Spector charged

last updated 8 January 2015

Alhambra, Calif.

Police have charged Phil Spector, a groundbreaking record producer, with the February murder of a B-movie actress in his California mansion. Lana Clarkson, star of Barbarian Queen, was found dead, slumped in a chair, with a bullet wound in her head. Spector, 63, said in an interview with Esquire that Clarkson, 40, shot herself with his pistol when, drunk, she “kissed the gun.” Spector’s chauffeur said he discovered Clarkson’s body after he heard a boom and rushed into the house. He told police that he talked to Spector later that night. Spector, who produced albums for the Beatles and other recording stars, was holding a handgun. He allegedly told the chauffeur, “I think I killed somebody.”