Telegraph.co.uk
Jukebox jury
Accused: pop genius Phil Spector
12:01AM GMT 08 Feb 2005
This spring, Phil Spector will finally be tried for the alleged murder of Lana Clarkson, the actress found dead at his home two years ago. Mick Brown, the last journalist to interview the pop producer before the shooting, distils the dramatic evidence that has already emerged
MICK BROWN CONTACTS ME IN 2005. HE USES ME. USES QUOTES OF MINE WITHOUT PERMISSION - ALTHOUGH HE WAS ADVISED TO DO SO. DOESN'T QUOTE ME. WANTS TO MEET WITH ME WHEN HE'S ATTENDING A PHIL SPECTOR STORY. I AM PRIVATELY COPYING THE 17TH KARMAPA, 14TH SHARMAPA, AND JIGME RINPOCHE IN ON ALL COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN ME AND MICK BROWN. SHARMAPA ADVISES ME THAT BROWN IS NAIVE, A STUDENT OF AKONG TULKU'S, AND I AM AWARE OF HIS ROLE IN THE KARMAPA CONTROVERSY. I SEE BROWN COMING IN FOR THE KILL WITH ME AND LET MY TEACHERS KNOW. BROWN IS UNAWARE THAT I AM SENDING THEM OUR EMAILS.
Over the two years since he was arrested on suspicion of murdering Lana Clarkson, an actress and model, and released on $1 million bail, Phil Spector has wiled away the hours in his California castle by sending e-mails to friends.
SURE. PHIL SPECTOR WILED AWAY HIS HOURS EMAILING FRIENDS. HE WASN'T PUTTING TOGETHER A LEGAL TEAM AND PREPARING FOR THE WAR OF HIS LIFE? I SEE MICK BROWN DOES NOT KNOW PHIL SPECTOR OR UNDERSTAND HOW BRILLIANT HE IS.
Rather than protestations of innocence or cries of despair, these have tended to take the form of corny jokes and squibs. One of his more recent dispatches bore the catchline 'Only in America'.
REALLY - ONLY IN AMERICA CAN YOU BUY CIGARETTES AT THE FRONT AND DRUGS AT THE BACK. ONLY IN REALITY IS CAFFEINE - WHICH ROUTINELY HARMS PEOPLE'S HEARTS, LEADS TO HOSPITALIATIONS, ETC. - WHILE GOVERNMENTS AND AGENTS DEMONIZE MARIJUANA KNOWING FULL WELL THEY PERSONALLY HAVE PREVENTED MEDICAL RESEARCH INTO ITS MEDICINAL VALUES. ONLY IN REALITY ...
'Only in America,' it reads, 'do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a Diet Coke. Only in America do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.'
Only in America, the list might add, could a high-profile murder case drag on for as long as Spector's has, while the accused carries on with life much as normal, entertaining friends and dining out – proof, as one Los Angeles attorney puts it, that 'justice grinds very slowly in California, particularly if the defendant is rich'.
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4 February 2003: Pop's lost genius [interview with Phil Spector]
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But after two years of legal prevarication, the Spector case has finally ignited in the most sensational manner. Ever since his arrest, Spector has maintained that Clarkson killed herself, that she 'kissed the gun', as he has put it. But testimony released three weeks ago from a Los Angeles Grand Jury alleges that at the time of his arrest Spector confessed to shooting Clarkson.
BROWN HELPS IT IGNITE IN THE MOST SENSATIONAL MANNER. THAT'S WHAT HE TOLD ME - THE 6' TALL, 160 POUND WOMAN WHO SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN A PROSTITUTE WHO
PLAYED KINKY SEX GAMES WITH GUNS SHOT HERSELF IN HIS FOYER. SHE WAS DANCING AROUND SINGING DA DOO RUN RUN. LOOKS LIKE SHE FELL BACK INTO THE CHAIR.
'I didn't mean to shoot her, it was an accident,' he is alleged to have told police officers as they wrestled him to the floor of his mansion, within feet of Clarkson's dead body. Only later, police evidence alleges, did he offer a contradictory version of events, claiming that Clarkson had shot herself while singing one of his greatest hits, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.
SURE. ONLY LATER. NO ONE HEARD PHILLIP TELL BEATRICE THIS AND IT SOUNDS DERANGED SINCE THEY WERE TASING HIM, WRESTLING HIM, KNEELING ON HIS BACK, AND PROBABLY KNOCKED THE BODY AROUND, MOVED THE GUN, AND SOMEHOW THE TASER WIRES ENDED UP UNDER CLARKSON'S LEG.
This grand-guignol detail seems entirely consistent with a case that has taken on the aspect of high theatre, and has seen Spector twice changing lawyers. There have been stand-up courtroom rows and the sort of 'litigating in public' – increasingly common in high-profile American cases – in which crucial evidence has been revealed and spun by both the defence and prosecution in an attempt to sway media and public opinion, in a way that could never happen in Britain because the law prevents any discussion of a case that might influence a jury once a defendant has been arrested.
SPOT ON. U.S. PROSECUTORS UNDERSTAND THIS - HIGH PROFILE TRIALS GET THEM ON TELEVISION AND ADVANCE THEIR CAREERS. THEY ALSO UNDERSTAND THE NEWS MEDIA CAN
BE USED TO INFLUENCE JURORS. SEEMS LIKE A NO BRAINER SO WHAT IS MICK BROWN'S POINT?
In the 1960s, Phil Spector, who is now 65, was the architect of pop music's Wall of Sound, the producer of such hits as River Deep – Mountain High and Be My Baby. Records of a thunderous and melodramatic beauty, they made Spector a millionaire by his early twenties, 'the first tycoon of teen'.
He went on to work with John Lennon, George Harrison and the Ramones. But by the 1980s darkness had engulfed him. He retired from the music business, retreating behind high walls and electronic gates, while the legends of his eccentric behaviour – his drinking binges and enthusiasm for guns – fermented around him.
NOW THEY'RE DRINKING BINGES. HIGH WALLS. ELECTRONIC GATES. ENTHUSIASM FOR GUNS. FERMENTED ... IN MICK BROWN'S IMAGINATION.
The Telegraph Magazine has a particular interest in the case. Phil Spector had not given a major interview in more than 20 years when, in December 2002, I travelled to LA to meet him. A vintage white Rolls-Royce, registration PHIL 500, arrived at my hotel to drive me to the 'Pyrenees Castle', a faux-Spanish mansion on a hill above the suburb of Alhambra, where Spector has lived for six years. Passing through the electronic gates, the car stopped beside a steep flight of stone steps leading to the house. 'Mr Spector,' the driver told me, 'likes guests to walk up.'
THE TELEGRAPH HAS MOTIVE, OBVIOUSLY. WOW! MICK BROWN INTERVIEWED PHIL SPECTOR. I HAVE TALKED TO HIM THOUSANDS OF TIMES. IS IT FAUX SPANISH? BROWN MUST BE AN ARISTOCRAT. BROWN DOESN'T WANT TO WALK UP. HE MUST BE SPOILED.
At the top of the steps, I was ushered through the front door into a baronial hallway, a suit of armour standing sentinel. It was in this hall that in the early hours of February 3, 2003, police would find the body of Lana Clarkson slumped in a chair. In the starkly matter-of-fact language of police evidence, 'She was wearing a black nylon slip/dress, black nylons and black shoes. A leopard-print purse with a black strap was slung over her right shoulder, with the purse hanging down on her right side by her right arm. She had what appeared to be a single-entry gunshot wound to the mouth.'
WASH HE USHERED? WAS THE HALLWAY BARONIAL? WHERE AM I - IN UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS? YES, THEY FOUND THE BODY. PAGE TASED PHILLIP TWICE, TACKLED HIM, ACTED LIKE AN ANIMAL, AND THEN LOOKED UP AND SAW LANA CLARKSON. HOW CONVENIENT THAT THE PURSE WAS OVER HER SHOULDER. SOUNDS LIKE AN AFTER THOUGHT. DID IT APPEAR TO BE A SINGLE-ENTRY GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE MOUTH? POSITIVELY CSI. PAGE REALLY GETS THIS FORENSIC STUFF.
On the day of my visit, Spector spoke with extraordinary candour about his life and career; the genius which had been both blessing and curse; his fragile mental state and his years on the brink of insanity.
I HAVE NEVER SEEN PHILLIP ON THE BRINK OF INSANITY BUT MICK BROWN APPEARS TO BE ON THE BRINK OF SOMETHING HERE ...
'I've been a very tortured soul,' he told me. 'I would say I'm probably relatively insane to an extent… I have devils inside that fight me.' But the worst, he told me, was now behind him. He was trying to be a 'reasonable man'. It was a phrase he returned to constantly throughout our conversation.
PHIL SPECTOR IS A REASONABLE MAN AND WAS TORTURED BY HIS SON'S DEATH - MOST PARENTS, WHO HAVE AN 11 YEAR OLD CHILD DIE, ARE TORMENTED.
The interview appeared in The Telegraph Magazine on February 1, 2003. Thirty-six hours later, Spector walked into a Hollywood nightclub, the House of Blues, and met Lana Clarkson. Subsequent press reports would depict Clarkson as a faded B-movie actress. In the 1980s and 1990s she had appeared frequently on television and in film, starring in 'sword-and-sorcery' movies.
THE TELEGRAPH IS THRILLED - PHIL SPECTOR FINALLY TALKED TO ONE OF THEIR LUNATICS. THEY LOOK LIKE PORN MOVIES.
But while it was true that, at 40, her film career appeared to be over, Clarkson was far from faded: she had continued to work as a model and was developing a new career as a comedian. In January 2003 she had taken a job as the hostess in the VIP lounge of the House of Blues, a club frequented by showbusiness high rollers, to tide herself over until more work came along.
WAS SHE FAR FROM FADED? IT DOESN'T SOUND THAT WAY.
Friends described her as cheerful, optimistic and excited about her new position.
ACTUALLY, HER CLOSEST FRIENDS DIDN'T DESCRIBE HER THIS WAY BUT JACKASS AND GANGSTAS WENT TO TOWN ON THEM.
'I am going to meet people,' she told one friend. 'They will remember that I am here and it might get me another job.' She had spent February 2 shopping with her mother and e-mailing friends, including a reply to a birthday party invitation. 'Can't wait. XOXO Lana.'
THEY WILL REMEMBER SHE IS WHERE? IN HER HOME, ALONE, WRITING ABOUT HER FORMER CAREER.
In the wake of the shooting, Spector's comments in The Telegraph were recycled in the media around the world, and became an instant template for his psychological state. I received a call from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department asking whether there was anything more I could tell them about Spector's behaviour on the day we met.
THEY MOST CERTAINLY WERE RECYCLED IN THE MEDIA AROUND THE WORLD AND THEY DID INDEED BECOME AN INSTANT TEMPLATE FOR PHILLIP'S PSYCHOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR.
THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT CALLED A LOUSY SENSATIONALIST JOURNALIST, WHO THE SHARMAPA KNOWS IS A LIAR, ABOUT PHIL SPECTOR'S BEHAVIOR MONTHS EARILER IN AN
INTERVIEW THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PHILLIP, A DEAD WOMAN, DRUGS, GUNS, ETC. WOW. THAT'S A STRETCH. THEY REALLY MUST NOT HAVE A CASE.
There wasn't. Somebody else suggested the article would be useful if Spector decided to make a defence of diminished responsibility; his lawyers would be sure to get in touch. They didn't. I had liked Spector when I met him. I found it hard to believe he would kill anybody in cold blood. The coincidence of the article's publication and the death of Clarkson left me feeling shocked. I wrote to Spector to express my sympathy for the predicament he now found himself in, but heard nothing back.
BROWN THINKS HE IS PART OF HIS CASE. PERHAPS THE SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT SHOULD PROFILE HIM NOW. SMART - PHILLIP'S LAWYERS DIDN'T GET IN TOUCH WITH BROWN.
SHARMAPA'S SHOULD HAVE. IN COLD BLOOD - HOW TERRIBLY TRUMAN CAPOTE OF BROWN. I WROTE TO PHILLIP AND EXPRESSED SYMPATHY. THEN WE WENT OUT FOR DINNER AND DRINKS AND DISCUSSED WHAT HAPPENED.
While the police set about assembling a case, Spector moved quickly to declare his innocence and claim there was no case to answer. In June, he gave an interview to Esquire magazine in America.
GOOD WORD - ASSEMBLING. ASSEMBLING A CASE. SOUNDS RIGHT. GREAT INTERVIEW IN ESQUIRER. REALLY CAPTURES PHILLIP AND THE INSANITY HE DEALS WITH.
'I didn't do anything wrong,' Spector was quoted as saying. 'I didn't do anything. I called the police myself. I called the police.' Clarkson had 'kissed the gun. I have no idea why. I never knew her, never even saw her before that night. I have no idea who she was or what her agenda was.
DID SHE KISS THE GUN? IS THAT THE TYPE OF KINKY GAMES SHE WOULD PLAY WITH GUNS? WHO KNOWS WHAT HER AGENDA WAS.
'They have the gun – I don't know where or how she got the gun. She asked me for a ride home. Then she wanted to see the castle. She was loud – she was loud and drunk even before we left the House of Blues. She grabbed a bottle of tequila from the bar to take with her. I was not drunk. I wasn't drunk at all. There is no case. She killed herself.'
THE HOUSE OF BLUES LET HER GRAB A BOTTLE OF TEQUILLA? DIDN'T DESOUZA REALIZE THIS? SEEMS OBVIOUS - SHE KILLED HERSELF.
In September, the Los Angeles county coroner's office finally released its own findings: Clarkson's death, the coroner ruled, was homicide, not suicide. Two months later, on November 20, 2003, Spector was charged with murder.
TOOK A LONG TIME. SHE SHOT HERSELF IN FEBRUARY.
At that point, few concrete details had emerged about what had actually occurred on the night of February 2 and in the early hours of February 3. But in December 2003, a Los Angeles judge ruled that police search warrants and supporting affidavits should be released. From those documents, the coroner's report, which was released six months later, and the recent testimony to the Grand Jury, it is possible to piece together a detailed account of the events leading to Lana Clarkson's death.
NOTHING CONCRETE EMERGED UNTIL FIVE FORENSIC EXPERTS TOOK THE STAND TO CONFIRM SHE SHOT HERSELF. BROWN HASN'T SEEN THE LA DA'S CONFIDENTIAL REPORT THAT'S ON THE INTERNET ABOUT THE CORONER PENA - HE WILL LIE, ALTER DOCUMENTS, AND DO WHATEVER IT TAKES FOR HIS JOB. HE KNOWS IT IS POLITICAL. AH, THE GRAND JURY. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PIECE ANYTHING TOGETHER FROM POLICE REPORTS, A CORONER'S REPORT, AND GRAND JURY TESTIMONY. IT IS ONE SIDED AND NEEDS TO STAND UP TO CROSS-EXAMINATION WHICH IT DID NOT. SLANDER WORKED HOWEVER.
The most crucial evidence of Phil Spector's behaviour on that night comes from Adriano DeSouza, Spector's 'relief' driver who at 7pm collected the record producer at his home in Spector's new Mercedes limousine for a night on the town. DeSouza, a Brazilian, had been working on and off for Spector for two months.
THE JURORS THEMSELVES DISCOUNTED DESOUZA. ICE SHOULD BE CALLED ONTO THE CARPET TO EXPLAIN THEIR ROLE IN THE SET UP OF PHIL SPECTOR, THE DEPORTATION PROCEEDINGS, AND THE GREEN CARD. EVERYONE IN AMERICA SHOULD BE OUTRAGED OVER THIS SITUATION - PARTICULARLY GIVEN THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MATTERS WE ARE UNABLE TO DEAL WITH - EVER - IN THIS COUNTRY.
(In fact his first job had been collecting me the previous December. We were delayed outside my hotel when the car stalled, necessitating a jump-start. I remember DeSouza anxiously calling on his mobile phone to explain that we would be late. He told me it was his first day working for Spector, and he was keen to make a good impression.)
HOW NAUSEATING.
According to DeSouza, the evening began with Spector collecting a female friend (who is not named in the testimony) from her home, and DeSouza driving them to the Grill on the Alley, a Beverly Hills restaurant, for dinner. Two hours later, Spector dropped off his date at her home and instructed DeSouza to return to the Grill.
SOUNDS LIKE DOMINICK DUNNE. FOLLOWING PHILLIP INTO THE BATHROOM. OUT AND ABOUT IN BEVERLY HILLS GOSSIPING WITH WAITRESSES, VALETS, ETC.
He had apparently made another assignation. A waitress, 'Kathy', was waiting for him outside. De Souza drove them first to Trader Vic's bar, and then to another restaurant, Dan Tana's. By now, Kathy was complaining that she was tired and wanted to go home. But Spector did not want the evening to end. At 1.30am they arrived at the House of Blues. According to the police, Spector had been drinking alcohol at each stop along the way, and by now, DeSouza said, he was 'slurring his words'.
SO WHAT? PHILLIP DIDN'T WANT TO GO HOME. IS THAT A CRIME?
Spector and Kathy went inside, but after quarter of an hour Kathy emerged with 'a tall lady, blonde hair', who introduced herself to DeSouza as Lana Clarkson. She explained that Spector wanted him to take Kathy home and return to collect him. Clarkson clocked out of the House of Blues at 2.21. At 2.23 DeSouza saw Spector emerge from the club; he seemed to be having difficulty walking, DeSouza claimed, and was being helped by Clarkson.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH KATHY?
As DeSouza opened the car door for him, Spector invited Clarkson to go back to the Castle. She declined, saying she had to collect her car. Spector offered her a lift, continuing to press his invitation.
THIS SOUNDS PSYCHOTIC.
'More than once. Two, three times,' according to DeSouza. Finally, Clarkson relented, and they set off for Alhambra. According to DeSouza, Clarkson told him, 'I would like to have only one drink. It will be fast.' Spector turned to her: 'You don't need to talk to the driver.'
CAREFUL WITH DRIVERS IN HOLLYWOOD. THEY LISTEN TO PEOPLE. THEY GOSSIP. THEY LIE. I KNOW. I'VE USED COUNTLESS CAR SERVICES AND THOUGHT THE CIA SHOULD
EMPLOY SOME OF THESE DRIVERS. AND THEN THERE ARE THE NANNIES, HOUSE KEEPERS, GARDENERS, ETC.
At about 3.15, the Mercedes drove through the gates of the Castle and pulled to a halt. Spector and Clarkson got out and set off up the steps to the house. According to DeSouza, Clarkson was 'like, grabbing [Spector's] arm and shoulder and helping him up the stairs'. DeSouza continued up the drive, and parked at the rear of the house. About half an hour later, he said, Spector came out of the back door.
THE CAR PULLED TO A HALT. PHILIP WALKS UP THE STEPS BUT IT PISSES BROWN OFF THAT HE HAS TO. WAS CLARKSON LIKE GRABBING PHILLIP'S ARM AND SHOULDER? SHE SOUNDS DRUNK AND OUT OF CONTROL. HOW DID DESOUZA SEE THIS IF HE WAS DRIVING UP THE DRIVE?
According to DeSouza, 'he looks mad' and disoriented. DeSouza asked Spector whether he wanted to collect his briefcase and a portable DVD player which he had left in the car. 'No, no, no,' Spector said – but then changed his mind and took the DVD player. DeSouza followed him into the house and placed the briefcase inside the hall. There was so sign of Clarkson.
THAT'S BECAUSE CLARKSON WAS IN THE HOUSE. THAT'S WHY THERE WASN'T A SIGN OF HER WHEN PHILLIP CAME OUT TO GET SOMETHING.
For the next 90 minutes or so he waited in the car. Then, around 5am, he heard a soft popping sound. He got out, but could see nothing amiss and returned to the car. Spector then emerged again from the back door. DeSouza got out of the car. Spector was still dressed in the clothes he had worn that evening – white jacket, black trousers and shirt. In his right hand was a revolver, which he was holding across his body. DeSouza could see blood on the back of his hand.
DID HE WAIT IN THE CAR? WHY WAS PHILIP HOLDING A GUN ACROSS HIS BODY? SOUNDS CRAZY.
He claimed that Spector then said, 'I think I killed somebody.' Looking past Spector, DeSouza could see a pair of women's legs extending out into the hall. He stepped to the left and saw Clarkson, slumped in a chair with blood on her face. He asked, 'What happened, sir?' Spector shrugged and said, 'I don't know.'
THIS GUY SOUNDS LIKE HE'LL CLAIM ANYTHING.
By then, DeSouza was in shock. He tried to use his mobile phone, but was so panicked he was unable to press the buttons. He could see Spector in the doorway, looking at Clarkson. DeSouza climbed into the car and drove it back to the front gate, from where he called the emergency services. While Spector would later assert that he had called the police, there is no record in the available police evidence of such a call.
IF DESOUZA WAS IN SHOCK - IMAGINE THE STATE PHILLIP WAS IN AFTER WITNESSING THIS LUNATIC SHOOT HERSELF, ETC. HE COULDN'T PRESS THE BUTTONS? HE WAS ABLE TO CALL BLAINE. ABJECT INSANITY. SEAL INSPECTOR.
According to the police transcript, the conversation between DeSouza and the Alhambra officer who took his call was a comedy of misunderstanding. `Your boss's name?' the policeman asked.
'It's, uh, Phil Spector.'
'I'm sorry?'
'Phil Spector.'
'Seal?'
'Spector.'
'Seal Inspector?'
'Yeah. Phil Spector.'
'S-e-a-l?'
'P-h-i-l.'
The police arrived at the gate of Spector's house at 5.10, but it was a further 15 minutes before they finally assembled outside the back door. Spector stepped out. He was no longer wearing the white jacket and his hands were in his pockets. An officer told him to raise his hands above his head.
THEY SAW A BULGE, RIGHT?
Spector did so, then put his hands back into his pockets and turned to go into the house, saying, 'You've got to see this.' He was again warned to take his hands out of his pockets, and when he refused an officer, Michael Page, deployed a Taser stun gun on him.
WHY DIDN'T THE POLICE JUST GO IN WITH HIM? WAS HE GOING TO SHOOT THEM WITH HIS BACK TO THEM? MY GOD. THE LIARS AND THE LIES THEY TELL.
'It had no effect,' Page said. Page followed Spector into the house and fired again; again it had no effect. (Page testified that he had used the Taser four times in his career, and it had never worked.) Page and another officer then wrestled Spector to the ground, attempting to handcuff him. A third officer, Beatrice Rodriguez, stated that at this point she heard Spector say, 'What's wrong with you guys? What are you doing? I didn't mean to shoot her. It was an accident.'
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALHAMBRA PD?
This statement was not captured by police on tape, but subsequent exchanges between Spector and the police were. 'Just ask me and I'll tell you,' Spector said as officers held him down. 'Oh, God. LAPD works for me… I can explain it but if you'd just give me a chance… I'm not drunk and I'm not stupid. I can tell you what happened.
PHIL SPECTOR IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT STUPID BUT ...
'You don't have to handcuff me. I'm sorry this happened. I don't know how it happened, but it happened and I'm sorry this happened. The gun went off accidentally. She works at the House of Blues. It was a mistake…'
Then Page looked up and saw the body of Lana Clarkson slumped in a chair.
'She had what appeared to be a single-entry gunshot wound to the mouth,' the police report states. 'Broken teeth from the victim were scattered about the foyer and an adjacent stairway.
DID IT APPEAR THAT WAY? IT ALSO APPEARED, ACCORDING TO MY FRIEND (AND PAGE'S COUSIN) THAT PAGE THOUGHT PHILLIP HAD A GUN IN HIS POCKET - I THOUGHT PAGE WAS THINKING THROUGH MORE LIES.
'Lying on the floor under the victim's left leg was a Colt, 2in, blue-steel,.38-calibre, six-shot revolver. This weapon had five live cartridges in the cylinder, and under the hammer, a spent cartridge… There was blood splatter on the weapon.'
THE TASER WIRES WERE UNDER HER LEG ALSO. WHY WAS THE GUN UNDER HER LEG?
A check on the weapon found no registered owner. According to the coroner's report, the weapon was 'apparently taken' from a holster, which the police found, also stained with blood, in a drawer in the hall. Ammunition in the gun was by the same manufacturer as a cache of bullets found in a plastic sack upstairs in the house.
BRUCE CUTLER SAID THIS WAS NOT PHILLIP'S GUN.
In a living-room, police noted, 'candles had been lit atop a fireplace mantel. The coffee table between two couches had a brandy glass partially filled with alcohol, and atop the table was a Jose Cuervo tequila bottle and a partially empty Canada Dry soft drink.'
PHIL SPECTOR KEPT A SHRINE, WITH CANDLES, FOR HIS SON PHILLIP, JR. I HAVE LIT THESE CANDLES ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS.
In a bathroom off the hall police found a blood-soaked cloth lying on the floor, and a wet hand towel on the sink top. Smears of Clarkson's blood were found on the handle of the back door and on the wooden banister, `about 7ft west of the victim's remains'.
WERE THEY 7' WEST OF THE VICTIM'S REMAINS? SOUNDS LIKE THE DETECTIVES I USED TO WORK FOR. ARE YOU SURE THEY WEREN'T SOUTHWEST?
In an upstairs dressing-room, police found the white jacket that Spector had been wearing that evening, spattered with blood on the sleeve and lapel. A search of the house uncovered 10 other firearms, including two more blue-steel Colt revolvers.
JANICE TOLD ME SHE PACKED UP ALL GUNS AND THREW THEM IN A BOX WHEN THEY MOVED FROM ALHAMBRA.
Spector was taken to the Alhambra police station. He was agitated and refused to co-operate. An officer, Derek Gilliam, was told to try to calm him down. Spector, Gilliam said, began to ramble about his music-business friends, including George Harrison.
THE SITUATION WITH GILLIAM SOUNDS UNCONSCIONABLE AND ILLEGAL.
Gilliam is the nephew of Terry Gilliam, the film director and Monty Python veteran. He mentioned that his uncle knew Harrison and had been a member of the Monty Python team. 'He called me a liar,' Gilliam stated. Spector then said, 'I basically have the rights to Monty Python.'
PHILLIP IS HILARIOUS AND COULD BE IN MONTY PYTHON. BUT AT THIS POINT - YOU BETTER GET ME A BUCKET. I WANT TO "PUKE." QUOTE EMINEM LATER.
It was then, Gilliam said, that Spector denied killing Clarkson. According to Gilliam's testimony, Spector said that Clarkson had somehow obtained the gun and was twirling it around her head. He told her to put the gun down, but she didn't.
SHE WAS DANCING AROUND.
'He said that the young lady began singing his songs, two of them, one being Da Doo Run Run [sic] and the other, You've Lost That Loving Feeling [sic].
THAT'S WHAT HE TOLD ME. GILIAM MUST BE ONE SADISTIC INDIVIDUAL.
'He said that she took the gun into her hand and basically put it to her head… And basically said, "It went like this, bang", and he basically fell back into his chair, throwing his head back. And he sat there for about five seconds in that position. He said that she was singing the song. He was real animated about it.'
RIGHT. IT'S OBVIOUS. SHE FELL BACK INTO THE CHAIR.
According to Gilliam, Spector re-enacted the scene two or three times. The last time, he threw his head back and for a long time didn't move. Gilliam said he was afraid 'that maybe he had gone into some form of an attack or something'. Then, with an expression which Gilliam described as a `half-slanted smile', Spector said, `You don't pull a gun out on me.'
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALHAMBRA PD?
That exchange was seemingly not taped, but a subsequent exchange between Spector and Detective Esther Pineda was. After being told that he had been arrested for murder, Spector asked, 'Of whom?', and described it as 'the most bizarre nonsense… absolutely absurd'.
WHY WASN'T THIS EXCHANGE TAPED? RIGHT "Of whom." It is the most bizarre nonsense and the most absurd situation I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
Apparently growing increasingly agitated, he launched into a stream of invective.
EVERYONE ELSE WOULD HAVE SENT THANK YOU NOTES AND FLOWERS.
'And when somebody comes over to my f***ing house, who pretends to be security at the House of Blues… remember I own the House of Blues. Where this lady pretended to work, OK? And then just blows her f***ing head open… She wasn't a security at the House of Blues and she's a piece of shit.
EXACTLY. THAT'S HOW SOMEONE TELLING THE TRUTH TALKS. SHE HAD NO RIGHT TO BLOW HER HEAD OPEN AT HIS HOUSE. AN INNOCENT MAN IS NOW IN PRISON OVER THIS SITUATION AND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO HEAR HIS CASE AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO COMMENT. BUSINESS AS USUAL. INNOCENT PEOPLE DYING IN PRISON, BEING EXECUTED, ETC. TOUGH GUYS ON THIS COURT.
'And I don't know what her f***ing problem was but she certainly had no right to come to my f***ing castle, blow her f***ing head open, and [break in police transcription]… murder. What the f*** is wrong with you people?'
WHO KNOWS WHAT HER PROBLEM WAS. SHE WAS ON DRUGS AND DRINKING. IT HAPPENS FREQUENTLY WITH CELEBRITIES. THE DA IS OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY.
The man who arrived at the Alhambra police station to arrange Spector's $1 million bail was his lawyer and friend, Robert Shapiro. One of America's best-known defence attorneys, Shapiro has a reputation for smoothness and charm – a man who, according to another Los Angeles lawyer, 'couldn't find his way out of the box' in a trial, but is a peerless negotiator.
SHAPIRO WAS NO FRIEND OF PHIL SPECTOR'S AND HIS CONVERSATION WITH STEVEN MACHAT, ABOUT HIS SON'S DRUG USE, IS INSANE AND SICKENING. THIS MAN IS NOT A PEERLESS NEGOTIATOR. I'VE TALKED TO HIM - ONE OF LORCA COHEN'S FRIENDS HAD A HEROIN/GREEN CARD PROBLEM. IT WOULD HAVE COST SEVEN GRAND TO RESOLVE.
It was Shapiro who put together the 'dream team' which in 1995 secured OJ Simpson's acquittal over the double murder of his wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goodman.
SEE F. LEE BAILEY'S WEBSITE FOR ADDITIONAL OJ DETAILS.
Hours after being released on bail, Spector went to Shapiro's office and signed an 'Engagement for Professional Services' letter, agreeing to pay a non-refundable $1.5 million to the lawyer. He made an immediate downpayment of $1 million.
IRS SHOULD AUDIT THE RETAINER SHAPIRO PUT INTO HIS PERSONAL ACCOUNT.
Shapiro quickly moved to secure expert witnesses for the defence, including the forensic scientist Dr Henry Lee and the pathologist Dr Michael Baden, both of whom had testified in the Simpson case. Shapiro quietly let it be known to the media that Baden had attended the autopsy on Clarkson, where tests had shown that she had gunpowder residue on her hands. The results, Baden had apparently told Shapiro, were 'not inconsistent with suicide'.
CONSISTENT WITH SELF-INFLICTED GUNSHOT WOUNDS, DRUG ABUSE, ALCOHOL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY, ETC.
It would be another 12 months before the coroner's report was made public. In the meantime, the case dragged through a series of procedural hearings. Then, in January 2004 – just a few weeks after he had been formally charged with murder – Spector fired Shapiro. Spector would subsequently file suit for the return of the unused portion of the $1 million he had paid immediately after his release from custody, claiming that Shapiro and his colleagues had taken advantage of their friendship with Spector 'and used his legal plight as an opportunity to unabashedly line their own pockets'.
CORONER WORKED HARD TO TURN THE SUICIDE INTO A HOMICIDE. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT MEDIA HUNGRY WHORES LINE THEIR POCKETS ON THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS.
Shapiro, the suit went on, had provided inadequate representation in the case, indeed it was 'likely that the "services'' provided by [him] had actually led prosecutors to file the formal criminal charges'.
SHAPIRO THE SUIT. DEMANDS AN INVESTIGATION BUT BY "WHOM?" WHO DOES THESE INVESTIGATIONS IN AMERICA?
Changing lawyers is almost de rigueur in Californian 'celebrity trials'. It slows things down. Michael Jackson twice changed lawyers in the run-up to his trial on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. To replace Shapiro, Spector hired another renowned attorney, Leslie Abramson.
CORRUPTION IS DE RIGUER IN LOST ANGELES. LESLIE ABRAMSON SEEMS COOL. SHE WAS BACK ON THE CASE DURING THE APPEAL. INTERESTING.
If Shapiro has a reputation as a negotiator, Abramson is renowned for her ferocity. One client, a contract killer, is said to have remarked, 'Leslie was so good, for a while there she even had me believing I didn't do it.' She immediately went on the offensive.
STUPID.
For more than a year, the coroner's report into Clarkson's death had been kept on 'security hold' at the coroner's office. But in May 2004, Abramson leaked a copy to the media. It contained what appeared to be crucial evidence on behalf of the defence, which confirmed Shapiro's leak of a few months earlier.
LEAKED. WHO LEAKED THE GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS TO BROWN?
Analysis had revealed 'several highly specific particles and many consistent particles of gunshot residue on both the right and left hand' of Clarkson. 'Therefore,' the report went on, 'the decedent may have discharged a firearm or had hands otherwise in an environment of gunshot residue.'
WOW - ANALYSIS REVEALED THIS.
The DA's office immediately hit back. A spokesman, Sandi Gibbons, said that the residue on Clarkson's hands could be explained because a gunshot releases a cloud of residue within a 3ft radius.
HOW WOULD SANDI GIBBONS KNOW THIS?
'She could have had her hands on her lap when the gunshot went off and residue would still have been on her hands.' Spector, Gibbons went on, also had gunshot residue, and Clarkson's blood, on him. Furthermore, there was evidence that Spector had wiped the gun and moved it after the shooting. The gun was found under Clarkson's left leg, and she was right-handed.
OBVIOUSLY SHE WOULD HAVE HAD HER HANDS IN FRONT OF HER FACE UNLESS THIS WAS SOME WEIRD MOB EXECUTION AND HER HANDS WERE TIED BEHIND HER BACK. WHAT TYPE OF INVESTIGATION WAS DONE HERE?
Clarkson, the coroner's report stated, had died from a gunshot entering `front to back and slightly upwards'; the weapon was 'in the mouth' when it was fired. It also noted that traces of hydrocodone – better known as Vicodin, a powerful opiate-based painkiller – were found in Clarkson's bloodstream, along with traces of alcohol.
CORONER IS A TRUE LUNATIC.
A pathologist would later testify to the Grand Jury that the combination of Vicodin and alcohol would 'most likely' have made Clarkson 'very sleepy'. There was no evidence that Clarkson and Spector had had sex.
I THINK IT MADE CLARKSON MORE THAN SLEEPY. IT KILLED HER. I AM NOW LISTENING TO THE RADIO AND PHILLIP'S SONG IS ON - THE GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL SONG EVER - YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELING.
The report concluded, 'It should be noted that there was no history of suicidal ideations of the decedent and there was no suicide note found at the scene.'
MOST PEOPLE WHO ARE HIGH ON DRUGS AND BOOZE DON'T LEAVE SUICIDE NOTES WHEN THEY SPONTANEOUSLY SHOOT THEMSELVES.
Police visiting Clarkson's home shortly after the killing would find her work records laid out neatly on her desk. She was apparently in the midst of filing her tax returns.
TAX PROBLEMS ALSO? INTERESTING INVESTIGATORS.
Three days after the release of the coroner's report, Phil Spector appeared in court for a procedural hearing. It quickly turned into a firework display. In the course of the hearing, the deputy DA, Douglas Sortino, asserted that police had collected three incidents in the past 10 years in which Spector had allegedly threatened women with a gun. Abramson retorted that the DA was playing to the media, and that these women were all liars 'who had crawled out from under rocks' and were simply trying to cash in on a high-profile case.
THE DA PLAYED TO THE MEDIA. THESE WOMEN ARE LIARS AND THEY CRAWLED OUT OF THE GUTTER. ABRAMSON GETS IT. SO DO PEOPLE IN REALITY. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE INVESTIGATORS?
I LOVE THIS SONG ...
Outside the courtroom, Spector could hardly be restrained, interrupting Abramson on several occasions as she staged an impromptu press conference. When Abramson raised the matter of Spector having been Tasered by police and 'thrown to the ground at the feet of the poor, deceased Ms Clarkson', Spector interjected: 'Broken nose and two black eyes, and 50,000 volts of electricity shot through me, unarmed, inviting the police into my house.'
I'LL BET HE COULD HARDLY BE RESTRAINED. HE TOLD ME WHAT IT WAS LIKE WHEN THE POLICE TASED HIM, SHOT HIM TWICE WITH 50,000 VOLTS OF ELECTRICITY, TACKLED HIM, FALSELY ACCUSED HIM, LIED, HIS FRIENDS BETRAYED HIM ... THAT'S WHEN I DECIDED I WOULD STAND UP FOR PHIL SPECTOR ALTHOUGH I KNEW I WOULD LOSE CUSTODY OF RAY THE MOMENT THE DA'S INVESTIGATOR ROLLED BY MY HOUSE AT DINNER UNANNOUNCED AND I THOUGHT SOMETHING HAPPENED TO RUTGER.
A few minutes later, he erupted again when Abramson was asked how the defence would deal with Adriano DeSouza's claim that he had heard Spector say, 'I think I just shot her.' DeSouza, Abramson said, was 'sitting inside a closed car, with the radio on…'
'Asleep…' Spector interrupted.
I WOULD ASSUME PHILLIP KNOWS HE WAS ASLEEP.
'Asleep… Philip, please, darling. I do wish you wouldn't say anything,' Abramson said, adding to reporters, 'You can't stop a starring talent from being a starring talent, you just can't! But it's OK, I don't mind.'
Spector: 'I should stop now?'
Abramson: 'You have to stop me, darling, and I have to stop you.'
DeSouza's native language, Abramson went on, was Portuguese.
'He is not perfect in his English. I will not say he is illiterate, he is not. I will not say he is stupid, he is not…'
Spector: 'But he is illegal!'
Abramson: 'Well, that's a different issue.'
Spector: 'Yeah, he's an illegal alien. And he was threatened with deportation.'
Abramson: 'Exactly. He is undergoing deportation proceedings but the District Attorney's office has interceded on his behalf.'
WOW. ICE REALLY HELPED OUT WITH THE SET UP OF PHIL SPECTOR. WHY? SOME PEOPLE ARE SAYING BRIBES MAY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH ICE OFFICIALS. HARD TO SAY.
At the end of the conference Spector exploded again, referring to one of the prosecutors as 'the one who proves you have children through anal sex', before again being cut short by Abramson saying, 'Phil, I get to be nasty, you don't.'
THE DA IS NASTY. SO IS THE JUDGE.
Rumours began to surface of discontent in the Spector camp, and were confirmed in August when Abramson resigned after it was revealed that Spector had been talking with yet another high-profile defence lawyer, Bruce Cutler – best known as the long-time attorney of the Mafia boss John Gotti.
I WONDER WHY BRIAN BENNETT MENTIONED A MAFIA WAITRESS?
Cutler, whom Spector has described as 'a genius’, successfully defended Gotti in three trials, before he was finally convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on racketeering charges in 1992. He died in prison 10 years later at the age of 61. Hiring a new lawyer seemed to have had the effect of buying Spector more time.
PHILLIP COULD ALSO DIE IN PRISON.
In September he was granted a court delay in scheduling what might, in normal circumstances, have been the next stage in the proceedings – a preliminary hearing, where a judge decides whether there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial. However, in order to speed proceedings along, it is within the gift of the DA to opt instead for a Grand Jury – a sitting jury of 'community stalwarts’ who consider a scaled-down version of the prosecution case behind closed doors and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to connect the accused to the crime.
I THINK PHILLIP SHOULD HAVE HAD A PRELIMINARY HEARING. THESE GRAND JURIES ARE OUTRAGEOUS. A WASTE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS ALSO.
Spector’s preliminary hearing was waived, and instead, at the end of September, he was indicted by a Grand Jury, finally paving the way for the trial itself to begin. Grand Jury testimony is usually made public, but Spector’s lawyers immediately appealed to have it sealed.
In a bizarre courtroom exchange over the currency of fame, his defence argued that such was Spector’s renown as a record producer that the testimony would inevitably influence any future jury. In a riposte that must have wounded Spector’s ego more than anything, the DA countered that most of Spector’s hits had been made in the 1960s and 1970s, and that 'most people who came of age after that period have no idea of who he is’.
WHAT IS BIZARRE HERE? BROWN IS SPINNING THE STORY. PEOPLE KNOW WHO PHIL SPECTOR IS - SEE MICK BROWN'S ARTICLES.
The appeal was turned down, and three weeks ago the testimony was finally made public. Among the 31 witnesses who gave evidence were three women who claimed that Spector had pulled a gun on them in the past. Dorothy Melvin, who dated Spector in the 1990s, at a time when she was Joan Rivers’s manager, testified that he had hit her twice in the head with his right fist while clutching a revolver when she tried to leave his home.
I CAN'T WAIT TO READ JOAN RIVERS' MANAGERS BOOK ON HER AND CHER. I CONTACTED KEVIN SESSUMS ABOUT HIS ARTICLE AND LET HIM KNOW THAT I'M WRITING A BOOK ON PHIL SPECTOR AND LEONARD COHEN.
Another former girlfriend, Stephanie Jennings, a photographer, testified that in 1995 Spector had blocked the door of her hotel room with a chair and gun and would not let her leave. Deborah Strand testified that in 1999, at a Beverly Hills party, Spector had pulled a gun on her and pointed it at her right cheek following an argument. All of this, of course, is circumstantial to the events of February 3.
I WAS AT THE CARLYLE HOTEL. NEVER HAPPENED. ALL OF THIS IS, OF COURSE, CIRCUMSTANTIAL. I WAS, HOWEVER, AT THE BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL WITH PHILLIP IN 1999 WHEN HE HAD ANOTHER INCIDENT WITH A WOMAN THERE. CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS BUT IT REMINDED ME OF THE CARLYLE INCIDENT. PHILLIP WAS ENDLESSLY TARGETED.
More critical, it seems, is the forensic evidence. Lynne Herold, a forensic scientist who had examined the gun, testified that someone had wiped it of blood, possibly using the blood-soaked cloth found in the bathroom. This cloth was in fact a nappy, identical to others found with Spector’s guns upstairs, and which Herold thought were ordinarily used to clean the guns.
LYNNE HEROLD IS A LIAR; CHANGED HER TESTIMONY; AND LOOKS LIKE A RANK AMATEUR AND ARROGANT IDIOT.
Herold further determined that the gun had been fired from the normal upright position, instead of turned to the side, as might be expected of a suicide. The 'mist-like’ spray of blood found on Spector’s white jacket could only have come from the backflow of bullet gasses from the mouth, and put Spector 'within two or three feet’ of the discharging weapon. That does not mean, of course, that he pulled the trigger.
NO, IT DOESN'T MEAN HE PULLED THE TRIGGER AND THE BLOOD SPATTER IS ACTUALLY IRRELEVANT. MAYBE THE INVESTIGATORS CAN SHOOT SOME REAL HUMAN BEINGS TO SEE HOW BLOOD ACTUALLY TRAVELS. I'M SURPRISED THEY DIDN'T.
Phil Spector has made no comment on the Grand Jury testimony. But Bruce Cutler described it to me as 'very deceptive, one-sided and biased. Putting this poison in the public domain is for one purpose and one purpose only: to try and paint Phil in a negative light and to influence a potential jury pool. It’s inherently unfair.’
CLEARLY IT IS INHERENTLY UNFAIR. OBVIOUSLY IT IS MEANT TO INFLUENCE JURORS. SO WERE BACA'S COMMENTS.
By going to the Grand Jury, Cutler said, Spector’s defence had been denied the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses and to present evidence from their own forensic experts.
RIGHT.
'Everything they’ve found is consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I don’t want to get into the drugs and the liquor in the lady’s system. I don’t want to get into the gun-play. I don’t want to get into the fact that Phil’s fingerprints are not on that gun, and that gun was not registered to him and that’s not his gun. Where is the motive for this crime? There is none.’
THE GUN WASN'T PHILLIP'S. INTERESTING. THERE IS NO MOTIVE.
Spector’s 'so-called confession’, Cutler told me, was 'not true’. DeSouza was 'not facile’ in the English language, and there had been no confession to the policewoman Rodriguez. Was he saying the police had made it up?
DESOUZA IS OBVIOUSLY A LIAR - AS IS RODRIGUEZ. YES, POLICE LIE ALL THE TIME. EVEN POLICE CHIEFS KNOW THIS SO PEOPLE SHOULD GET REAL.
'I’m saying there is no memorialised evidence of this. It’s unfounded and untrue.’
NOTHING'S MEMORIALIZED? THESE ARE BALD FACED LIES TOLD BY PEOPLE WITH MOTIVE.
Spector is next due to appear in court on February 17, when a judge is expected finally to set a date when his trial will commence. This is likely to be sometime in the spring. If convicted, Spector faces life imprisonment. There was no question, Cutler told me, of Spector changing his plea.
WELL, WATCHING AN INNOCENT MAN IN PRISON WHEN THE U.S. SUPREME COURT HANDS DOWN A DEATH SENTENCE IS TOUGH.
'Of course not. He didn’t kill the woman.’
IT'S DEAD OBVIOUS.
The case, he said, will definitely go to trial, 'unless [the judge] dismisses it for prosecutorial misconduct and some of the shenanigans they’ve pulled. And,’ Cutler added, 'we’re going to win.’
SHENANIGANS. THESE PEOPLE BELONG IN PRISON.
Phil Spector, after all, is a man fighting for his life. For Lana Clarkson, it’s too late for that.
Music
DRUGS KILL.
Showing posts with label Mick Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mick Brown. Show all posts
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Phil Spector's Wall Remains Unbreached -- Mick Brown's Slanderous Book Fails Miserably
Phil Spector's wall remains unbreached
BOOK REVIEW
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector Mick Brown Alfred A. Knopf: 454 pp., $26.95
EVEN before that horrifying predawn moment four years ago in his Alhambra castle, Phil Spector was widely viewed in the music industry as something of a freak show.
Lana Clarkson's death was, in many ways, the tragic public climax of years of wildly eccentric, sometimes alarming behavior by the man who produced landmark recordings by John Lennon, the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes.
During a series of all-night conversations I had with Spector in the '70s and in the early '90s, the man Tom Wolfe dubbed the "first tycoon of teen" spoke often about Lenny Bruce, his friend and hero whose savage social commentary helped redefine comedy in America. What haunted Spector was that this "brilliant man" would be most remembered as a junkie who died on a bathroom floor with a
Now, regardless of the verdict in the trial over Clarkson's murder, Spector faces a similar, scandal-driven legacy, one forever linked to the morning of Feb. 3, 2003, when a gun was placed in Clarkson's mouth and the trigger was pulled.
In his new book, "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound," British journalist Mick Brown chronicles the rise and fall of Spector. Not surprisingly, most of this well-researched but disappointingly timid volume deals with the painful descent of this breathtakingly original music man.
For the book, Brown interviewed more than 100 people, including Spector in a doozy of an encounter just weeks before Clarkson's death. In their four-hour session at the Alhambra house, the author confronted Spector about the rumors of personal problems, including the possessiveness, paranoia and periods of excessive drinking.
Spector replied that he had not been well for years. "I was crippled inside. Emotionally," he told Brown. "Insane is a hard word.... I take medication for
The words were striking enough when they appeared in Brown's profile of the producer for London's Daily Telegraph magazine on Feb. 1, 2003. They became even more riveting just days later when the gun went off in Spector's house. Brown devotes a chapter near the end of the book to that interview, yet the heart of his work rests with what other people told him.
Things didn't start off well for Harvey Philip Spector, who was born the day after Christmas in 1939 in the Bronx. He was still in grade school when his father committed suicide, leaving Spector's mother with such a deep sense of family shame that she moved with Phil and his sister, Shirley, to Los Angeles.
The teenage Spector, who was also traumatized by his father's death, found it difficult to make friends at Fairfax High School. Discovering joy in music, he plotted a career in the record business, first as an artist and songwriter, but eventually as a producer. His first hit with a trio called the Teddy Bears came the summer after graduation. Spector adapted the title of the light 1958 pop ballad from the epitaph on his father's tombstone: "To Know Him Is to Love Him."
Massively ambitious, Spector launched his own label, Philles, in 1961, and although the hits carried the names of such artists as the Crystals and the Ronettes, the star of those records was Spector himself.
His R&B-flavored pop
Despite being called a genius and a visionary, Spector was a bundle of insecurities and contradictions, especially after the hits stopped coming in the mid-'60s, when the Beatles and Bob Dylan turned the music world upside down. Spector made periodic comeback attempts, but they were short-lived. His last real taste of glory was co-producing John Lennon's "Imagine" album more than 35 years ago.
Several of Spector's friends and associates spoke to Brown at length about the producer's conflicting traits (generous, yet controlling; charming, but spiteful; sweet, though a touch mad).
The pop auteur's first wife, Annette Merar, recalling his vulnerability, told of him seeking reassurance in a late-night phone call in the '60s after they were separated. "It would be: 'Okay, the Beatles are number one, and the Stones are number two, but am I before Bob Dylan or after Bob Dylan?' " she said. "And I'd say, 'No, you're definitely number three and Dylan's number four' -- even though I didn't really think so."
Reports of reclusive, unconventional behavior and sometimes smothering jealousy go back to the "To Know Him" days. An early girlfriend, Lynn Castle, said his constant possessiveness drove her away. "Where are you? What are you doing? What are you thinking? Where are you going? Controlling," she said. "I remember saying to Phil, I can't stand it anymore, because I just felt like I was choking."
Variations on that theme -- and others, including Spector's often desperate need for company late at night -- echo throughout the book as Brown focuses on the producer's personal life far more than his music. The unstated goal seems to be to try to understand what led to the shooting in Alhambra.
The problem with Brown's book is twofold. First, the story becomes tiresome as various people tell essentially the same story again and again of the lonely, troubled, bipolar "Howard Hughes of rock." But also, Mark Ribowsky in the 1989 book "He's a Rebel" beat Brown to most of the crucial Spector history. (An updated edition of Ribowsky's book has been released recently in paperback by Da Capo. They talked to so many of the same sources that it's amusing to imagine a source having Brown on hold while talking to Ribowsky on the other line. They could even have shared cab rides.)
Rather than keep rehashing the details of Spector's life and musical career, someone needs to go beyond the research the way, say, Nick Tosches did in his superb biographies of Dean Martin and Jerry Lee Lewis. Tosches learned everything he could about his subjects, then took leaps of faith to assemble psychological profiles that made us feel like we could see the world through their eyes.
Nik Cohn, an excellent British writer, brought us closest to Spector in a compelling profile printed some 30 years ago in "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll." Cohn abandoned plans to write a biography of Spector after spending time with him, deciding that Spector's vision had left him and all that remained were the "motions of mystique." The biography, he feared, would read like an obituary.
Brown interviewed Cohn and even quotes from the latter's profile of Spector: "It seemed that he had no more great pleasures, no passions, not even all-consuming hatreds. Sometimes he would say he was happy, and he smiled. At other times he shook his head and looked tragic. But mostly he simply sat, and survived, and let time pass."
That passage of Cohn's is by far the most powerful single image in "Tearing Down the Wall of Sound," one that reminds us of how little Brown was able to penetrate the wall surrounding the inner Spector.
When I asked Spector in a 1991 interview if he had any regrets, he said, "Sure, lots of them ... from people I married to records I could have done. I have a lifetime of regrets. I should have gone on a lecture circuit. I should have done something to teach, to talk to people about the music.... I should have not wasted all those years.
"Eventually, [being] reclusive becomes an addiction. I never went to the store for years ... never went out, never did anything. It's safer hiding away because you don't have to commit yourself to anything. It's a [shield] just like the drugs or the drink; only it's much more painful because you are alive and well and you see everything around you."
Spector is such a complex personality that not even his friends or foes, in all the conversations, were able to unlock the keys of his story for Brown. By simply relying on their words rather than supplying any authorial vision, Brown was doomed to failure. The reclusive tycoon remains a stranger.
Robert Hilburn, former pop music critic for The Times, is writing a pop music history.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2007/jun/12/entertainment/et-book12
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sharmapa FIles A Slander Suit Against Terhune
Shamar Rinpoche Files Defamation Suit against Controversial Karmapa Book
Author Lea Terhune accused in spreading false information solely to harm Tibetan Buddhist leader and lineage
www.karmapa-issue.org
Author Lea Terhune accused in spreading false information solely to harm Tibetan Buddhist leader and lineage
By the International Karma Kagyu Buddhist Organization,
New Delhi
IIIIIIIII Date: 21.10.2004
This month saw the release of a new book on the Karmapa, Wrestling the Dragon: In Search of the Boy Lama Who Defied China (Random House, 2004). Written by novelist and Tibet activist Gaby Naher, the new book is the fourth title published on the Karmapa since 2003.
In the wake of the publication of Naher's book, the International Karma Kagyu Buddhist Organization is announcing that Shamar Rinpoche has filed a defamation suit against the author of an earlier book of the Karmapa, Lea Terhune. Her book, Karmapa: the Politics of Reincarnation, was published earlier this year by Wisdom Publications, also a defendant in the suit.
Shamar Rinpoche, the complainant in the case, filed the suit on June 23, 2004 in the High Court of New Delhi. The suit claims that Terhune's book was “written with the sole intention of maligning the reputation of the Complainant along with undermining the sanctity of his position as the second most respected person in the Karma Kagyu Sect of Tibetan Buddhism.”
“Though I am filing this case in my own name, as a Buddhist teacher I am not primarily concerned with my own personal reputation,” Shamar said: “Instead, I have filed this suit to protect the Karma Kagyu lineage, defend the others criticized in this book, and set the historical record straight for future generations.”
The current suit makes several complaints against Terhune's book. In addition to intentionally harming Shamar Rinpoche and the Karma Kagyu lineage, the book casts ungrounded aspersions against Karmapa Thaye Dorje and falsely projects Ogyen Trinley as the true Karmapa; makes unsupported insinuations against the Indian government and Indian officials; passes “loose remarks” about Shamar Rinpoche's parents and relatives; and promotes factionalism within the Karma Kagyu school.
In particular, the suit singles out six chapters in Terhune's book containing significant errors. Shamar Rinpoche has asked the court to require author Terhune to prove the allegations she repeats against him and his family, that:
- Shamar Rinpoche was behind the death of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche in an automobile accident in 1992;
- Along with Topga Rinpoche, Shamarpa sold off a monastery of the 16th Karmapa in Bhutan, Tashi Choling;
- He illegally appropriated for himself the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Delhi;
- He tried to install a prince of Bhutan as the Karmapa;
- He bribed the Indian government to stop Ogyen Trinley from going to Sikkim;
- And, his father was an alcoholic and his step-father a CIA spy.
Based on these charges, the suit claims that Terhune's book has done irreparable damage in India and around the world to the reputations of those she has attacked. Accordingly, if she cannot prove the truth of her allegations, the suit requests that the court order that Terhune's book be removed from sale in India; that Terhune make a formal apology for her defamatory remarks; and that she pay financial compensation for the loss of reputation that she has caused.
“Given her background, it is not surprising that Terhune would write such a book,” said Lama Karma Wangchuk, secretary of the IKKBO in New Delhi. “She is not an objective journalist, as her book implies, but a close confidante of a major partisan in the Karmapa controversy.” Since 1983, Terhune has been the personal secretary of the chief supporter of Ogyen Trinley, Tai Situ Rinpoche.
In addition, there are numerous other erroneous allegations against Shamar Rinpoche and other Karma Kagyu lamas that are not detailed in this lawsuit but that mar Terhune's text. The IKKBO has already answered many of Terhune's charges in our recent series of Internet articles on her book. Here, we will only discuss one particularly egregious error in Terhune's text, an inaccurate account of a conflict between the Dalai Lama's Gelupga school and the Karma Kagyu school of the Karmapas and Shamar Rinpoches that occurred in the 16th century. Terhune's retelling of this story appears to try to disparage the current Shamarpa by misrepresenting his predecessors.
A Story from Old Tibet, Badly Re-told
It is an error to believe the Shangri-La myth that Old Tibet was an exception to the history of nations, an exceptional land where leaders and citizenry alike followed the law of karma and eschewed conflict as a means to political power. Serious students of Tibetan history know that this former nation, like any country, had its share of power struggles that sometimes erupted into violence. And since religion was so strong in Tibet, it is natural that monasteries, lamas and leaders of the different schools of Tibetan Buddhism each played a prominent role in the politics of their day.
In addition, many people, especially in Western countries, may think that the Dalai Lamas always ruled over Tibet. This is not the case. The rule of the Dalai Lamas only began in the 17th century, when the Great Fifth Dalai Lama assumed the throne of Tibet. Immediately before that time, the country was under the rule of well loved kings who followed lamas of the Karma Kagyu, the school of the Karmapas. Under the rule of these kings, a conflict arose between the three main monasteries of the Dalai Lama's school and the royal government.
The 4th Dalai Lama and the 6th Shamar Rinpoche, Karma Chokyi Wangchuk (also called the “Red Hat Karmapa” and the 6th Garwang Tulku) tried to arrange a meeting to solve the misunderstanding between the monasteries and the government—in essence, a conflict between the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school and the Karma Kagyu school that provided the gurus to the royal house. However, some of the Dalai Lama's officials successfully plotted to prevent this meeting, to further their own interests. Thus, the conflict continued, with increasingly acrimonious relations between the Dalai Lama's school and the royal government, ultimately leading to the overthrow of the Tibetan king. Later, historians, scholars and even the 5th Dalai Lama himself would criticize the self-serving officials who killed this chance for a peaceful resolution to this conflict.
The best known history of Tibet in English, Tibet: a Political History by Tsepon Shakabpa, an official of the Dalai Lama's government until 1959, describes these events. Shakabpa even refers to Shamar Rinpoche by the name “Red Hat Karmapa,” a traditional term indicating his close alliance with the Karmapa.
Lea Terhune recounts these events as well and takes her version from Shakabpa. However, she makes one crucial change. Instead of mentioning Shamar Rinpoche as the peacemaker in this conflict, she names the Karmapa. She also omits Shakabpa's reference to Shamar Rinpoche as the “Red Hat Karmapa,” apparently embarrassed that Tibetan history placed Shamarpa and Karmapa so close together. Elsewhere, Terhune even claims that the 6th Shamarpa and the 10th Karmapa fought against each other, an allegation that has no basis in the written history of Tibet. Indeed, historians consistently mention these two lamas as the archetype of a close relationship between teacher and disciple.
A Frenzy of Publishing
Terhune's book represents the second of four volumes published since 2003 about the Karma Kagyu lineage and its chief lama, the Karmapa:
- Music in the Sky: the Life, Art and Teachings of the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje (Snow Lion, 2003) by long-time disciple Michelle Martin is a biography of Orgyen Trinley;
- Karmapa: the Politics of Reincarnation (Wisdom, 2004), Terhune's book, presents the Karmapa controversy from the viewpoint of a partisan of Orgyen Trinley;
- Mick Brown's The Dance of 17 Lives: the Incredible True Story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa (Bloomsbury, 2004) came out after Terhune's volume, and deals as Terhune's does with the controversy;
- Wrestling the Dragon: In Search of the Boy Lama Who Defied China (Random House, 2004) by Gaby Naher is a combination of personal memoir, biography of Ogyen Trinley and history of Tibet and the Karmapa controversy.
The authors of all four of these books support the candidacy of Ogyen Trinley for the title of 17th Karmapa. Ogyen Trinley has also been recognized by the Chinese government and by the Dalai Lama. Shamar Rinpoche opposes the recognition of Ogyen Trinley and supports his own contender chosen according to religious tradition, Thaye Dorje.
“Supporters of Ogyen Trinley have been involved in a frenzy of publishing recently,” said IKKBO Secretary Wangchuk. “We are not certain whether this is merely a trend or part of a coordinated publicity plan. Either way, they must be publishing so much or encouraging others to publish now because they are trying to win in the court of public opinion what they have been losing in the courts of law.”
Since 1993, supporters of Ogyen Trinley have been defendants in several legal actions brought against them in Indian courts by supporters of Thaye Dorje. Concerning the major action, a dispute over possession of the monastic seat of the 16th Karmapa, Rumtek Monastery in India's northeastern Sikkim state, three levels of the Indian court system have found against the supporters of Ogyen Trinley. In the most recent decision, on July 5, 2004, the Indian Supreme Court found that supporters of Ogyen Trinley have no jurisdiction over the monastery. The IKKBO has released the full text of the Supreme Court's decision at www.ikkbo.org .
Followers of Ogyen Trinley have also been convicted of criminal offenses, in particular inciting violence at the enthronement ceremony of Thaye Dorje held in 1994 in New Delhi.
“In my opinion, if someone sues another person only for revenge or to realize some financial gain, then this is wrong action according to Buddhist ethics or any ethics that I am familiar with,” Wangchuk said. “By contrast, if it will prevent some harm, then it is proper to defend oneself. And in a civilized society, the way to defend oneself is through legal channels.”
The first hearing in the case over Terhune's book took place at the High Court in New Delhi in July, 2004. At that time, the court ordered Terhune to appear at the next hearing scheduled for October. The IKKBO will post updates concerning this case as they become available at its website, www.ikkbo.org . Meantime, a detailed discussion of the errors of Terhune's book as well as a statement on Gaby Naher's new book is available on this website at www.karmapa-issue.org.
About the Karmapa Lamas
The Gyalwa Karmapa, like the Dalai Lama, is one of the highest leaders of Tibetan Buddhism. The Karmapa is the oldest line of reincarnate lamas in Tibet, and Karmapas have been reincarnating since the 12th century. The current holder of this title, 21-year-old 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje, is the head of the Karma Kagyu tradition, one of four independent schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The young lama is spiritual director of more than 640 Buddhist centers in 51 countries. More information can be found online at www.karmapa.org.
About the IKKBO
The International Karma Kagyu Buddhist Organization, based in New Delhi is dedicated to educating the wider public on issues relating to the disagreement over the identity of the Karmapa. The IKKBO and a variety of supporting materials on the Karmapa controversy can be found online at www.ikkbo.org.
www.karmapa-issue.org
The 14th Sharmapa Questions Mick Brown's Ethics
I cannot understand the value or nature of your professional ethics: that you have obligation to a questionable source but not to me, the entire subject of your story. Would that mean I had to accept your verdicts – just because you are a journalist?
http://www.karmapa-issue.org/politics/brown_response_15.htm
Mick Brown Writes A Slanderous Book About Phil Spector & Aligns Himself With Sprocket & The Darwin Exception
Phil Spector, uncovered and under the spotlight
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/21/wspec121.xml&page=1Phil Spector, uncovered and under the spotlight
By Mick Brown
Last Updated: 3:58am BST 21/08/2007Page 1 of 2
Mick Brown of the Telegraph magazine, Phil Spector's biographer, confronts the reclusive record producer outside the Los Angeles courtroom where he is standing trial for murder
In my periodic visits to Dept 106 of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Los Angeles, where Phil Spector is presently on trial, Spector and I have done our best to ignore each other. Well, to be more accurate he has done his best to ignore me. Spector, I'm told, is "unhappy" with the book I have written about him, and on the rare occasions when I have caught his eye across the courtroom he has fixed me with a basilisk stare.
Phil Spector arrives for jury selection in his murder trial
In court last week, I decided to bite the bullet (an unfortunate choice of phrase, perhaps, in the circumstances). Coming face to face with him in the hallway outside I greeted him with a cheery "hello, Mr Spector". The basilisk stare auto-reflexed into something that might have been a smile and he rasped back "hello".
Perhaps it wasn't the best thing for me to attempt to continue the conversation by asking "how are you doing?". The smile died on his face, and his three minders hurried him on his way.
One of the enduring fascinations of the trial has been Spector's changing wardrobe. Over the past four months he has modelled a bewildering number of frock-coated suits in a variety of fabrics and colours. These initially suggested a certain rakish, devil-may-care attitude - powder blues and dove greys, worn with big-collar, open-neck shirts in pastel colours - more Disco Inferno than murder trial.
But as the trial enters its critical, closing phase, a certain sobriety of mood seems to have come over Spector. He has now taken to wearing a tie, the better to impress on the jury perhaps that, really, he is taking this seriously; and the blonde bob wig, which lent him a creepily andronygous appearance, has been jettisoned in favour of a more conservative chestnut brown nest of curls.
Spector's coiffure is apparently supervised by his 26-year-old wife Rachelle, who recently ticked off a reporter for daring to suggest that her husband wears wigs. Rachelle's role in the trial is to arrive each day at the court clinging to Spector's arm, and then sit through the testimony - which has often been of teeth-grinding tedium - wearing an expression of saintly devotion.
advertisementIt is a touching display of marital loyalty and intimacy. But if she honestly thinks that's his real hair, you have to ask how intimate she and Spector really are.
Rachelle has been a source of constant speculation, and no little sniping, among the various trial-watchers and bloggers attending the proceedings, to the point that last week Spector's defense attorney Roger Rosen complained to the judge that disparaging remarks had been made about Mrs Spector's wardrobe in earshot of the jury.
While the trial has not captured television ratings in the way it was expected - Court-TV has long since relegated its live coverage to a web-broadcast - it has spawned a vigorous debate in the blogosphere. Two blogs in particular stand out. Betsy Ross is a seamstress, who writes under the by-line 'Sprocket' (the name of her cat).
A pleasant-looking, bespectacled woman, who describes her main interest as "criminal psychology, specifically serial rapists and murderers", Mrs Ross, who is to be found in court most days, writes a lively and discursive diary which makes the trial seem like a cross between the Perry Mason and the Archers and the 3AM girls - whos eating with who, Rachelle's wardrobe, sickness.
But the most thorough, and entertaining, reporting on the case is provided by a 44-year-old housewife in the Adirondacks named Kim Pulley, who writes on a blog called 'The Darwin Exception' ("because it's not always survival of the fittest - sometimes the idiots get through").
Mrs Pulley describes herself as "an inveterate trial watcher and knitter", and as well as regular trial reports her site also offers free knitting patterns. Struggling to find some common link between "Fuzzy hat and mittens" and the Grand Guignol spectacle that is the Spector trial I e-mailed Mrs Pulley. There are, she informs me, "tons of parallels" between the law and knitting.
"Both are very structured and very precise with rules and natural consequences for outcomes that depend on following set instructions - and they are both fluid and a skilled practioner can bend and adapt the set instructions to come up with something completely different yet strikingly dependent on the starting point. They both rely on logic and creativity."
In her spare moments between covering the Spector proceedings, Mrs Pulley has managed to complete "a little striped button down sweater and matching pants", a sweater that won grand prize at her local fair, and a baby's layette set.
"Now I am making a hoodie sweater that I started with Michael Baden's testimony and have just a sleeve left to complete. If they call many more experts I can clothe an African village full of children." At least something good has come out of all this.
Virtually all of the bloggers covering the trial seem to have made up their minds that Spector is guilty, but there is one web-page that remains indefatigable in its support for him - the 'Official Team Spector' page on MySpace. Its latest posting launches a scalding attack on Judge Fidler for allowing a fifth woman, Spector's former assistant and lover Devra Robitaille to testify that Spector once threatened her with a gun. Robitaille is expected to take the stand next week.
"I think it's pretty clear that Fidler is placing his bets on the prosecution," the posting reads, "especially when he has denied the defense to bring many valuable witnesses, denied them every motion made, censored important facts about the case. Fidler is showing a bias like we've never seen before!" So who is this staunch supporter for the defense? The web-page identifies them as a 67-year-old male, married, birthsign Capricorn, resident in Alhambra, California. Ah, that would be Phil Spector then....
One moment of high drama in the court-room last week not reported in 'The Darwin Exception' (the television cameras were turned off) was the fleeting appearance of the defendant in Judge Fidler's next case. Bailifs instructed everybody in court, including Spector, to move to one side of the room as they were "quarantining" the area between the door and the well of the court.
Quarantining? All became clear when a man was brought into the room, handcuffed and chained to a wheelchair. He was wearing orange prison fatigues, a large gag over his mouth and his head was encased in a fine-mesh hood, like a bee-keeper's bonnet.
This was Benjamin Pedro Gonzales, aka 'The Savage', who is presently serving time for the murder of at least three women and two fellow inmates, and whom one judge has described as "one of the most dangerous inmates in California history".
Gonzales is HIV positive and uses every opportunity to bite or spit saliva or blood at anybody who comes near. He has attacked prison guards and almost stabbed his own lawyer to death with a pencil. He was accompanied by seven armed deputies, all of whom were wearing protective gloves, and his lawyer, who looked as if he'd rather be representing anybody on earth but his client.
Gonzales was in the court for no longer than five minutes, while the judge scheduled a mental competency hearing, before being wheeled out leaving a stunned silence in his wake. No-one seemed more stunned than Phil Spector, who had been staring at 'The Savage' with naked fascination - mindful, perhaps, that for once his own starring role as the most bizarre spectacle in Department 106 had been emphatically eclipsed.
http://www.refugeesunleashed.net/about10873.html
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