In the early morning hours of February 3, 2003, aspiring actress Lana Clarkson visited the mansion of Phil Spector, famed 1960s music producer, in Alhambra, California. She was never to emerge alive. Sometime that night Lana was shot and killed by a bullet from Spector's handgun. The case captured the imagination of a worldwide audience and ironically, gave this hopeful young woman the grand stage that she was never to command in life.

Spector, now in prison, has refused to discuss the case and insists that the fatal wound was self-inflicted, that Lana, a complete stranger to him before that evening, had suddenly taken her life while visiting his mansion. I followed the case very closely in the news and I also watched much of the trial on TV, so I decided to see what the stars had to reveal. I cast the chart for 5:02 AM, when the killing was first disclosed by Spector to his limo driver.

Lana was a hostess at the House of Blues in Los Angeles the night she met Spector. She had initially refused his insistent invitations to come home with him that evening but eventually relented, a decision with tragic and irreversible consequences.

At 5:02 AM Spector called his limo Driver, Adriano de Souza, to report "I think I just killed somebody," a fact which he later denied, claiming that Lana, a complete stranger, had chosen that night to commit suicide in the confines of his home. What really happened? Astrology will reveal the truth.

Lana is represented by 13 degrees Capricorn and the ruler is Saturn which is placed in Gemini just inside the cusp of the sixth house. Pluto, on the cusp of the twelfth house of self-undoing, opposes Saturn. It is a violent and devastating aspect for Lana, who is powerless to act. Saturn is very weak in Gemini and finds itself in a cadent house, from which little can be done to change the course of events. The sixth house is also a "bad" house in traditional astrology; the house of life-sucks-and-then-you-die type of misfortune. It rules illness, bondage, and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that tend to shower down upon the less fortunate in life.

Lana is also shown by the first house Mercury, retrograde in Capricorn. Mercury and Saturn are in mutual reception (they rule each other's signs by rulership, triplicity, and term). This is saying that Lana's motives in finally going with Spector were self-serving; she was not into him at all, but felt that he could make a useful show business connection. But sometime during the night Lana realized how severe an error in judgment she had made. Mercury is retrograding, she is regretting it in her final moments. But she is also powerless to act; her planet is extremely debilitated. The sixth house rules bondage, and she is not free to leave. She is finally and tragically shot (opposition to Pluto) by a firearm (Mars applying to Pluto/Saturn opposition, Spector's Moon square Mars, Mars-Pluto opposite Saturn).

Phil Spector is shown by the seventh house of "the other" as the two had no established relationship. Ironically it is also the house of open enemies. He is the Moon in second-house Pisces. Spector had made his name by creating a revolutionary way to produce music in the 1960s, known as the "wall of sound" and had worked magic for some of the biggest names in the business. But his better days were far behind him; he lived in relative obscurity in his Alhambra, California mansion, which he affectionately referred to as "the Castle," a suitable residence for the type of show-business royalty he still fancied himself.

The Pisces Moon symbolizes a musician; it also symbolizes a drunk, which Spector was on the night of the tragic meeting. He had imbibed a tremendous amount of alcohol, which he was known to do. The Moon in Pisces forms a challenge aspect to the Moon's nodal axis, and is also in challenge aspect to Mars, which rules firearms. Both are astral recipes for disaster.

Spector had been known to intimidate and threaten his women by holding a gun to their head and demanding that they not leave him. There was ample testimony of this during the two trials. Moon (Spector) is in square aspect to Mars, which rules the third house of communications. This is also testimony of an explosive argument, as well as an explosion of gunfire, both of which occurred.

Mars, the planet of violence and firearms, is conjunct the antiscion of Mercury, and vice verse. This strongly reinforces the idea that a misunderstanding escalated into an argument, with violence as the result. In astrology the antiscion indicates something of secrecy, facts that are hidden, a cover-up. To this day no one really knows what happened that night at the Castle and Spector will not talk about it, except to say that Lana suddenly committed suicide - a blatant cover-up of the real truth, which is evident from the facts of the case, as well as the event horoscope.

Spector is also described by the seventh house Jupiter in Leo. Jupiter rules the twelfth of self-undoing and secret enemies and there is little surprise here that it appears in his house. He sees himself, however, in an exaggerated way, as royalty (Jupiter in Leo), even in naming his kingly "Castle."

Jupiter in Leo describes a person whose behavior can be cavalier, self-serving, and egotistical. But the twelfth house shows he is someone who eventually does himself in. The promise of the horoscope is again fulfilled.

Venus rules the end-of-the-matter fourth and appears in the twelfth of misery and self-undoing. It forms a sextile to Mars and an opposition to Saturn, suggesting a romantic rejection with sudden dire consequences. Lana was into herself, not Spector: her Saturn is in its own terms, not his, so she was not a willing party to a sexual interlude. Spector's Moon was in the terms of Jupiter; he wanted an ego-gratifying dalliance, which ended up being the source of his own self-undoing, and eventually imprisonment (12th house).

Another interesting party to the case was the limo driver, Adriano deSouza, the only other person on the premises of the Castle that night. His testimony played a critical role in convicting Spector and his planets confirm both his importance to the case and his support for Lana.

The driver is shown by the sixth house, he is an employed servant, and his ruler is Mercury. Mercury is in the triplicity of the Moon (Spector) and the terms of Jupiter (Spector); he is Spector's servant, but there is nothing to indicate a closer relationship. He is in fact more linked in empathy to Lana: his Mercury is in her house, it is retrograding toward her (Ascendant) and it is he who finally calls 911 to report the shooting, in spite of the fact that a telephone was in the exact area where Lana had been shot.

In fact, Mercury and Saturn are in mutual reception and they are also in each other's houses (first and sixth). The driver had liked Lana and felt something positive for her. In the end it was his presence at her death scene and his testimony at trial, in addition to the factual evidence, that so sealed the case. "I think I just killed somebody," he was told by Spector. Not a likely statement by someone who would have just witnessed a suicide.

At the time of her death Lana had been disappointed and despondent about her lackluster acting career but had bravely continued to promote herself. She may have seen Spector as a useful business connection, while he saw her as just another conquest. Both were undone in the end by their own poor judgment, under some very fatal stars. The biggest tragedy of all is that Lana, who could not obtain stardom in life, finally achieved the fame she had so desperately sought as the victim of a most unfortunate fate. The event horoscope may be viewed at: starsleuth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/deadly-stars-for-an-aspiring-actress/