Past is prelude, prosecutors are arguing at Phil Spector's murder trial. The government opened its case with the testimony of four women who say Spector menaced them with weapons under circumstances the prosecution contends are very similar to Lana Clarkson's shooting. Spector's defense fought hard to keep the women's accounts out of the courtroom, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler said there was a pattern that could show "lack of mistake" or accident by the music legend.

In each of the incidents alleged, Spector was drunk and alone with a romantic interest who was trying — or who he believed was trying — to leave his residence late at night. A fifth woman cleared to testify may take the stand later in the case.

Dianne Ogden

Relationship: Ogden, a talent casting coordinator, dated Spector platonically in the 1980s after his agent introduced them. He gave her a job as a personal assistant in 1988.

Date of incident: 1989

Dianne Ogden

Alleged incident: Ogden was the last guest at a party Spector threw in March 1989. Spector had been drinking. When she attempted to kiss him goodbye, he brandished a rifle and began screaming profanities at her. He then got a handgun and pressed the nose of it against her face while cursing and telling her she couldn't leave.

"He was not my Phil. He wasn't the man I loved. I mean, I cared about this man, and it wasn't him. It was like he was demonic," she testified.

He ordered her at gunpoint into his bed and attempted to have sexual intercourse with her, but did not. She woke the next morning to Spector singing in the shower. They did not discuss the incident.

A few weeks later, she was again the last guest to leave a dinner Spector threw for a mutual friend and his son. Spector had been drinking. When she tried to leave, Spector said, "You are not going anywhere." He threatened to kill her with an Uzi and then chased her to her car with a long gun, which she believed was an Uzi. She locked the doors and Spector banged the gun against the windows of her car and aimed at her head as she drove away.

"I could see him in the rearview mirror. I'm ducking and trying to drive," she recalled.

Ogden made it a point never to be alone with Spector again. She got married the following year and moved out of state.