Evil Genius: We seem to be struggling with the appropriate way to react to the death of the murdering legendary record producer.

 

Music producer Phil Spector, the man behind decades of pop hits and a convicted murderer, has died at age 81.Spector leaves a legacy of violence and abuse in addition to his work with pop artists.

Spector died Saturday at a hospital of natural causes, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His official cause of death will be determined by a medical examiner, but according to the LA Times, he was hospitalized after contracting COVID-19.

He helped curate the mainstream playlist for decades, with more than 20 tracks that charted on the Billboard Top 40 between 1961 and 1966 — many using his signature "Wall of Sound." He worked with the Beatles, Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, girl groups like the Ronettes and the Crystals, and others.

He effectively retired after putting out his last full record with the Ramones in 1979. In 2003 he killed actor and model Lana Clarkson, who was found dead at his mansion outside Los Angeles after he shot her in the mouth. In 2009, he was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.

Spector maintained his innocence, saying Clarkson killed herself. He was quoted in Esquire as saying, “I didn’t do anything wrong. … She kissed the gun.”

The first time he went to court, in 2007, it was declared a mistrial. He frequently wore wigs to court. Evidence came forward that Spector had a pattern of pointing guns at women since the ’70s.

He was tried again in 2008. In 2009, six years after the killing, he was found guilty and spent his final years in a Stockton, California, prison.

In a statement on Sunday, Clarkson's mother Donna Clarkson remembered her daughter.

"Lana Clarkson was a warm, compassionate, kind, loving woman who would be 58 years old now," she said. "Her energy, brightness and love of life have sustained her family since her murder 18 years ago in 2003.”

In 2014, Spector's lawyer told the Daily Mirror that he was in poor health and had lost the ability to speak. He would have been up for parole in 2024.

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