Free Republic

Music legend Phil Spector, in prison for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, has been writing letters about his life behind bars — saying in a letter released Wednesday that he fears for his safety and would like to be moved to "a better prison." Spector wrote to his friend Steve Escobar, a musician and music journalist, of his chagrin at being in the same prison as notorious murderers including Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan. He said he is working with his attorneys "to get a better prison with people more like myself in it during the appeal process instead...

Music legend-cum-murderer Phil Spector is whining about being locked up in a "snake pit" of a prison with such other high-profile killer nutjobs as Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan -- but California corrections officials say Spector is full of beans. "Imagine sending me to the same prison -- shows how low they can go," fumes Spector in a letter to a buddy, Bay Area music manager Steve Escobar. "They'd kill you in here for a 39-cent bag of soup!" SNIP Spector wrote Escobar that Phil's 29-year-old wife, ex-Playboy model Rachelle Short, has begun making an 800-mile round trip drive to...

On Thursday we reported on an overture allegedly made by Charles Manson to recently-incarcerated music producer Phil Spector. Blogs and newspapers were lighting up with the story, including the New York Post's Page Six, which spoke to Spector's wife and publicist. Apparently, the bearded man pictured above wanted to work with the man known for the Wall of Sound. But it turns out, it isn't true. Contact of any kind between the two inmates never occured, says Terry Thornton, spokeswoman in the Office of Public and Employee Communications at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. In fact, they aren't...

These sets of videos are making the rounds and they should be a warning to all Democratic politicians. Forget the polls. What is clear is that the passion and energy is on the side of the of those opposed to the health care plan that is filtering through Congress. For weeks, everyone predicted all sorts of excitement once the politicians got back to their districts and met with the constituency. We just got a peek at this with these sets of video. This is not pretty.

Sibelius, Obama's Secretary of Health got an earful too!Benedict Arlen Specter (DEMOCRAT-PA) got an earful when he held a Town Hall meeting on health care at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia over the weekend. Andrew Monaghan who blogs at Panzramic, showed up to document the ACORN/union thugs who were bused in along with exploited handicapped people to help make the case for Obama care. Andrew also found a very raucous crowd of citizens who are mad as hell at the socialist circus in Washington and are not going to take it any more. So many voters angry at Obama's...

Bioethics: The former director of the National Institutes of Health, once an enthusiast for embryonic stem cells, now says their future has "dimmed." So why is the administration bailing out research into such therapies while troubled states like California have committed billions?Aside from creating or saving a few research jobs, the administration's decision to federally fund embryonic stem cell research is, as we've noted, a bailout of bad science. It throws money at an avenue of research that time and adult stem cell progress have passed by. Applauding the administration's move was Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., who echoed the claims...

A congressman from the Philadelphia suburbs will challenge U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic Senate primary. In an interview with The Wayne Independent Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.,confirmed his intention to run against Specter, a long-time Republican who switched to the Democratic party earlier this year. “I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter ... for senator,” said Sestak in his first media interview as part of a three-week tour through all of the Commonwealth’s 67 counties. Wayne County was his first stop where he met with local Democrats prior to his interview with...

A concerned Pennsylvania citizen and the pro se Plaintiff in Schneller v. Cortes, James Schneller had originally brought a suit against his Secretary of the Commonwealth, Pedro Cortes, alleging that Pennsylvania’s certified ballots were improperly transmitted to the federal government due to a stay of such activity and that Sen. Arlen Specter had been improperly placed as an Elector for the McCain/Palin ticket. His application for Writ of Certiorari had originally been denied by Associate Justice Souter back on January 8, 2009 (docket).

Unplugged: Bald music mogul Phil Spector ditches wig in prison mugshot after murder conviction [Pic in URL] By PAUL THOMPSON 10th June 2009 Former music producer Phil Spector has been forced to pose for a prison photo - without his wig. The 69-year-old, who was jailed for 19 years for the murder of Lana Clarkson, had to leave off his famous bouffant-style wig for the prison mugshot photo. He was photographed after arriving at the North Kern State prison in Delano, California, where he is being processed before being sent to jail. Bald: Phil Spector looks gaunt as he poses...

Rachelle Spector, 28, scoffs at the notion that she's a gold digger, saying she's devoted to her role as the spokeswoman for the producer's cause and chief financial officer of his music empire.Rachelle Spector arrived for lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel with one French-manicured hand gripping a hot pink BlackBerry. "I never know when he is going to be allowed to call," she said as she laid the mobile device carefully on a velvety banquette. "Whenever he calls, I answer." SNIP "He's locked in a 5-by-9 cell, 23 1/2 hours a day," Rachelle Spector said. "They treat people worse...

Eccentric music producer Phil Spector was given a sentence of 19 years to life in prison on Friday for the murder of a Hollywood actress in 2003. Spector, 69, who revolutionized pop music in the 1960s with his layered "Wall of Sound" production technique, was convicted in April of second-degree murder by a Los Angeles jury after a second trial. The first trial ended in a deadlock in 2007. Lana Clarkson, 40, a B-movie actress, died of a shot to the mouth, fired from Spector's gun in the foyer of his mock castle home outside Los Angeles on February 3,...

Phil Spector’s six years in the L.A. justice system, an odyssey that began with his arrest for shooting an actress in 2003 and included a grand jury presentation and two trials, will conclude this morning at 11 when he is sentenced for murder. Judge Larry Paul Fidler, who presided over the music producer’s trials, has little discretion in punishing Spector, 69, for the fatal shooting of actress Lana Clarkson, 40, a death that jurors decided last month was second-degree murder. Because the conviction carries a mandatory 15 years to life in prison, the judge’s only choice will be whether to...

I as well as most of you were elated at the news of Senator Spector's defection to the Democratic Party yesterday (he's a RINO, and Toomey or Luksik are real Republicans, or Conservative in their philosophy), We (thought I am not a Pennsylvanian) (could) have another Real Republican in the US Senate, not the dissapointment that Senator Spector has been over the years! NOW (We have to think) HOW IS THE BEST WAY TO ELECT TOOMEY (or Luksik)? Well now follow my logic.. I like most of you would like to "punish" Spector for his years of betrayal of Conservatives...

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has never been President Bush's dream Republican. Mr. Specter, a member of an endangered species of Capitol Hill centrists, did not support Mr. Bush's full tax cut. He voted against removing former President Bill Clinton from office and counts among his supporters such well-known Bush foes as George Soros, the financier, and Harold M. Ickes, Mr. Clinton's onetime deputy chief of staff. Most pointedly, Mr. Specter supports revising parts of the antiterrorism legislation known as the Patriot Act, which Mr. Bush said on Monday must be left intact. But never mind. On Monday night in...

I always try to look for a silver lining on a cloud. I try to see both sides of the coin, and to be positive. That's a lot harder today, BUT it is not impossible! Senator Specter is switching from a Republican to a Democrat, and this gives the Democratic Party absolute power in Washington DC. They now have full control of the White House and both Houses of Congress as well as a filibuster-proof majority. That means they can pass and do anything they want, and no one can stop them except themselves. Therein lies the silver lining. It's...

Leave it to CNN host Rick Sanchez to unintentionally give us a moment of comedy in an afternoon cable news broadcast. On "CNN Newsroom" on April 28, Sanchez interviewed Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., about the departure of Sen. Arlen Specter, Pa., from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. He asked the senator from South Carolina if Specter was correct in his analysis that the conservative wing of the Republican Party was squeezing out a segment of the electorate. "You're shrinking the electorate to an extreme - to a point where a regular Republican can't win," Sanchez said, paraphrasing Specter....

From The Times April 15, 2009 Phil Spector: murder, madness and shocking hair Chris Ayres, Los Angeles During the 11 months that he spent on trial for murder, Phil Spector said nothing. Not a word. Not a peep. Not a single da-doo-ron-ron, da-doo-ron-ron. His wigs, however, told you pretty much everything you needed to know: at times they were so implausibly massive that the man's head appeared to be encircled by its very own weather system. And then, of course, there was the cake-icing foundation that he chose to shovel atop those ghoulish, sunken features, not to mention the long-tailed...

Legendary music producer Phil Spector was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra mansion six years ago. The verdict means Spector, famed his work with Tina Turner, the Beatles, the Righteous Brothers and others, faces 15 years for murder and at least three for gun enhancement when he is sentenced May 29.

This time the jury did not ignore the habit Phil Spector had of playing Russian roulette with women. After so many times of "playing" the game, Lana Clarkson was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time with Phil Spector who's luck had run out. With a chance to find Phil Spector innocent, guilty of 2nd degree murder or involuntary manslaughter, the jury found Spector guilty of 2nd degree murder.

<p>LOS ANGELES - Rock music producer Phil Spector was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion six years ago.</p> <p>A Superior Court jury returned the verdict after an estimated 29 to 30 hours of deliberations. The jury had the option of choosing involuntary manslaughter, but did not do so.</p>

Announcement only

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The jury in Phil Spector's murder retrial has signaled it has reached a verdict. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury buzzed the courtroom three times at late morning Monday. The court clerk says the verdict will be read no earlier than 2 p.m. PDT.

Final arguments ready in Spector retrial Unlike at first trial, this jury can consider involuntary manslaughter Six years after actress Lana Clarkson died of a gunshot wound at Phil Spector's hilltop mansion, lawyers will once again deliver final arguments to a jury in the legendary music producer's murder trial. March. 22, 2009 LOS ANGELES - Six years after actress Lana Clarkson died of a gunshot wound at Phil Spector's hilltop mansion, lawyers will once again deliver final arguments to a jury in the legendary music producer's murder trial. The question hanging over these proceedings is whether this jury, unlike the...

He knows what's worth losing over and he's willing to act on it," Biden said. "In his heart, I know he's a Democrat."

When Arlen Specter announced his support for the $800 Billion "stimulus" bill passed last week, he said it was because "something had to be done" and the wasteful, pork� and earmark�full bill was "the best that we could do". Devon Generally knows that Arlen Specter is wrong about that. America has always done better, and with the right representation in Congress, we can do better again. Mr. Generally wants to be a key part of that grassroots�generated, can�do type of Congress, and what better way to do that than by unseating a "Republican" that does not stand for fiscal responsibility...

Breaking: RNC Chairman Michael Steele Says He's Open to Punishing 3 GOP Senate Defectors (Video) Yes! RNC Chairman Michael Steele told Neil Cavuto that he is open to cutting GOP funding for the 3 Senate traitors who voted for the Generational Theft Act.....

Thanks to GOP Senators Arlen Specter, Susan Collins & Olympia Snowe, the federal government has passed a bill enabling them to devour approximately one trillion dollars of our future wages. That is only the beginning as Barack Obama is just weeks into his unchecked, unbalanced presidency. These Senators have brought dishonor to our party and we can no longer afford to allow them to hide behind the Republican banner. We would be better off taking the "risk" of losing their seats to the Democrats as their presence has already caused many in our conservative base to leave in disgust. Indeed...

Remove them from the Republican party. How can this be done? Simple. Contact every Republican office holder/official you can think of and let them know in certain terms that if any senator that votes for the stimulus package is not removed from the party that you will leave the Republican party. I have not advocated forming a third party, but sometimes you reach a tipping point. If the Republicans can't stand firm on the most important bill in our lifetime, if they can't hold this line, then the Republican party is dead. D E A D dead. Calling the three...

FIDEL Castro supports Barack Obama. Hamas supports Barack Obama. And now Phil Spector supports Barack Obama (sse badge). With friends like these, who need Hillary..?

At their best - or, if you prefer, their pushiest — producers often are de facto composers. 1. George Martin — How do you turn a scruffy quartet of Liverpudlians into the most innovative act in rock history? Hook 'em up with the classically inclined yet progressive-minded Mr. Martin.

It's the second True Crime post of the week and we will have updates on the McCann case, and OJ, goodness let's lock this man up once and for all, huh? A fine collection of convict lawsuits is offered and in depth tongue in cheek updates on true crimes and pathetic criminals.

The murder case of pop music legend Phil Spector went to the jury Monday, but not without some final fireworks from the music producer's camp. Before jurors were instructed on how to determine whether Spector is guilty of murdering actress Lana Clarkson, Spector's wife snapped at Judge Larry Paul Fidler after he ordered her to stop speaking to the media. The Los Angeles County Superior Court judge also addressed a news report printed Sunday in which Spector reportedly said Fidler did not like him. Spector's attorneys denied that he had made the remarks. Rachelle Spector, 27, had defended her 67-year-old...

SUMMARY: Diagnosed in June with acute myeloid leukemia, the activist and documentarian of many Washington gay rights campaigns dies Tuesday at 49. Washington, D.C., lesbian activist Cheryl Ann Spector died Tuesday after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia. She was 49. She was diagnosed with the disease in June and hospitalized for 10 weeks with two rounds of chemotherapy, the Washington Blade reported. Spector sat on the board of directors for the Rainbow History Project and was an LGBT activist for 20 years, involved with the Human Rights Campaign, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, Queer Nation and the Mautner Project, among...

We've got some old and some new True Crimes. The Spector trial continues and there's a sentence handed down for Jonathan Edington, the citizen vigliante who might have mistakenly killed an innocent his toddler daughter accused of molestation. I don't think so and in this post I explain why. We've got the infamous "duct tape" bandit with a pic for smiles. And of course we've got the True Crime of the Week committed by a Senator from Idaho of all places. Lots more.

In this True Crime post some older cases get new attention. We've got some new insight into the logic of Mary Winkler's jurors. Not that the logic makes sense. Also, John Mark Karr, heh, the Jonbenet nut arrested. Also, an 11 yr old drinks and drives, a child stabs her 8 yr old brother and another horrific gang rape.

True Crime doesn't stop for the summer holidays. And if crime were to stop, the trials go on. We've got an actual video of a driver of a truck for a national chain being serviced by a hooker, yes we do. Also, an Israeli Bill Clinton, the strangeness of the Benoit incident, an update on missing Maddie McCann and Phil Spector continues to have issues with suicidal females who insist on killing themselves in his house in mid of night.

Time for a True Crime Update and we've some very intriguing items this week. Supreme Court Justice Scalia's daughter is sentenced and Mark Lunsford's son is what? A sex predator? A report on a most heinous crime of the HIV rapists, a snort from DC's infamous sex blogger, and an attack on a teacher caught on tape. Finally, the Judge was a Beatles fan and his punishment is original and chock full of Beatle lyrics.

Memorial Day 2007 is past but True Crime continues on. We've an update on the Spector trial, what a joke. Also, astronaut Lisa Nowak's boyfriend out at NASA, the "God Hates Fags" flyers, and the verdict on the plot to steal Coca-Cola's trade secrets. Also, Lindsay Lohan in trouble to join Paris and the Cardinal Baseball player's Dad suing everybody on the road the day his son killed himself whilst driving drunk and high. Finally, he put the car in front of the oncoming train to kill his girlfriend. Only HE ended up very dead.

PHIL SPECTOR fears his emotional and mental difficulties can be linked genetically to the fact his parents were first cousins, according to a new biography. British author Mick Brown spent a day with the music mogul two months before he was arrested and charged with the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, and he has since turned the producer's candid comments into a book. In Tearing Down The Wall Of Sound: The Rise & Fall Of Phil Spector, Brown looks back over the eccentric mogul's life and career with the help of his subject's commentary. The author admits he was shocked...

LOS ANGELES- Five weeks into the Phil Spector murder trial, it's time for the prosecution to change course, moving the courtroom drama from personal stories into the critical phase of forensic evidence. Fans of "CSI" are likely to be riveted. Now there will be discussions of blood spatter, fibers, gunshot residue, DNA and the path a bullet took when it killed actress Lana Clarkson. A coroner and crime lab technicians are due on the witness stand beginning Tuesday to explain how such evidence can offer insight into what happened at Spector's castle-like mansion on Feb. 3, 2003. A gunshot that...

Phil Spector's trial judge issued a legal smackdown to Dr. Henry Lee yesterday as he dubbed the famed O.J. Simpson forensics expert a liar. Judge Larry Paul Fidler dealt a huge blow to the music producer's defense when he said he believed Lee spirited a possibly damning piece evidence from the crime scene at Spector's mansion, then fibbed to the court about it. Several witnesses testified they saw Lee pick up a small white object - which prosecutors think was shooting victim Lana Clarkson's fingernail from Spector's foyer. Prosecutors wanted the nail because damage patterns on it might have shown...

LOS ANGELES - Phil Spector, now on trial for murder, asserted in a 2005 home video interview that the statuesque Lana Clarkson was standing when a gun was fired in her mouth and that he is too short to have done it. The video, broadcast Wednesday by the TV program "Inside Edition," also showed Spector offering $100,000 to unnamed women to take a lie detector test to prove their claims that Spector threatened them with guns. "The deceased, who was standing when she took her own life and she was 5-11 and she would have been 6 feet 2 with...

LOS ANGELES — Phil Spector stepped out of his mansion with a gun in his hand at 5 a.m. four years ago and said, "I think I killed somebody," a chauffeur testified Tuesday in the record producer's trial on charges of murdering an actress. It was the first time that Adriano De Souza gave his account in public, though he has told the story to police and grand jurors.

Time for some True Crime and we're not done with Mary Winkler. For the woman might walk free without ever serving a day in jail and a Winkler juror tries to explain that joke of a verdict. The Phil Spector trial begins and let's catch up. A man impregnates a nine year old and an update on the Jonathan Luna case. And actress Sandra Bullock victim of True Crime.

FOLLOW-UP AUDIO EXCLUSIVE: SPECTOR JUDGE SLAMS ERS NEWS - THANKS YOUR HONOR! Listen to the Judge Larry Fidler’s comments from the bench last Wednesday (4/25/07) just prior to the murder trial of famed record producer Phil Spector getting underway.

By Linda Deutsch ASSOCIATED PRESS 4:23 p.m. April 20, 2007 LOS ANGELES – Jurors chosen for Phil Spector's murder trial are an eclectic mix, including a network TV producer who had been assigned to cover the case, a vice president of a movie company and its music division and an assistant to a Los Angeles deputy mayor.According to written jury questionnaires released Friday, the panel of nine men and three women also includes an electrician at a TV studio, an auto mechanic, a bank employee and an environmental health specialist for Los Angeles County. There are several college graduates including...

Bill Would Remove Grounds for Impeachment, Bush Critics Suggest By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Senior Editor September 19, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - A bill now pending in the Senate would make the Bush administration's enemy wiretapping program more practical and flexible, removing all doubt about its legality. But that worries some of Bush's fiercest critics. According to one anti-Bush group, the bill "would pardon President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping innocent Americans without warrants." MoveOn.org's political action committee has accused Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) of caving in to pressure when he introduced a bill that "justifies everything the president...

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is hosting a series of one-on-one lunches with members of the Supreme Court. The senator, whose tenure as chairman began last year amid furious conservative opposition but has included confirmation of two conservative nominees to the high court, is holding his tête-à-têtes in the Senate dining room with strict constructionists and loose constructionists alike. Specter told The Hill that he lunches with the justices simply because he is hungry. In a more serious vein, he added that he does so to hash out “matters of concern.” Pennsylvania’s senior senator said...

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago A Senate committee approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage Thursday, after a shouting match that ended when one Democrat strode out and the Republican chairman bid him "good riddance." "I don't need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shouted after Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record) declared his opposition to the amendment, his affinity for the Constitution and his intention to leave the meeting. "If you want to leave, good riddance," Specter...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Friday it would hold a hearing next week on a call by a Democratic lawmaker to censure President George W. Bush for his domestic spy program. In a one-sentence notice, the panel said the hearing would be held next Friday by the order of its chairman, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who has opposed censure. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin introduced a resolution last week calling for a Senate censure of the president, charging that Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program was illegal. Revelation of the once-secret program...