A Phil Spector PrimerHow to rubberneck an underappreciated murder trial.

(Continued from page 1)

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After relating this, Gilliam says, Spector said: "Nobody takes a gun from me."

The Alhambra police booked Spector and charged him with murder. He was later released on a million-dollar bail.

In a July 2004 civil deposition against his former lawyer Robert Shapiro (of O.J. fame), whom he fired, Spector maintains that when he first talked to the police, "I was groggy. I couldn't think straight." He attributes this to being restrained by a taser. (The police confirm that on entering the house they shot him with a taser because he wouldn't put his hands up. They also say he stank of alcohol.) Presumably Spector or his attorney will argue at trial that it was his grogginess that made him state initially that he'd shot Clarkson.

(Macabre digression: Before Spector fired him, Shapiro made news by refusing to turn over to prosecutors a certain piece of secret evidence. The evidence turned out to be what Shapiro claimed was Clarkson's gunpowder-blackened fingernail, left behind at the crime scene by careless police investigators.)

So … guilty, right?

Except that examination of the body revealed that the gun barrel wasn't placed against Clarkson's temple. It was placed inside Clarkson's mouth. According to a search warrant affidavit from the county police, Clarkson had "what appeared to be a single entry gunshot wound to the mouth." "She kissed the gun," Spector later told Esquire. "I have no idea why." The gun, which was found lying under Clarkson's left leg, was a Colt Cobra .38 revolver. Nine other guns were found in the house, including two more Colt revolvers. But all the other guns were registered to Spector. The gun found beside Clarkson wasn't registered to anyone. Does that mean it might have been Clarkson's gun? If so, why did Spector tell Gilliam it was his gun? And even if it was Spector's gun, how did the barrel end up in Clarkson's mouth?

One of Spector's attorneys has hinted to the Los Angeles Times that the two were using the Colt revolver in some sort of sex game. Is that a possibility? Or has the lawyer been reading too much Raymond Chandler? Why would Spector and Clarkson play a sex game in the foyer two hours after they arrived? Wouldn't Clarkson's presence there indicate that she was getting ready to leave? A Philadelphia photographer named Stephanie Jennings is prepared to testify that in 1995, Spector pulled a gun on her and blocked the door when she refused his advances.

I told you this was a good story. Let the media circus begin.

[Update, June 26, 2007: After writing this, I lost my mind and decided to blog the entire Spector trial for Slate. To read Chatterbox's Spector blog, click here.]

E-mail Timothy Noah at .

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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.

Photograph of Phil Spector by Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press.

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