Facing the music

February 3, 2003. Pre-dawn. A 911 operator was first to hear the news.

(911 call)
"My name is Adriano. I'm Phil Spector's driver. I think my boss killed somebody … because he has a lady on the floor and a gun in his hand."

The lady on the floor, really partially slumped in a chair, was Lana Clarkson.

She was 40 years old. She too had a back story full of its own pathos and joy.

Question: What'd she want to do? What'd she want to be?
Female voice: She wanted to be a famous actress.
Question: Did you think she would be?
Female voice: Absolutely. She had charisma. She was beautiful. She had talent. And she had drive.

She grew up in northern California, tall and pretty and hungry for fame. She was 17 when she took on Hollywood, auditioning with her friend Pam Krause to be an extra.

Lana was nearly 6-feet-tall, a knockout. She was statuesque, blonde, gorgeous.

Which is why she was plucked from the crowd of extras for her first line of dialogue.

A single word actually, one syllable.

(From "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in 1982)
"Hi"

Pam Krause: And she goes and shakes the hands of these young teenage boys who are obviously trying to have a girlfriend of their own. And they couldn't even believe. The look on their face was in shock that-- that it-- that that guy could ever get a wife as beautiful as Lana.

That got her in the actor's union.

And then, her talent persuaded Roger Corman, the king of B movies, to make her the Barbarian Queen.

(From "Barbarian Queen")
Lana Clarkson: "If you've come to kill me, then just kill me. I don't need to listen to you talk."

Roger Corman: Lana on the set and off the set was truly a wonderful person. She was bright, she was vivacious, she was friendly to everybody. She leapt into her roles, and particularly in the sword and sorcery pictures, which required a great deal of action. She seemed to enjoy them.

But Hollywood, as every child should be taught early on, is often a cruel town.

As Lana aged, even small parts played hard to get.

And so she adjusted and developed a standup comedy act.

Michael Nathanson: She was really, really funny.

And, said pal Nathanson, she didn't take herself too seriously.

Nathanson: And what's most interesting about the routine. Her act, if I may, was that 90 percent of her standup was all about, "Hi, I'm Lana Clarkson. I want to tell you what it's like to be an ex, kind of over-the-hill, B movie queen in Hollywood."

(court video)
Lana Clarkson: I played probably every sex pot bimbo character you can imagine.

Adjustments. Two days before she died she told Pam Krause's mother, a matchmaker, that she was ready for a mate.

Dianne Bennett: She says, "I love kids, I'm getting to the point where I'd really like to find the right man. Will you promise to call me on Monday?" I said, "Of course."
Pam Krause: All she had to do was to live until Monday morning.

But first, Lana clocked in to work at her new job as hostess in the VIP room at the House of Blues, Sunset Strip, Feb. 2, 2003. 6 p.m.

It was about an hour after that when Phil Spector and his driver headed out to pick up his old classmate, Rommie Davis.

They'd recently become re-acquainted after a high school reunion.

Keith Morrison: Was he a gentleman?
Rommie Davis: Always. Always. Impeccable. Always.

So, Rommie was taken aback when she dined with him, several times, on that fateful weekend.

At dinner on Friday...

Rommie Davis: He ordered a drink. And-- you know, Phillip-- Phillip didn't usually drink. And so I was a little disconcerted and thrown at that. I thought, a drink?

Rommie knew Spector shouldn't drink while on medication for manic depression. Then, on Saturday night…

Rommie Davis: This was not Phillip. This was somebody else. He was just different. And so he ordered a daiquiri and I thought, oh my gosh. 

Still, she agreed to see him again on Sunday, Feb. 2.

Rommie Davis: He had more than one drink. He was acting, you know, very, very weird. And he didn't-- he didn't want to go home.

He dropped off Rommie and picked up another female friend, took her to Trader Vic's, an old Beverly Hills watering hole.

And then they went to Dan Tanas for more drinks.

They got there at 1:44 a.m. and then, very late now, nearly 2 a.m., they went to the House of Blues.

They met the new hostess -- Lana Clarkson.

Mick Brown: Initially she doesn't recognize Phil Spector. Doesn't know who he is. Thinks, in fact, that he's a woman. And somebody steps in very quickly and has to explain who he is. "This-- this is Phil Spector. You treat him like gold."

And so, according to people who work at the House of Blues, she did. And when Spector sent his date home, she and he struck up a conversation that lasted until it was time to go.

Here in this grainy security video you can see Lana Clarkson after the bar had closed blowing out a candle, then walking Phil Spector to his car. The time stamp says 2:23 a.m.

Mick Brown: At that point, according to the chauffeur, he begins to invite Lana back to The Castle. "Come back to The Castle. Just come back for a drink."
Keith Morrison: She doesn't want to go?
Mick Brown: And she says, "No."

But Lana acquiesces, gets in the back of Spector's chauffeur-driven Mercedes.

They watch a movie in the backseat – "Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye," a noir starring James Cagney.

(From "Kiss Tomorrow Good-bye")
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it is my duty to prosecute and your duty to convict or acquit."

They head east to the city of Alhambra, where Phil Spector lives in a massive gated hilltop mansion he called The Castle.

And then everything changed.

Detective Rosenberg: Shortly after five o'clock this morning, officers from the Alhambra Police Department were dispatched to the residence behind us regarding a call of a gunshot victim.

The bullet, just one, broke her neck and severed her spine. She was dead in an instant according to law enforcement.

And thus began the slow trip down the long and winding road of the law...

(In court)
Phillip Spector you're charged in indictment number DA-255233 in count one, with the murder of Lana Clarkson, in violation of penal code section 187, that's alleged to have occurred on Feb. 3, 2003...

… along which the eccentric music producer was arrested, and booked for murder. He hired some very expensive lawyers -- and fired a few too.

Occasionally he got on a soap box.

(In front of courthouse)
Phil Spector: The actions of the Hitler-like district attorney, and his storm-trooping henchmen, to seek an indictment against me, and censor all means of getting my evidence and the truth out, are reprehensible, unconscionable, and despicable.

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