Video: 'PrimeTime Live - Lana Clarkson/Phil Spector (January 27, 2005)'
(Monday, February 3, 2003, about 5:00 a.m. PST; during the murder of Lana Clarkson) — American actress Lana Clarkson, 40, was found dead this morning in record producer Phil Spector’s mansion, the Pyrenees Castle, located in Alhambra, California.
In the early hours of this morning, Clarkson had met Spector while working at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. After leaving in Spector’s limousine, the two were driven to Spector’s mansion and went inside while his driver waited in the car.
Her body was found slumped in a chair with a single gunshot wound to her mouth with broken teeth scattered over the carpet.
Spector told Esquire magazine in July 2003 that Clarkson’s death was an “accidental suicide” and that she “kissed the gun.”
Spector’s driver, Adriano de Souza, said Spector came out of the house holding a gun and said “I think I killed someone.”
Forensic examinations could not find Spector’s fingerprints on the gun.
Video: 'The Murder of Actress Lana Clarkson by Music Producer Phil Spector (Crime Documentary)'
Spector was tried for the murder of Clarkson in 2007. On September 26 of that year, a mistrial was declared due to a hung jury, with ten jurors of twelve favoring conviction.
He was tried again for second-degree murder beginning on October 20, 2008. On April 13, 2009, the jury found Spector guilty of murdering Clarkson. On May 29, 2009, he was sentenced to nineteen years to life in state prison.
Spector died from COVID-19 complications in a prison hospital on Jan. 16, 2021.
Best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, Spector developed the Wall of Sound, a production style that is characterized by its diffusion of tone colors and dense orchestral sound, which he described as a “Wagnerian” approach to rock and roll.
He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history and one of the most successful producers of the 1960s.
In the early 1970s, Spector produced The Beatles’ Let It Be and several solo records by John Lennon and George Harrison.
