Legendary record producer, Phil Spector is on trial for his life. A woman we all now know, Lana Clarkson was addicted to narcotic drugs and alcohol as well as being impaired by them. Clarkson was found dead in Spector’s home and now Phil Spector is charged with killing her. Lana Clarkson was desperate, destitute, and depressed. We also discovered during this trial that Clarkson forged letterheads and the signatures of entertainment executives on letters promising future work and extolling her immense talents as a performer. The letters were not simply used to puff her resume but to swindle people she knew out of $60,000.00 to fund her pathetic video, Lana Unleashed. Clarkson had yet another habit we were informed about during the trial. She would steal drugs from the medicine cabinets of her own friends to satisfy her drug addiction. My theory is a simple one. Lana Clarkson, a stranger to Phil Spector came to his home as a paid prostitute. It's now clear she had some sexual act...

This trial seems to have no orderly progression. It will take a scorecard to guess who rested and what’s next. Throughout the proceedings various publicity seeking parasites appeared to throw their hateful and irrelevant testimony at the jury. Today the defense rested, well kind of… They may call other witnesses as the prosecution puts on whatever desperate trash they can find since they have no real evidence. So far the prosecution has put on the testimony of everyone but Elvis. Everyone that is, except someone that can tie Spector to holding the gun of firing the shot that killed Lana Clarkson. The defense formally declined to call Phil Spector to the stand. That’s the unique right all Americans have not to have to answer questions or submit in any way to interrogations. Our wise founding fathers saw the absolute need to curtail government inquisitions of its own citizens. I can’t guess what’s next in this true three-ring circus. Someday, closing arguments will begin but who will...

Los Angeles-Law enforcement authorities finally arrested that infamous 32 year-old illegal alien, Elvira Arellano in Los Angeles. She came here to speak at a pro-illegal imigration rally. She had recently holed up in a Chicago church for more than a year after being deported twice before, only to return again. This time her crime is a felony. Ms.Arellano was kind enough to dump her reproductive and childbearing costs on American taxpayers and now her son born here has full citizenship rights to welfare benefits and such. She laments being separated from her son who is now an eight year-old. There is no need for sorrow when she is again returned to Mexican soil she can have the little guy in tow with her. Since she used a church to thumb her nose at all Americans I guess it’s only fitting for the church, Left Wing, sympathizers and her fellow illegal aliens to elevate this felon to sainthood now. When will the export of Mexico’s crime, poverty and ignorance to our country ever end...

This is a real faith test for anyone that believes in God. How much misery must these miner's families and loved ones have to endure? This additional heartbreak is beyond unbearable as nine fine fellows worked feverishly to rescue their comrades. These rescue workers were crushed by yet another cave in. The AP photograph of this young girl’s anguish brought a tear to this old blogger’s eye.

I really hate this story for lots of reasons. I also hate the death penalty because witnesses lie and mistakes can be made. Further I believe no government should have the right to kill its own citizens except to save a life of a citizen or officer. It seems that 40 year-old private investigator, Kathleen Culhane created phony documents in an attempt to thwart the death sentences of condemned convicts. What Ms. Culhane really did was to give all criminal defense private investigators a reputation that we will have to somehow overcome. Ms. Culhane is sharing her disgrace with many PIs that are working hard to simply get their clients a fair day in court. I have no sympathy for Ms. Culhane, and condemn her for not working in a lawful manner to realize her dream to end the death penalty through the political process. For her schemes this former PI could have been breaking rocks at the Big House for 19 years. Instead she drew a five-year term which seems pretty stiff. I wonder how t...

Judge Larry Paul Fidler has been grossly unfair to Phil Spector with nearly each and every ruling during this trial. Judge Fidler has allowed nearly anyone on the planet to make allegations of decades old assaults even though no police reports, prosecutions or civil lawsuits ever tested the veracity of the claims. The prejudice of the material against Phil Spector far outweighs any probative value. Judge Fidler has taken the defense lawyers to the woodshed repeatedly for badgering witnesses while allowing Prosecutors Alan Jackson and Pat Dixon to abuse defense witnesses without sanctions. Judge Fidler’s findings that labeled renowned forensic expert Dr. Henry Lee as the “least credible witness” during a trial while the jury is not sequestered was beyond outrageous. Only a fool would believe that ruling was not published to members of the jury. The entire point of that contest quickly dissolved when Sara Caplan revealed that the object in question was not a small portion of Ms. Clark...

Autograph time after the concert . Sue Ann Pinner and Paul Huebl are the creative team behind the biographical song, Illumination about the late and great Pope John Paul, II. Okay here's the story behind these photographs ...

Spector lawyer Bruce Cutler said it all during his opening statement for the Defense in the Phil Spector murder trial. He said that the cops had, “Murder on their minds.” It took nearly a year for the cops and prosecutors to sell a murder theory to a Los Angeles Grand Jury. The truth is that cops and prosecutors get famous by arresting and prosecuting the famous. That is in itself an incentive to bring forward cases that should never see a courtroom. The most significant red flag of bad faith to me was the refusal of the cops and prosecutors to allow professionals to conduct a psychological autopsy on Lana Clarkson. This is the standard practice for medical examiners in similar cases to determine the true state of mind and suicidal tendencies of a person found dead where suicide, drug abuse or murder is not clear-cut. The mind probing post-mortem would have opened medical records and included the input of the people treating Lana Clarkson for depression, substance abuse and pain...

In America’s ugly past, the quick answer to an infamous crime was for a lynch mob to find hated suspects responsible for an infamous transgression and hang them. Thoughts and acts of retribution somehow perceived by most humans as a way of making a horrible situation better. Along the way the lynch mobs hanged a lot of innocent people. Too many people are frustrated and can’t wait for the criminal justice system with its checks and balances to bring about a fair resolution. We’ve outlawed the lynch mob but it’s come back in another insidious form. Mass news coverage of the disappearances, murders or mysterious deaths of, young, pretty, White women has given the lynceh mob new life. You may ask, who are the leaders of these modern day lynch mobs? They are the commentators of radio, TV and the Internet. Nancy Grace, Bill O'Reilly and an assortment of people are the new lynch mob leaders. These influential folks take a fraction of the investigative information that may be in itse...

The talked about, expensive and never paid for video project was itself unleashed at the Phil Spector trial during testimony of Clarkson’s former talent agent, Nick Terzian. Testimony revealed that Terzian prudently never made that video clinker available to casting directors. The 30-minute DVD was not classifiable as a film, comedy piece or anything other than a sad attempt at self-indulgence. Lana Unleashed appeared to be a demo reel of some sort that was 29.8 minutes longer than the attention span of any Hollywood casting director, agent, or producer. Clarkson appeared in a wide variety of costumes in a cornucopia of scenes. The writing was beyond bad and Clarkson took on personalities and accents she obviously had not studied. Lana Unleashed would quickly bring on the end of anyone’s entertainment career. Clarkson unwisely credited herself with the directing, producing, acting and writing. I guess Lana Unleashed was an attempt at comedy. All comedy is born of pain. This was pa...

What would happen to a group of American cops and prosecutors who got caught forcing a murder suspect to submit to a spinal tap without anesthesia and later injected him with a Truth Serum? They’d get a well-deserved prison term for violating civil rights of the suspect. The suspect would also be awarded millions in civil damages. An additional result would be that the suspect guilty or innocent would escape prosecution, trial and punishment because of the egregious prosecutorial misconduct. 61 years ago this was the undisputed scenario played out in the case of then 17 year-old murder suspect William Heirens. Heirens pled guilty to avoid an almost certain short stroll to Cook County Jail’s very own four condemned cells and electric chair. That death factory was less than 100 feet from his housing unit at tier F1. The jail’s chaplain was busy that year accompanying condemned men to their dates with the hereafter. It was Heirens’ guilty plea that prevented any real review of evide...

The defense is winding down and famed forensic expert Henry Lee is in China and beyond the reach of a court subpoena. The defense requested to have Dr. Lee’s earlier testimony given out of presence of the jury to be read to the jury. Judge Fidler ruled against the defense request simply because the defense did not bother to serve their witness with the subpona. I somehow suspect we’ve heard the last of Dr. Lee’s testimony. We still may see the jury’s possible field visit to Spector’s castle. There will be some testimony about Lana Clarkson’s computer data. I suspect that Arizona firearms examiner, Lucian c. “Luke Haag will be not now be called. No defense lawyer in his right mind will put Phil Spector on the witness stand. There is no reason for Spector to say anything at all. Was this a tactical defense plan to derail the prosecution’s rebuttal case? It looks like there will be no additional witness baring something after the prosecution’s rebuttal that’s expected to take thr...

He was dubbed the, “Lipstick Killer” who was apprehended while armed with a .25 automatic as he allegedly tried to kill a Chicago cop responding to a routine burglary call. 1946 was not a good year for prisoner’s civil rights in the Windy City. Interrogation rooms were simply confessionals. Police tactics were legendary and make brutality claims of the last three decades pale by comparison. He was an exceptionally bright 17 year-old student and part-time burglar from the prestigious University of Chicago. The crimes committed were in the Rogers Park neighborhood. A lot of burglaries and three brutal murders were pinned on the young suspect. The most notorious of the murders was that of six-year old Suzanne Degnan who’s dismembered body parts were retrieved from various catch basins. Lipstick was used by the killer to scrawl the ominous message on one victim, Frances Brown's living room wall, "For heavens sake, catch me before I kill more I cannot control myself." William...

Left to Right: Jim Cox, Scott Bowerbank, Craig Smith and Rick Krolak When you work with fine people you are never prepared to see any of them vanish from your life in an instant. That’s exactly what happened today in Phoenix, Arizona. My friend, Jim Cox of more than 15 years was killed covering a car chase in Central Phoenix as a video-journalist for KTVK-TV. Cox along with pilot Scott Bowerbank were killed as was KNXV-TV's Craig Smith and Rick Krolak when their two news choppers collided in mid air. All of these fine men had one thing in common, they chose to be where the action was and died doing what they loved best. Their names are now added to a long list of people killed bringing their fellow Americans the news.

I’m very sad to report that retired Chicago Police Sergeant and Rangemaster Roy “Swanny” Swanson has passed away at 85 years of age. Swanny was a Chicago Park District patrolman before that agency merged with the Chicago Police Department. One night while on patrol Swanny had a terrible accident when he ran over a vagrant sleeping in the park. There was an inquiry and Swanny who had superior shooting skills was temporarily assigned to non-driving duties. So it was by accident Swamny was sent to the firing range where the department soon learned that Swanny had a gift for teaching firearm skills to both recruits and veteran cops alike. For the rest of his career with the Chicago Police Department Swanny was exposed to the foul target range air and lead poisoning as he saved lives of cops and the civilians they protect. The thousands of officers he trained and helped bring home safe every night will remember Rangemaster Roy Swanson. Swanny will also be remembered for his gruff voice a...

Few people in the world like pedophiles. These perverted folks steal the innocence of children whenever and wherever they can. Crimes against children are serious and those offenders need to be identified and prosecuted. NBC has brought their own agenda to the table and that is bringing in the cash to keep failing TV news afloat and investor’s pockets full. The Internet based pedophile sting was discovered by TV as a cheap way to attract the voyeuristic viewers that like watching incredibly stupid men destroy themselves and their families. Dateline Correspondent Chris Hansen expertly draws the hapless fools into the most embarrassing and incriminating conversations they will ever have in their twisted lives. Of course the stings are contrived and no children are involved, but for an illusion in the minds of those men finding themselves curious about or attracted to sex with kids. Dateline uses adults surfing sexually charged chatrooms pretending to be young teenagers who lure the...

You can see it in the happy faces of D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and the head of his Gun Gestapo, Chief Cathy Lanier. They lost their ability to ban the law-abiding folks in Washington D.C. from owning handguns. The days of cops kicking down doors because someone dare keep a handgun for self-defense in this city are over. Last March, a three judge federal appeals court panel overturned the D.C. handgun ban holding that the 30 year-old prohibition was unconstitutional. Efforts to get the entire appellate court to hear the case en banc failed. Now time is running out on the stay granted pending appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Rather than roll over, these gun-rights haters have asked the nation’s highest court to declare the Second Amendment as only a right for various government forces to keep and bear arms and not the people. Government always had the right to keep arms without the Second Amendment making that argument absurd. The last time the Supreme Court spoke about the Second Ame...

Irene Elizabeth Laughlin has the unusual alias of “Punkin Pie” She was Lana Clarkson’s very best Friend until her tragic apparent suicide at record producer Phil Spector’s home four years ago. Laughlin was called to testify as a defense witness to shed light on Clarkson’s state of mind before her death. Clarkson confided her hopes, dreams and failures, for years along with suicidal thoughts to Laughlin during the period just before her life ended. Laughlin has a heavy burden to deal with, and that's the guilt of perhaps not having done enough to see that Clarkson got help from mental health professionals and instead tried to cheer up her profoundly depressed friend herself. That obviously did not work and Clarkson died. Laughlin’s testimony also revealed that the Clarkson family lawyer and others essentially tampered with a witness (Laughlin) in a criminal investigation by telling Laughlin to withhold information about Clarkson’s suicidal thoughts. That may have been what caused...

I have always hated injustice and have railed that reasonable doubt must rule in every criminal case. I’ve been abused by my own friends for accepting the O.J. Simpson verdict and often demanding that we error on the side of letting the guilty go free rather than convict the innocent. Our criminal justice system must be fair or we will have a police state rather than a free country in which to live and raise our families. Remember Adolph Hitler had his own judges too. People become instant converts to my way of thinking when the unthinkable happens, and they get accused of a crime when they’ve done nothing wrong. On October 8th 2005, Chicago police officer Michael Mette of the Fillmore District was attacked by a Dubuque college student, 20-year-old Jake Gothard while attending a birthday celebration at his brother’s home. Before it was over this week, officer Mette was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and now faces a mandatory five-year Iowa prison term. I...