All women "deserve a bullet in their fucking heads". Not my words, I'd like to stress, but the words of one Phil Spector. Allegedly.
It's not an allegation you'd expect a witness to make during the case for the defence, but as the Spector murder trial resumed yesterday, the prosecution, who formally finished their case last month, were given a little more time at the head of the proceedings to question one of their witnesses who had earlier been ruled 'inadmissable' by Judge Larry Paul Fidler. Prosecution lawyers had appealed the decision to not let former New York police detective Vincent Tannazzo testify, and yesterday Fidler announced he had, indeed, changed his mind on the matter meaning that, before the defence resumed their case, the prosecution were allowed to wheel in the ex-cop. And being allowed to present Tannazzo can't have hindered their case.
Tannazzo recalled remarks Spector made as he was escorted away from two separate parties hosted by comedian Joan Rivers during the 1990s, parties where the former cop's company was providing the security. At one party Spector allegedly referred to women in "the grossest of terms" before remarking: "They [women] all deserve a bullet in their fucking heads". A year later at another Rivers organised bash he was again ushered out, and this time he appeared to threaten an unidentified woman remarking: "I ought to put a bullet in her fucking head right now".
Tannazzo added that during the first incident he believed Spector was carrying a gun. He told the court that when Spector moved his hand towards his right hip pocket - where he suspected the gun to be - "I told [him] if he pulls out that gun I'll blow his fucking brains out". Spector allegedly responded: "No, no, I'm cool. I love cops. I'm a sheriff from North Carolina".
Tannazzo's testimony all added to the prosecution's wider attempts to portray Spector as a gun wielding misogynistic loon - a man more than capable of shooting dead former actress Lana Clarkson at his home back in 2003. Spector, of course, claims Clarkson shot herself.
The case continues, presumably with the defence returning to their main argument that the forensic evidence supports Spector's claims of suicide.