Jailed Phil Spector's wall of silence as he loses ability to speak

Phil Spector has never been a looker, but his time in prison is having a strange effect on his face. The disgraced music producer and convicted murderer has undergone a Sméagol-like transformation into Gollum in his new prison mugshot, which was released online yesterday. In it, Spector's face has taken on a strange shape and his wispy hair looks like the remnants of Gollum's once fine Hobbit hair. California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton revealed that the photo was taken when he was transferred to the California Heath Care Facility in Stockton. She couldn't go into details about Spector's medical problems due to privacy laws. Spector was jailed for 19 years after murdering actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. He won't be eligible for parole until he's 88-years-old. It was a huge fall from grace for the music producer, who created the 'Wall of Sound' technique and produced massive hits like 'River Deep, Mountain High' and 'Be My Baby'. He has always maintained that Lana killed herself because she was depressed over her stalled acting career.

Spector said Clarkson had accidentally shot herself or committed suicide but prosecutors said he shot her during a drunken row after she refused his demands for sex. Evidence was presented of several incidents in which a drunk Spector pulled guns on women in his home when they rejected him. At his first trial in 2007 a jury was hung but he was found guilty at a re-trial. Because of Spector’s condition Mr Sevilla currently communicates with his client by hand-written letters. He received his latest update from Spector on Monday (Sept 22). When the Mirror spoke to him he was in the process of writing to the prison warden to urgently request Spector gets surgery because his condition leaves him at huge risk in California’s notoriously brutal prisons. He said: “I’m in regular communication with him about this. “The prison won’t give information about his medical condition. We are trying to get his needs attended to. I will be writing the warden today to try and get that done. Can you imagine being in a prison and you need help and you can’t speak? It’s very dangerous. “It’s entirely a decision of the CDC (California Department of Corrections) . He certainly needs to be in a functioning hospital setting.”A towering figure of modern pop music Spector is best known for his “Wall of Sound” – a technique of using large numbers of backing musicians and singers on tracks.

He wrote, co-wrote or produced more than 25 top 40 hits. Some his best known works include “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by the Righteous Brothers , “Be My Baby” by the Ronettes, and John Lennon’s “Imagine” album. He also worked with Leonard Cohen and The Ramones and many of the stars he worked with have recalled him pulling guns out at recording sessions and was dubbed “Mad Genius of Rock and Roll” for his eccentric behaviour including wearing outrageous wigs. In a July court filing Spector’s legal team wrote: “ Mr Spector is frail, and in ill health and with an assortment of serious maladies” in a bid to expedite his latest appeal. They also cited a news article about Stockton prison hospital - which only opened in July 2013 - which reported how it was closed to new admissions in February this year due to “problems in sanitation, supplies and hospital management”.
Speaking about the prison, Mr Sevilla who filed the court papers, said: “They created it to deal with people who were infirm. That has not been working out too well as you can see from the article we cited. “It is not better if they do not deliver decent health services even though it may have new paint on the walls. “I do not believe the CDC is properly dealing with his condition. The entire delivery system of medical services in California prisons has been compromised. “What he (Spector) would like is to go to a place that will give him decent medical care.” Inside Stockton, Spector is housed in a building called Facility C. His condition once got so bad in the new facility he was rushed to an outside hospital for emergency treatment. Mr Sevilla would not reveal what the emergency was, but said: “They moved him to another hospital for an overnight emergency. He was then returned to prison hospital.” Spector’s young wife Rachelle Spector - who still lives in and runs Pyrenees Castle and her husbands multi-million dollar business interests - has obtained a pilot’s license and flies a single-engine plane up from Los Angeles to Stockton every week to visit him. On her Instagram and twitter accounts the 34-year-old has posted several photographs of herself flying. Mr Sevilla said: “I believe that’s true (Rachelle flies up to visit every week). She’s very devoted. She’s been his lifeline to the outside for the years he’s been in custody, I give her major kudos for all that she’s done.” When contacted for comment on Spector’s bid for surgery and health complaints, Jeffrey Callison, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told the Mirror: “I cannot confirm or deny he even needs an operation, federal law keeps that confidential. Even if it was factual I could not comment, I can not say a word about the health status of any of our inmates, we are precluded to do so by federal law.” Mr Callison also declined to shed light on the reasons the Stockton facility was closed to admissions but confirmed prisoners are once again being admitted. He said:  “Admissions were reinstated a couple of months ago. The current population is 1,842 (including prisoners who work at the prison) . “This is a very large and unusual institution, there’s nothing else like it in the US that I’m aware of. A fully secure prison and advanced healthcare facility intended to house a lot of people. To some degree some issues were inevitable when the facility opened.”