the wall wall of sound this is so bizarre this is so how
could this have happened did it happen what happened that was the question everybody asked spectre's friends and
Clarkson friends a lot of the things that I think are being said in the media are such fabricated stories hearing
accusations such as maybe she was committing maybe she had committed suicide that is so absurd Lana loved
life more than anything and was very happy [Music] um her committing suicide is a joke uh
she's far very far from that also hearing that she was a high priced call girl it's absurd Lana is a very hardworking
actress she even took the job at the House of Blues just to help make 's meet and so that again she's still surrounded
by people that are artistic creative um in the industry and something that allowed her the flexibility to have her
days free well I must say that I don't know if anyone who knows that she was looking for Phil Spectre that night
night I think he just kind of walked into her life and the whole you know the House of Blues was like wildfire Phil
Spectre the great producer just walked in and I think that that's what she what she heard she was a gal that was she'd
do anything to become a star spectre's friends immediately started coming up with all sorts of different theories as
to how it could have happened and with Spectre saying nothing everyone speculation sort of ran rampant there
was the Intruder Theory where friends were saying there had to have been someone else in the house who did it
there was the theory that Marvin mitchelson Advanced which was it was just a tragic accident um it wouldn't it
couldn't have been intentional but they were fooling around and the gun went off
there was the theory the radio station advance that she accidentally shot herself there was another theory that
she had gone out to the car to leave and then she remembered that she forgot something in the house she went back to
the house he thought she was an intruder and shot her in the dark um every day it
seemed like there was a new theory that was floated about exactly what went on and because the police weren't saying
anything inspector wasn't saying anything people were free to run wherever they wanted with all the
theories the day after his arrest Phil Spectre was released on bail and refused to speak to the media for months then in
June 2003 he broke his silence and told Esquire magazine that Lana Clarkson had committed suicide that is so absurd Lana
l life more than anything back then Spectre sent email messages to 50 of his friends reinforcing his claim of
Innocence the email was signed by Phil Spectre and his new assistant Hal Blaine's daughter
Michelle the two of them wrote an email that basically said you know we haven't been able to say anything up until now
and we don't want to say we told you so but we told you so essentially saying the truth is coming out Phil's going to
be exonerated let's celebrate on February 19th Lana Clarkson's friends and family gathered for her funeral at
the self-realization fellowship Shrine near the Pacific Ocean her friends say she deserved to be a well-known name in
Hollywood but not like this that's unfortunate it's very unfortunate um Lana has achieved so much
in her career if you look at her resume she has accomplished more than most most actors um and at least she was
able to always maintain a job and a career and very very seldom did she ever take any kind of a side job like the
House of Blues or something else to help compensate um most of the time she was always able to provide for herself which
very few actors can do um so that I think is you know she deserves brownie points for that um and I think it is a
shame that people find her to be more famous in her death than she was in her life because it's just sad that a lot of
people didn't get to really know who she was because they would see that in her life she was a star Lana was discouraged
about her future but she was not desperate she was naturally an optimistic woman uh I talked with her a
few weeks before she died she had hoped to as it were reinvent herself as a supporting actress playing different
types of roles and she wanted to put together a real of her more dramatic work and I allowed her to use
our editing room and actually work with one of our editors to cut together uh such a real it was difficult it was
going to be difficult for her I knew and she knew but she was still enthusiastic
and she wanted to try when Lana was in San Diego she was telling me about this new play that she was going to be doing
that a friend of hers named Simba had written and she said Simba had just loved her so much in this role that she
actually changed the title of the role and put Lana's name in it so it's called Lana's pupil every woman's gold every
woman's guide to gold digging and it was very funny and it had her doing a little
singing a little dancing and of course just a lot of comedy and acting and it really showcased her nicely um my
husband went to watch her and and support her and the the turnout was great great and I think it's a shame
because some people take it seriously she's far from a gold digger the first trial against Mr Spectre ended with a
hung jury the da asked for and was given a second trial there Phil Spectre was found guilty of murder second degree
murder which is what the whole second trial was about I mean there was never any
question that was the charge uh it took the jury a long time to reach their decision they said they
knew their were lives at stake I didn't know if they meant his or Lana Clarkson but they obviously did not take
their responsibility lightly Phil Spectre was sentenced to 19 years to life for the murder of L Clarkson 15
years for second deegree murder plus four years for personal use of a gun spectre's lawyers had argued Lana
Clarkson committed suicide they will heal the key evidence against Mr Spectre was the testimony of his limo driver who
told police that after hearing a gunshot from inside spectre's mansion the music
producer appeared at the front door with a gun in his hand and said quote I think
I killed somebody end of quote it is to a certain extent ironic that Lana achieved a certain amount of Fame in her
life and because the circumstances of her death has achieved greater Fame afterwards I think it's a comment on the
culture of the United States and Beyond the United States it's a part of modern culture worldwide maybe carried to a
greater extent in the United States the concept of sensationalism I find sometimes that I drive down Sunset
Boulevard past the Lake Shrine and I keep thinking I'll see her or see her car and
um it's hard sometimes to think that she is really gone especially because you hear that this is something
that happened I didn't see a car accident or I didn't see her house burned down or something where you have
physical evidence that she's not here so I think part of me still feels like okay it's just all kind of a story and
I'll see her face pop up or she'll say hey here I am so it is hard it's hard to see such a good
person go in such a unfortunate way I don't think it's fair [Music]

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Brief Summary

Phil Spector's violent past culminates in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, revealing a tragic Hollywood story.

Key points

Phil Spectre's Distinctive Style. Known for his 'wall of sound,' Spectre revolutionized pop music.
A Deadly Encounter. Lana Clarkson's tragic meeting with Phil Spectre ends in her death.
Spectre's Troubled Past. Phil Spectre's childhood trauma shaped his later life and career.
The Rise and Fall of a Genius. Spectre's success in music was overshadowed by his violent behavior.
A Shocking Revelation. Spectre's mental health struggles come to light in a revealing interview.
The Night of the Incident. Phil Spectre and Lana Clarkson's chance meeting at the House of Blues leads to tragedy.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She obviously didn’t know his reputation.

A friend reflects on Lana Clarkson's meeting with Spectre.

4:19WatchJul 28, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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