Life

'Phil Spector held a gun to my head'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-05 06:58

As the clock ticks down to the trial of legendary record producer Phil Spector for murder - an event expected to eclipse even the Michael Jackson trial - ominous tales of drunken gunplay have surfaced in prosecution evidence.

Prosecutors have asked the judge to allow testimony from a former employee and one-time girlfriend of Spector who said the producer pointed a gun at her head.

In court documents filed on Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson said the testimony demonstrates a "long history of gun-related violence directed at women" and should be admitted as evidence during Spector's upcoming trial on charges he shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson in February 2003.

Devra Robitaille, who worked at Warner Spector Records from 1974 to 1977, told investigators that one night Spector placed a shotgun against her forehead when she tried to leave the producer's home after a party.

"Spector, who was drunk, made some sort of joke and then said, 'Just so you know, I'll blow your head off' or 'If you try to leave, I'll blow your brains out,'" according to the court documents.

Robitaille told Spector to "knock that off and put that away," and he eventually let her leave.

A similar incident occurred a decade later when she claims Spector again put a gun to her head in the foyer of his home after a night of drinking.

A hearing has been scheduled for next week to consider the prosecution's request.

Under a separate motion, apparently reinforcing the image of Spector as a violent man who hated women, the court has also been asked to admit into evidence a conversation Spector reportedly had with a retired New York City police officer at a party at the home of Joan Rivers in the late 90s.

Vince Tannazzo, who was working as a security guard at the party, said he was asked to escort Spector out after a commotion.

While they were leaving, Tannazzo said Spector made numerous profane, disparaging and threatening remarks about women.

"They all deserve to die. They all deserve a bullet in their head," Tannazzo quoted Spector as saying. "That's why I got permits for all over," Spector went on. "Wherever I go, I always keep a gun, because they're all no good."

Prosecutors allege that, while drunk, Spector shot Clarkson to death on February 3, 2003 in the foyer of his home.

The former B-movie actress was working as a hostess at the House of Blues nightclub when she went home with Spector that night.

The coroner's office called it homicide, but noted Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.

Spector has pleaded not guilty and has been free on $1 million bail since his arrest. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

In a more than 40-year long career Spector went from dominating the sound of pop music in the US before the arrival of the Beatles, to becoming a virtual recluse.

In the first half of the 60s he oversaw the creation of a host of "Wall of Sound" pop classics including Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby and You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling. While later on he produced the Beatles' Let It Be, John Lennon's Imagine and George Harrison's critically-acclaimed All Things Must Pass.

But as the years wore on Spector retreated into his faux-castle mountain above Los Angeles and worrying stories of eccentricity began to surface. He is said to have shot up the studio while Lennon recorded his Rock 'n' Roll album, threatened Leonard Cohen and forced Dee Dee Ramone to play his bass guitar at gunpoint.

Agencies

(China Daily 04/05/2007 page9)