Phil Spector's Pyrenees Castle

You've probably seen Phil Spector's mansion, where Lana Clarkson died, many times on the news. It's not in Hollywood or Bel Aire, but in quiet, neighboring Alhambra, in the San Gabriel Valley. Middle-class stucco homes line nearby streets. And the driven millionaire who built it was not Phil Spector, but a French immigrant you've probably never heard of: Sylvester Dupuy.

Dupuy grew up in southern France and used to admire a particular chateau. In 1926, when he'd made his fortune, he fulfilled a childhood dream by hiring architects and engineers, and importing workers from France to build him a castle like the one he'd seen as a child.

Dupuy spent a quarter million dollars on his dream home. Using Consumer Price Index calculations, that's around $2.85 million today. The walls taper, like a real castle's do: they're three feet wide at the base and one foot tall under the eaves. The city of Alhambra maintains a webpage for this historic home with an article written in 2001.

Newspapers refer to the Pyrenees Castle, as it's now called, as a "33-room mansion." When Dupuy built it, the place had:

." . . 10 bedrooms, eight fully tiled bathrooms with Italian marble floors, a game room, a breakfast room, an office, dens, service and utility rooms, a large basement, an extensive balcony, covered patios and a large wine cellar in which the Dupuy family made its own wine.

"Magnificent chandeliers, crystal sconces, gorgeous wood paneling, beautiful hardwood floors, a marbled center hall and a courtyard with a huge water fountain embellished the palace. The 3-acre property also included tennis courts, playgrounds for children and towers guarding its strategic corners."

Dupuy and his family threw many parties in the family manse, but by 1936--the year he died--he had lost most of his fortune. His children sold the castle ten years later and it was converted into an eight-unit apartment building. Dupuy's widow lived in one of the units until her death in 1949.

The building went through several owners; legend has it that a gangster from the East once made his home there. But as the 2001 article concludes:

"Currently, record producer Phil Spector is the proud owner of the castle. A couple of years ago, Spector was quoted in Esquire magazine as saying, "I've bought myself a beautiful and enchanting castle in a hick town where there is no place to go that you shouldn't.

"The neighbors are probably happy to have a stay-at-home proprietor with no where to go so that the castle will continue to receive the attention it so rightly deserves. . . . The mystery and legend of Alhambra's famous castle, located high atop its perch, will continue to titlillate the minds of future."

Of course, the reason everyone knows about the castle now is that actress Lana Clarkson died there on February 3, 2003. Spector, charged with 2nd degree murder, claims Clarkson committed suicide in the foyer of his home.

Are you on the morbid side? You can actually read the seach warrant issued for Spector's home at the SmokingGun website.

Jurors visited the Pyrenees Castle on August 9, 2007, and according to several reports--including Court TV--at least five jurors took turns sitting in a chair at the spot where Clarkson died, slumping down into a position similar to hers in death. What insight the jurors expected to gain from such poses was not revealed.

The "huge water fountain" in front was of interest to the jury as well: they wondered whether it was loud enough to interfere with the words Spector said to his chauffeur the night Clarkson died.