Fifty years of Phil Spector

Last week, after more than four years of continuances, Phil Spector went on trial for the murder of B-movie actress Lana Clarkson, who was found dead with a bullet hole in her mouth in the legendary music producer's Alhambra mansion on February 3, 2003. The proceedings got off to a fast start when, on Thursday, the prosecution brought Spector's ex-girlfriend Dorothy Melvin to the stand to recount a 1993 incident in which the "Wall of Sound" pioneer terrorized Melvin with both a revolver and a shotgun. Melvin is just one of at least four women who will take the stand, say prosecutors, in an effort to paint Spector as a man with a "rich history of violence" toward women.

Spector stories are the stuff of legend: He's pulled a gun on everyone from Leonard Cohen to the RamonesOf course, if the jury were filled with rock fans, the character assassination would be unnecessary. Sometimes referred to as "the mad genius of rock," Spector stories are the stuff of legend: He's pulled a gun on everyone from Leonard Cohen to the Ramones, and it's reputed that his antics, and cape-wearing, ruffle-clad persona are the inspiration for the lisping and lethal band manager character "Ronnie 'Z-man' Barzell" in Russ Meyer's camp classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. In reality, just weeks before the Clarkson murder, Spector told a journalist with the Daily Telegraph that he was on medication for schizophrenia and "relatively insane." The reputation is one that's loomed over the producer for as long as he's been in the public eye. "If he's found innocent," says Dave Thompson, author of the book, Wall of Pain: the Biography of Phil Spector, "he'll be the new OJ."

For those who haven't been sequestered, Radar offers a more unedited timeline of Phil Spector's "rich history of violence."

1958

While touring with his first band, the Teddy Bears, Spector endures a traumatizing incident that may be responsible for setting the tone for his subsequent persecution complex. According to a music publisher associate of his, Spector is followed into a public restroom and cornered by four prankster show-goers who proceed to urinate on him.

1965
Tony Hall, of Decca Records in Britain, recounts to one Spector biographer tales from his "Japanese period," an epoch that sees Spector flanked by five martial arts black belts wherever he goes—recording sessions, night clubs, and in later years, even on-stage ceremonies.