L.A. Police Want Spector Interview Too
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Legendary rock producer Phil Spector has told Esquire Magazine that actress Lana Clarkson killed herself in his Los Angeles mansion by putting a gun in her mouth and blowing her head off — details about the death he apparently hasn’t shared with police.
Spector touched off an uproar on Wednesday with his interview about the death that led to his arrest on suspicion of murder because police say he hasn’t granted them an interview since Feb. 3., the day the 40-year-old B-movie star died.
A source close to the case characterized the Esquire interview and a previous e-mail circulated by a Spector associate that claimed the producer would not be charged as part of “a calculated campaign” to pressure officials not to prosecute him.
Meanwhile, Lt. Dan Rosenberg of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told Reuters that detectives were just as eager as Esquire’s editors to land an interview with the reclusive record producer.
“My door is always open,” Rosenberg said. “He can sit down here at any time with the lead investigator in this case and chat with him … he is welcome any time.”
No charges have been brought against Spector and Rosenberg said investigators were waiting for evidence to be analyzed by the county’s crime lab.
He said he expected the investigation to be completed by August when the department will present its findings to the district attorney.
In his first public accounting of what led to Clarkson’s death, Spector told Esquire Magazine, “She kissed the gun. I have no idea why — (I) never knew her, I never even saw her before that night … I have no idea who she was, or what her agenda was.”
“She killed herself,” Spector added in the interview with Esquire contributing editor Scott Raab. “If they had a case, I’d be sitting in jail right now.”
He added that she had asked him for a ride home when the two met at the House of Blues nightclub in Hollywood, where Clarkson worked as a hostess.
“She was loud and drunk before we even left the House of Blues. She grabbed a bottle of tequila from the bar to take with her. I was not drunk. … There is no case. She killed herself.”
The Los Angeles County Coroners office has not ruled on the cause of death. The actress was dead in a pool of blood in the foyer of Spector’s castle-like mansion in the L.A. suburb of Alhambra. He was arrested within hours of the Feb. 3 shooting on suspicion of murder and released on $1 million bond.
Spector wrote and produced his first No. 1 hit, “To Know Him Is To Love Him” at age 17 and went on to produce 17 top-10 U.S. hits in a decade, helping the Beatles put out their “Let It Be” album.
Clarkson was a tall blond who idolized Marilyn Monroe and starred in such films as “Amazon Women on the Moon” and “The Barbarian Queen.”
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