{"id":5485,"date":"2010-07-29T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T10:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/murder-of-r-b-legend-remains-unsolved\/"},"modified":"2010-07-29T10:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T10:07:00","slug":"murder-of-r-b-legend-remains-unsolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/murder-of-r-b-legend-remains-unsolved","title":{"rendered":"Murder Of R&B Legend Remains Unsolved"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Sheridan “Rip” Spencer and the author<\/em><\/p>\n

In mid-December, 2009, the L.A. Times<\/em> ran a 50-word obituary on their online edition only.  \u201cSheridan Spencer, a 70-year-old black man, was shot and killed Wednesday, Dec. 9, in the 1600 block of West Caldwell Street in Compton, authorities said.\u201d  According to the article, the shooting occurred shortly after 1:30 p.m. at Spencer\u2019s home.  The article contained no mention of Spencer\u2018s background or previous press coverage.<\/p>\n

Turns out this scant mention was light years away from a feature article and two photos in the Times,  \u201cIt\u2019s the Pulse of True Brotherhood<\/a><\/em>\u201d on March 31, 2007 about Spencer\u2019s \u201cPeace In the Street\u201d concert with Chicano DJ Frankie Firme.<\/p>\n

For decades, Spencer had been a longtime friend and supporter of my shows on KLON radio and Long Beach cable in the 1980s and 1990s, often appearing as a guest and frequently bringing in singers to guest on my show.  He called me several times a week, just to chitchat and always had information and ideas for my show.  When the Times article appeared, he came into my Internet record spinning show on wpmd.org<\/a> at Cerritos College wearing the same clothes he wore in the pictorial, amused he could pull off a young man\u2019s look.<\/p>\n

His singing career had been jump-started by legendary producers Lou Adler, Herb Alpert and Phil Spector in the early 1960s and while still in high school, had been asked by his label to introduce singer Sam Cooke to his circle of acquaintances in L.A. when Cooke moved to the area in 1957.  Spencer sang with several L.A. doo wop vocal groups like the Valiants, the Untouchables and the Alley Cats with whom he had a top 40 hit with \u201cPuddin N Tain.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that success, Spencer had taken over the Marvin & Johnny act from his uncle Marvin Phillips, who had a major early 1950s hit, \u201cCherry Pie\u201d and had even dubbed himself Marvin Spencer while singing as part of that duo.<\/p>\n

L.A. Sheriff Homicide Det. Richard Tomlin stated, \u201cHe was found on his front doorstep by the mailman.  He had lattice fences on the porch, so he wasn\u2019t seen right away.  Apparently he was shot in the backyard, or shot in the house, then stumbled out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others familiar with the case indicated when he was shot in the backyard, he apparently went in to the house to summon aid, but then collapsed and died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe residence was ransacked and they knocked things over.  They knew where to go.  The house was lived in, but there were not a lot of cash or valuables.\u201d  The detective believes the killer had been in the house previously and probably was acquainted with Spencer.  <\/p>\n

\u201cHis gray 2007 Pontiac Crossover was taken,\u201d said Tomlin.  \u201cIt was recovered at the 91 Freeway and University in Riverside.  They had attempted to burn and they wiped it down.  They literally had a chemical to wipe stuff down.  We recovered property that had been dumped about a quarter of a mile away.  Evidence was laying outside of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the use of chemical indicated someone experienced in hiding evidence, the detective did not take issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to find every possible lead,\u201d said Tomlin.  \u201cWe\u2019re in a holding pattern, we have a few leads we\u2019re looking at.\u201d Bottom line, Tomlin believes the case will be solved, but any tip that might be helpful can be called in anonymously at (323) 890-5630.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Propes takes a closer look into the tragic death of his close friend, R&B legend Rip Spencer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5485"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5485"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}