Killer Phil ‘wasting’ in prison
POP mogul Phil Spector is “wasting away” in a prison medical unit after being diagnosed with more than a dozen serious health problems, his wife claims.
The record producer, 76, famous for his 1960s “Wall of Sound” technique, is serving a minimum of 19 years after being convicted in 2009 of the shotgun murder six years earlier of 40-year-old actress Lana Clarkson.
He has now been moved permanently into the California Health Care Facility jail in Stockton.
He is so poorly his weight has plummeted to a skeletal eight stones two pounds, according to his third wife Rachelle Short.
Spector filed divorce papers from behind bars after alleging she is burning through what is left of his £27.5million fortune.
But despite their bitter battle, she says she still loves him and is desperately worried following a visit during which he was “shaking profusely” and had broken out in hives all over his body.
In a series of prison letters, Spector claims to be suffering from ailments including throat polyps, three hernias, ringworm, stomach ulcers, bowel and hearing problems.
A friend of Rachelle, who at 36 is 40 years his junior, said: “All this has put him in a terrible mental as well as physical state.”
A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections told us: “The institution provides enhanced medical care for inmates with special medical needs.”