He was the same worthless dirtbag back in the day. I worked in top 40 radio in the 60’s, and Spector stories were a running theme even back then. The poor SOB who put up with him all those years, his engineer Larry Levine, passed on recently.
Interestingly, Hal Blaine, who was the drummer for the “Wrecking Crew” has a daughter who was Spector’s assistant. She’s since left him, prompting him to sue her, and now runs a blog called “mcontrolblogs”.
http://mcontrolblogs.blogspot.com
She has some amazing “Phil” stories to tell, and she’s writing a book at the moment.
Most of the “Wall of Sound” was the result of cramming a whole lot of musicians into a tiny little studio and just letting all that sound bounce around and interact. Most of the really great Motown stuff used the same technique sort of inadvertently ‘cause they worked in the basement at Gordy’s house.
Although I recall reading a story or two about how Spector was disliked by some in the music biz I wasn't aware that he was a quasi-con artist.But when it came to gettin' the stuff on acetate he was still a genius (IMO).