The crime
We’ll never know exactly what happened in the wee hours of February 3, 2003 — but it seems likely based on past behavior that, when Lana Clarkson tried to leave reclusive mid-century super-producer Phil Spector’s mansion, he pulled a gun on her, and killed her in an ensuing struggle.

The story
Spector, a four-part docuseries that premiered on Showtime earlier this month, is almost there — and very watchable, and once again I find myself contemplating 1) the ways true-crime narrative finds to grapple with biographies of geniuses whose terminal intersection with a crime, whether as perpetrator or victim, eclipses much of what came before; and 2) why SHO remains so undersung (…as it were) in the doc space. Let’s take the second thing first: you don’t have to get Showtime on my say-so, but there’s half a hundred ways to watch the network’s output now without having to subscribe in the traditional way, and if you like true-crime documentaries, music documentaries, or documentaries that Venn the two topics, do yourself a favor and marinate in a free trial this coming long weekend.