Phil Spector claimed he hired six men to assassinate ex wife Ronnie on stage & said he’d keep her in ‘gold coffin’
CRAZED killer Phil Spector once told his ex wife Ronnie he’d hired six men to assassinate her on stage for a million dollars, the singer revealed.
She also told how she spent her wedding night hiding in a bathroom with her mother while Spector tried to beat the door down in a drunken rage – and how he once claimed he’d bought a gold coffin with a glass top for her so he could “keep an eye” on her after she died.
The convicted murderer, 81, who died Saturday in prison, also made her drive around with an inflatable replica of himself next to her and once bizarrely presented her with adopted twins as a surprise Christmas present.
Singer Ronnie, a member of The Ronettes, makes the claims in her 1990 autobiography Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, unearthed by The Sun.
In the book, she tells the story of her tumultuous relationship with Spector who she was married to from 1969 until their divorce in 1972.
Ronnie claims Spector was prone to drunken outbursts from the beginning – and recalls how she had to hide in a bathroom with her mom on her wedding night following an argument about money.
Spector apparently accused her of only being after his money and started screaming at her with “saliva dripping down the side of his mouth and his eyes bulging out like a wild coyote’s.”
Terrified, she and her mother locked themselves in a bathroom while Spector tried to burst the door down.
Her mother said: “Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie. What did you marry?” while the singer sobbed all night long too, according to the book.
It wouldn’t be the last argument the pair had – and Ronnie describes how Spector controlled her every movement keeping her almost prisoner in his multi-million dollar Los Angeles mansion.
Even when the relationship was going well, Ronnie describes Spector as a strange and eccentric character.
When he bought her a new car he got her an inflatable version of himself that she had to keep in the passenger seat at all times, she claims in the book.
“Phil had actually gone to the trouble of making a dummy of himself to watch over me when he wasn’t around,” she recalls.
In Christmas 1971, Ronnie describes how Spector bought her the “strangest Christmas present a woman ever got” – adopted twins.
The couple had tried and failed to get pregnant naturally and adopted their son Donte as a baby but then he took her by surprise by adopting twins Gary and Louis, without asking her, while she was in hospital.
“The worst part about Phil adopting twins was that I knew it was just another one of his schemes to keep me at home,” Ronnie said in the book.
“He thought that if having one kid didn’t keep me chained to the house, maybe having three of them would.”
Ronnie finally left Spector on June 12, 1972, running out of the house barefoot following a row because she was late from an AA meeting.
She describes how Spector went “absolutely nuts” and pulled her shoe off and stuck it in his belt, screaming, “Let’s see how far you get now.”
He then threatened Ronnie yelling at her that he would “destroy” her if she even thought about divorcing him, the book says.
Ronnie’s mother then jumped in and started screaming and hitting Spector and she and Ronnie tried to escape.
Spector started screaming death threats to Ronnie claiming he already had a coffin for her made from solid gold with a glass top so he could keep an “eye on her after she’s dead.”
Ronnie and her mom managed to sneak out the next day and go straight to a divorce lawyer – but her nightmare still was not over.
Even during the divorce process Spector bombarded her with calls and once claimed he would have Ronnie shot by a hitman if she didn’t sign custody of the twins over, she claims in the book.
One night some months after the divorce had finally gone through, Ronnie was back on tour and was about to perform on stage in Las Vegas.
Spector called Ronnie and claimed to have hired six hitmen, three black and three white men, to shoot her on stage – and offered a million dollar bonus for the one who managed to kill her, she claims in the book.
“I always said I’d kill you if you left me,” Spector is quoted as saying in the book. “And tonight I’m making good on that promise. In two hours you will be assassinated onstage at the Flamingo Hotel.”
Ronnie ended up getting so drunk she couldn’t go on stage.
Spector, who died from Covid-19 complications, had been serving a 19-year sentence in prison for the murder of Lana Clarkson.
Ronnie paid tribute to her ex – but did remember him as a “lousy husband”.
“It’s a sad day for music and a sad day for me,” Spector wrote on her Instagram on Monday.
“When I was working with Phil Spector, watching him create in the recording studio, I knew I was working with the very best.
“He was in complete control, directing everyone. So much to love about those days.”
She described him as a “brilliant producer” – but said “darkness set in, [and] many lives were damaged”.
She continued: “Meeting him and falling in love was like a fairytale.
“The magical music we were able to make together, was inspired by our love.
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“I loved him madly, and gave my heart and soul to him.
“As I said many times while he was alive, he was a brilliant producer, but a lousy husband.”