Phil Spector has a "very rich and lively and active history of violence" towards women, normally involving guns. Added to that, he once said: "Woman are all fuckin cunts. They all deserve a bullet in their head". It should be no surprise, then, that on 3 February 2003 he killed actress Lana Clarkson as she tried to leave his Beverly Hills home with a single bullet to the head. This, I should add, is the view of prosecutor Alan Jackson, who returned to court yesterday in his second bid to get legendary producer Spector jailed for Lana Clarkson's murder.
We'd already been told the prosecution would present a very similar case in the second Spector trial as they did first time round, and certainly Jackson opened the proceedings with similar promises to introduce to the court "the real Philip Spector" and to "paint a very clear picture of a man who, when confronted with the right circumstances... turns very sinister and very violent and ultimately deadly".
Promising testimonies from five women who will claim to have been at the receiving end of Spector's sinister and violent behaviour, Jackson then recapped the events leading up to Clarkson's death in a dramatic fashion, recalling how the producer's driver, parked outside, had heard a gun shot at 5am and then seen his employer appear in a door way. "He had in his right hand a revolver...dripping between his fingers was the tiniest bit of blood", Jackson told the jury. "Then Philip Spector confessed to what had just happened inside the house, telling his driver: 'I think I killed somebody'".
Spector's new chief defence lawyer, Doron Weinberg, disputed Jackson's claims, saying his theory that there was some kind of "pattern" in the producer's behaviour towards women was "preposterous", "theatrical" and "misleading". He conceded his client may have a foul mouth, and a bad temper, and that he owned and occasionally "waved" guns, but, he added, Spector had "never fired a gun at a living being" and, most importantly, did not kill Clarkson.
What happened, Weinberg said, was that the former actress, having downed up to six drinks since arriving at Spector's home, had taken one of the producer's guns and shot herself. Continuing with the theme used by Spector's previous defence team, Weinberg claimed the actress was depressed about her "stagnated career" and stressed about money problems. She was addicted to prescription drugs and had a history of binge drinking.
Weinberg also made the same forensic claims as the defence presented in the first trial. Spector's team have always said forensic evidence points to Clarkson holding the gun that killed her - no sign of a struggle, Spector's DNA not on the gun, gun residue and blood on Clarkson's hands consistent with her firing it.
Concluding his opening address, Weinberg told the court: "Every piece of evidence in this case is completely consistent with Lana Clarkson ending her own life. She saw a gun in the bureau drawer and in that moment decided to do something impulsive and self-destructive, a decision that was entirely consistent with where she was in her life. Phil Spector did not shoot Lana Clarkson. It was a suicide because she was the person who pulled the trigger".
With opening remarks delivered, the trial continues.
Ahead of the second trial, the BBC earlier this week aired an interview with the producer which it recorded during the first court hearing. Clearly keen to win Brownie points with the judge in the case, he called Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler "a mean son of a bitch who doesn't like me", before adding: "I was eight feet away from her when she died. It can be proven forensically that I didn't kill her".
On matters other than the circumstances around Clarkson's death, Spector also spoke about Paul McCartney's decision back in 2003 to release a new version of the Beatles' Spector-produced 'Let It Be' album with all the Spector bits removed, and also responded to questions about "that haircut".
On 'Let It Be Naked' he told the Beeb: "I don't think McCartney is very secure that I went in there in a few months and did what they couldn't do in two years. John was thrilled, George was thrilled with what I'd done. What else could it be except that it's a big 'up his ass' that I had somehow taken something he had done and made it right? And he waited 35 years [to release his own version]. I don't know why. I don't care why. Whatever personal vendetta or grievance or reason, he got me mixed up with somebody who gives a shit".
And on the afro style hairdo that he donned at one point during the first murder trail - a striking image still used by some very respectable websites to illustrate this story - he told interviewer Vikram Jayanti that he did his hair that way as a two-part homage to Albert Einstein and US basketball player Ben Wallace. And not, as we all assumed, as a tribute to the Hair Bear Bunch.
Spector: "That was a tribute to Ben Wallace and to Albert Einstein. It took four-and-a-half hours to get my hair that way. Ben Wallace was the most valuable defensive player of the year for the Detroit Pistons. I spent a lot of time on it but it photographed beyond my wildest dreams. That day it got a little extreme. For some reason, in a dark setting and with a particular camera angle, it photographed much puffier and bigger than it actually was. I didn't mean to be that comical. I meant to have a sense of humour, but I didn't look that way in person. It was the shadows in the background. It puffed up to two or three times its actual size. I don't like the idea that anybody thinks I'm taking this not seriously".