On the night of her wedding, Ronnie Bennett, now Spector, spent the evening cowering in a locked hotel room, clutching her mother as her new husband pounded on the door, screaming ferociously. He foamed at the mouth and beat his fists against the door repeatedly as he accused her of marrying him only for his money, shouting threats and obscenities. Ronnie’s mother held her daughter tight, shaking her head in disbelief. “Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie, who did you marry?” This was only a mere glimpse into the horrors Ronnie would endure throughout her six years of her marriage to Phil Spector.
Ronnie rose to fame in the mid-sixties as the lead singer of the girl group, The Ronettes. The trio was famed for their hits such as “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You,” but their success would have been short-lived if not for their collaboration with producer Phil Spector. Phil had taken the trio from rags to riches after signing them in 1963 and had taken a special interest in Ronnie. The two began an affair soon after The Ronettes had been signed, unbeknownst to Ronnie that Phil was married to another lead vocalist, Annette Merar. Annette was the lead singer of the Spectors Three, a pop trio that was not only produced by Phil, but created by him. Eventually, Phil and Annette would divorce in 1966, and two years later, he and Ronnie would marry.
The horror of their wedding night would not be the last time Ronnie would cower at the hands of her husband. Their marriage signaled the end of Ronnie’s career and life as she knew it as Phil yanked her out of the spotlight and imprisoned her in his lavish mansion. He forbade her from performing entirely and refused to let her leave the house at all. He had the home surrounded with barbed wire and guard dogs, and confiscated Ronnie’s shoes to prevent her from leaving. The few times he permitted Ronnie to leave alone, he forced her to drive in a car with a life-sized dummy of himself in the passenger seat. He was determined to keep Ronnie as his prisoner.
On one occasion, Phil took Ronnie down into the basement and showed her a golden coffin with a glass lid, telling her, “This is where you’ll end up if you ever try to leave me.” He threatened not only to kill her, but to display her corpse as a warning. Looming death threats combined with psychological abuse, vicious screaming, and drawn guns rendered Ronnie mute for a year.
In 1969, the couple adopted their first son, Donte Phillip. Two years later, Phil surprised Ronnie with the world’s most bizarre Christmas present - two more adopted children, Louis and Gary. The idea of adopting more children had never even been discussed, let alone agreed upon, and Ronnie knew this was just another ploy to keep her trapped within the gilded walls of their lavish mansion.
Over the years, Ronnie would take to excessive drinking to deal with the nightmare that had become her life. Drinking had also provided an excuse for her to leave, as she attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings just to get out of the house. No longer was Ronnie the bee-hived bad girl of rock and roll. She was now a trapped woman, grappling with the effects of addiction and abuse, but her ferocious spirit remaned in tact. It was in 1972 that Ronnie’s mother looked at her and said, “I’m your mother and I’m telling you, we gotta get out of here. Or you, my little girl, are going to be gone.”
Together, they made the mad dash through a broken window, barefoot and with no belongings. They ran to a divorce attorney and begged for his help, thus beginning their fifteen-year long trial. But Ronnie was not out of the woods just yet - determined to do everything in his power to destroy her, Phil threatened to have a hitman kill her if she didn’t forfeit their children and all future record earnings to him. In their settlement, Ronnie received $25,000, a used car, and monthly alimony of $2,500 for the next five years. She lost any money she would ever make from the Ronettes and the custody of her three children, who would remain imprisoned in the Spector Mansion. But, at last, Ronnie was free.
Ronnie rebuilt her career, but not without encountering many Phil-shaped hurdles along the way. In 1982, Ronnie married her manager, Jonathan Greenfield, and they had two sons and remained married until her death in January 2022. In 1988, The Ronettes sued Phil for “$10 million in damages, rescission of the contract, the return of the masters, and recoupment of money received from the sale of Ronettes masters.” After a long legal battle, Phil was forced to pay Ronnie over $1 million in royalties. Ronnie continued to further her career and lived a life abundant with love and music.
Phil spent the rest of his life horrifically mistreating his children, having two more children with a girlfriend, marrying (and divorcing) once more, and going to prison for murder. On February 3, 2003, Phil shot and killed actress Lana Clarkson in his mansion. He told reporters she had accidentally committed suicide by kissing the gun. He himself testified that he had manic depression and may be borderline insane. Phil was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison, where he would die in 2021 from Covid-19. A suitable ending for a monstrous man.
It is no question that Ronnie Spector deserved far better than what she got, but her influence on music is nonetheless everlasting. She was a beautiful soul with a beautiful voice whose strength was unmatched by most. She endured horrific mistreatment by her husband, and her daring escape epitomized her sheer bravery. Ronnie Bennett was truly the original bad girl of rock and roll.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Spector#Personal_life_and_death
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/ronnie-spector-phil-spector-marriage-abuse
https://nypost.com/article/inside-ronnie-spectors-sick-marriage-to-murderer-phil-spector/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ronnie-spector-phil-spector-death-1115788/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector#Relationships_and_children
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/ronnie-spector-ronettes-best-songs-1283633/
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