John Lennon: Encyclopedia II - John Lennon - Murder

John Lennon - Murder

In the late afternoon of 8 December 1980, in New York City, Mark David Chapman met Lennon as he left his home in the Dakota building for a recording session and got his copy of Double Fantasy autographed. This goodwill gesture of Lennon signing an album for a presumed fan was caught by a photographer present, and would be published on the front page of the New York Daily News later that week. Chapman remained in the vicinity of the Dakota building for most of the day as a fireworks demonstration in nearby Central Park distracted the doorman and passers-by.

Later that evening, Lennon and Ono returned to their apartment from recording Ono's single "Walking on Thin Ice" for their next album. At 10.50pm, their limousine pulled up to the entrance of the Dakota. Ono got out of the car first, followed by Lennon. As Ono went in, Lennon glanced at Chapman, then proceeded on through the entrance to the building.

As Lennon walked past him, Chapman calmly called out "Mr. Lennon?" As Lennon turned, Chapman crouched into what witnesses called a "combat" stance and fired five hollowpoint bullets. One bullet missed, but four bullets entered Lennon's back and shoulder. One of the four bullets fatally pierced his aorta.

Chapman stood there, holding his .38 Charter Arms revolver, which was pulled out of his hands and kicked away by Jose Perdomo who then asked "What have you done, what have you done?", to which Chapman replied "I just shot John Lennon." Chapman then calmly took his coat off, placed it at his feet, took out a copy of J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and started reading. Police arrived within minutes, to find Chapman still waiting quietly outside, still reading the book.

The two officers transported Lennon to Roosevelt Hospital in the back of their squad car as they thought Lennon was too badly hurt to take the risk of waiting for an ambulance. Despite extensive resuscitative efforts in the Emergency Department, Lennon had lost over 80% of his blood volume and died of shock at the age of 40.

The first national broadcast of the tragic news was actually on the fledgling Cable News Network, on which anchorwoman Kathleen Sullivan reported that Lennon had been shot and was en route to a New York hospital (his death had not yet been confirmed). But most Americans learned of the murder via an unusual source. When Lennon was shot, ABC Television was in the midst of airing an NFL contest between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. After having the news fed directly to his headset by ABC News chief Roone Arledge, legendary football announcer Howard Cosell (who had interviewed Lennon on MNF years earlier) went ahead and announced the news of the murder:

The news was broken on competing network NBC in a more traditional manner: a comedy piece on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" was interrupted by an anonymous announcer voicing the news bulletin over a text slide visual, then returning, in what had to seem surreal to viewers, to the Carson sketch that had been interrupted.

When asked once in the 1960s how he expected to die, Lennon's offhand answer was "I'll probably be popped off by some loony." Several Beatles concerts in the United States and Canada in fact did see strengthened security forces because of threats against the individual lives of the group members, and Ringo Starr himself claims to have performed at a Montreal concert with his cymbals positioned so as to block his view from the audience. In retrospect, although Lennon might have meant it as a joke and did not expect it to happen, the comment turned out to be chillingly accurate. Another chillingly accurate comment was made in his last interview, where he mentioned that he often felt that somebody was stalking him: first it was federal agents in the 1970s trying to deport him and later the obsessed fan in 1980.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Murder", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki