Death of John Lennon.

John Lennon is murdered by a deranged fan in front of The Dakota in New York City. - December 8, 1980

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The Dakota, location of the killing

John Lennon was a British musician who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism and pacifism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of the building where he lived, The Dakota, in New York City on 8 December 1980. Lennon had just returned from Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono.

Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota. Lennon was cremated on 10 December 1980 at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him. The first report of Lennon's death to a U.S. national audience was announced by Howard Cosell, on ABC's Monday Night Football.

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Lennon signing a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman (right) several hours before the murder

Photographer Annie Leibovitz went to the Lennons' apartment to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone magazine. Leibovitz promised Lennon that a photo with Ono would make the front cover of the magazine, even though she initially tried to get a picture with Lennon by himself. Leibovitz: "Nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover". Lennon insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover, and after taking the pictures, Leibovitz left their apartment at 3:30pm. After the photo shoot, Lennon gave what would be his last interview, to San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin, for a music show to be broadcast on the RKO Radio Network. At 5.40 pm, Lennon and Ono, delayed by a late limousine, left their apartment to mix the song "Walking on Thin Ice" (an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar), at the Record Plant Studio.

As Lennon and Ono walked to a limousine, shared with the RKO Radio crew, they were approached by several people seeking autographs. Among them was Mark David Chapman. It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to meet Lennon and ask for his autograph. Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, had previously travelled to New York to murder Lennon in October (before the release of Double Fantasy), but had changed his mind and returned home. On the evening in question, Chapman silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, and Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album, Lennon asked, "Is this all you want?" Chapman smiled and nodded in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan Paul Goresh took a photo of the encounter. Chapman had been waiting for Lennon outside the Dakota since mid-morning, and had even approached the Lennons' five-year-old son, Sean, who was with the family nanny, Helen Seaman, when they returned home in the afternoon. According to Chapman, he briefly touched the boy's hand.

The Lennons spent several hours at the Record Plant studio before returning to the Dakota, at approximately 10:50 pm. Lennon had decided against dining out so he could be home in time to say goodnight to his son, before going on to the Stage Deli restaurant with Ono. Lennon liked to oblige any fans who had been waiting for long periods of time to meet him with autographs or pictures, once saying during an interview with BBC Radio's Andy Peebles on 6 December 1980: "People come and ask for autographs, or say 'Hi', but they don't bug you." The Lennons exited their limousine on 72nd Street instead of driving into the more secure courtyard of the Dakota.

Chapman later said he was incensed by Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark, calling it blasphemy, and the songs "God", and "Imagine", because of the incongruity between the lyric "Imagine no possessions" and Lennon's personal wealth. Chapman even sang the song with the altered lyric: "Imagine John Lennon dead."

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Leibovitz's portrait of Lennon and Ono, taken on 8 December 1980

The Dakota's doorman, ex-CIA Agent Jose Sanjenis Perdomo, and a nearby cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. As Lennon passed by, he glanced briefly at Chapman, appearing to recognize him from earlier. Seconds later, Chapman took aim directly at the center of Lennon's back and fired five hollow-point bullets at him from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver in rapid succession. Based on statements made that night by NYPD Chief of Detectives, James Sullivan, numerous radio, television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a "combat stance". Later court hearings and witness interviews did not include either "Mr. Lennon" or the "combat stance" description. Chapman has said he does not remember calling out Lennon's name before he fired, but he confirmed taking a "combat stance" in a 1992 interview with Barbara Walters. The first bullet missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. Two of the next bullets struck Lennon in the left side of his back, and two more penetrated his left shoulder. Lennon, bleeding profusely from external wounds and also from his mouth, staggered up five steps to the security/reception area, saying, "I'm shot, I'm shot". He then fell to the floor, scattering cassettes that he had been carrying. The concierge, Jay Hastings, first started to make a tourniquet, but upon ripping open Lennon's blood-stained shirt and realizing the severity of his multiple injuries, he covered Lennon's chest with his uniform jacket, removed his blood-covered glasses, and summoned the police.

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Police artist's drawing of the murder

Outside, doorman Perdomo shook the gun out of Chapman's hand then kicked it across the sidewalk. Chapman then removed his coat and hat in preparation for the arrival of police—to show he was not carrying any concealed weapons—and sat down on the sidewalk. Perdomo shouted at Chapman, "Do you know what you've just done?" to which Chapman calmly replied, "Yes, I just shot John Lennon." The first policemen to arrive were Steve Spiro and Peter Cullen, who were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota. The officers arrived around two minutes later and found Chapman sitting "very calmly" on the sidewalk. They reported that Chapman had dropped the revolver to the ground and was holding a paperback book, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

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Side view of Dakota entryway showing steps Lennon climbed before collapsing in the lobby

The second team, officers Bill Gamble and James Moran, arrived a few minutes later. Realizing the extent of Lennon's injuries, they decided not to wait for an ambulance and immediately carried him into their squad car and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital. Officer Moran said they placed Lennon on the back seat. Reportedly, Moran asked, "Are you John Lennon?" to which Lennon nodded and replied "Yes." There are conflicting accounts of this, however. According to another account, Lennon nodded slightly and tried to speak, but could only manage to make a gurgling sound, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter.

Dr. Stephan Lynn received Lennon in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital. When Lennon arrived, he had no pulse and was not breathing. Dr. Lynn and two other doctors worked for nearly 20 minutes, opening Lennon's chest and attempting manual heart massage to restore circulation, but the damage to the blood vessels around the heart was too great. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival in the emergency room at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 pm by Dr. Lynn, but the time of 11:07 pm has also been reported. The cause of death was reported as hypovolemic shock, caused by the loss of more than 80% of blood volume.

The surgeon also noted—as did other witnesses—that at the moment Lennon was pronounced dead a Beatles song ("All My Loving") came over the hospital's sound system.

As Lennon had been shot four times with hollow-point bullets (which expand upon entering the target and severely disrupt more tissue as they travel through the target), Lennon's affected organs were virtually destroyed upon impact. Lynn stated: "If [Lennon] had been shot in the middle of the operating room with a team of surgeons ready to work on him, he wouldn't have survived his injuries". When told by Dr. Lynn of her husband's death, Ono started sobbing and said, "Oh no, no, no, no ... tell me it's not true." Dr. Lynn remembers that Ono lay down and began hitting her head against the floor, but calmed down when a nurse gave Lennon's wedding ring to her. She was led away from Roosevelt Hospital by Geffen Records' president, David Geffen, in a state of shock.

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Ono asked the hospital not to report that Lennon was dead until she had informed their son, who was at home. Ono said he was probably watching television and did not want him to learn of his father's death from a TV announcement.

Before long, due to a producer for ABC's flagship NYC station, WABC-TV and its news program, Eyewitness News, Alan J. Weiss being rushed in to the same hospital (because of a motorcycle accident) and seeing Lennon on a stretcher, word reached Roone Arledge, who was the president of ABC News. At the time, Arledge was also president of ABC's sports division and was the executive producer of Monday Night Football. That night's game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots was still being played when Arledge received the news, and Arledge suggested to the broadcast team, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford, that they immediately announce Lennon's death on air. When the news was relayed, the Patriots were driving to potentially score the game-winning points as the score was tied; the following transcript of what was said begins with thirty seconds remaining in the game as Cosell sets the stage for his announcement:
Cosell: ... but (the game)'s suddenly been placed in total perspective for us; I'll finish this, they're in the hurry-up offense.
Gifford: Third down, four. (Chuck) Foreman ... it'll be fourth down. (Matt) Cavanaugh will let it run down for one final attempt, he'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever. (whistle blows) Timeout is called with three seconds remaining, John Smith is on the line. And I don't care what's on the line, Howard, you have got to say what we know in the booth.
Cosell: Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which, in duty bound, we have to take. Frank?
Gifford: (after a pause) Indeed, it is.

New York rock station WNEW-FM 102.7 immediately suspended all programming and opened its lines to calls from listeners. Stations throughout the country switched to special programming.

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Lennon's murder triggered an outpouring of grief around the world on an unprecedented scale. Lennon's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, Westchester County, N.Y.; no funeral was held. Ono sent word to the chanting crowd outside the Dakota that their singing had kept her awake; she asked that they re-convene in Central Park the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer. On 14 December 1980, millions of people around the world responded to Ono's request to pause for ten minutes of silence to remember Lennon. Thirty thousand gathered in Liverpool, and the largest group—over 225,000—converged on New York's Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting. For those ten minutes every radio station in New York City went off the air. At least three Beatles fans committed suicide after the murder, leading Ono to make a public appeal asking mourners not to give in to despair. Ono released a solo album, Season of Glass, in 1981. The cover of the album is a photograph of Lennon's blood-spattered glasses. A 1997 re-release of the album included "Walking on Thin Ice", the song the Lennons had mixed at the Record Plant less than an hour before he was murdered. Chapman eventually pleaded guilty to Lennon's murder in 1981, against the advice of his lawyers, who wanted to file an insanity plea. Chapman received a life sentence, but under the terms of his guilty plea, he became eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Chapman has been denied parole at hearings every two years since 2000 and remains imprisoned at the Wende Correctional Facility, which is east of Buffalo and as far away as possible from the scene of the crime.

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The Imagine mosaic in Strawberry Fields

Annie Leibovitz's photo of a naked Lennon embracing his wife, taken on the day of the murder, was the cover of Rolling Stone's 22 January 1981 issue, most of which was dedicated to articles, letters and photographs commemorating Lennon's life and death. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors ranked it as the top magazine cover of the last 40 years.

George Harrison released a tribute song, "All Those Years Ago", which featured Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney in 1981. McCartney released his tribute, "Here Today" on his 1982 album, Tug of War. Elton John, who had recorded the number-one hit "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" with Lennon, teamed up with his lyricist, Bernie Taupin and recorded a tribute to Lennon, entitled "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)." It appeared on his 1982 album, Jump Up!, and peaked at #13 on the US Singles Chart that year. When he performed the song at a sold-out concert in Madison Square Garden in August 1982, he was joined on stage by Ono and Sean. Queen, during their The Game Tour performed a cover of Lennon's solo song "Imagine" at concerts after Lennon's death. Queen also performed the song "Life Is Real", from the album Hot Space (1982), in his honour. It was written by the singer Freddie Mercury.

Roxy Music added a cover version of the song Jealous Guy to their set while touring in Germany, which they recorded and released in March 1981. The song was their only UK #1 hit, topping the charts for two weeks. It features on many Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music collections, though not always in its full-length version.

Paul Simon's homage to Lennon, The Late Great Johnny Ace, initially sings of the rhythm and blues singer Johnny Ace, who is said to have shot himself in 1954, then goes on to reference John Lennon, as well as John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963, the year Beatlemania started. Simon had actually premiered the song during Simon & Garfunkel's reunion Concert in Central Park in 1981; near the end of the song a fan ran onto the stage, possibly in response to Simon mentioning Lennon in the lyrics. The man was dragged offstage by Simon's personnel, saying to Simon, "I have to talk to you"; all of which can be seen in the DVD of the concert. The song also appears on Simon's 1983 Hearts and Bones album.

David Bowie, who befriended Lennon in the mid-1970s (Lennon co-wrote and performed on Bowie's US #1 hit "Fame" in 1975), performed a tribute to Lennon in the final show of his Serious Moonlight Tour at the Hong Kong Coliseum on 8 December 1983 - the third anniversary of Lennon's death. Bowie announced that the last time he saw Lennon was in Hong Kong, and after announcing "On this day, December the 8th 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed outside of his New York apartment," Bowie performed Lennon's "Imagine". David Gilmour of Pink Floyd wrote and recorded the song "Murder" in response to Lennon's death; the song was released on Gilmour's solo album, About Face (1984).

In 1985, New York City dedicated an area of Central Park directly across from The Dakota as Strawberry Fields, where Lennon had frequently walked. In a symbolic show of unity, countries from around the world donated trees and the city of Naples, Italy, donated the Imagine mosaic centerpiece. A symbolic grave for Lennon was erected in Prague's Mala Strana square which hosted demonstrations during the fall of the communist regime in Czechslovakia.

Lennon was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. In 1994, the breakaway autonomous republic of Georgia, Republic of Abkhazia, issued two postage stamps featuring the faces of Lennon and Groucho Marx, rather than portraits of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, spoofing Abkhazia's Communist past. On 8 December 2000, Cuba's President Fidel Castro unveiled a bronze statue of Lennon in a park in Havana. In 2000, the John Lennon Museum was opened at the Saitama Super Arena in the city of Saitama, Japan (but closed on 30 September 2010), and Liverpool renamed its airport to Liverpool John Lennon Airport, adopting the motto, "Above us only sky", in 2002. The minor planet 4147 Lennon, discovered 12 January 1983 by B. A. Skiff at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory, was named in memory of Lennon. On 9 December 2006, in the city of Puebla, Mexico, a plaque was revealed, honouring Lennon's contribution to music, culture and peace. On 9 October 2007, Ono dedicated a new memorial called the Imagine Peace Tower, located on the island of Viðey, off the coast of Reykjavík, Iceland. Each year, between 9 October and 8 December, it projects a vertical beam of light high into the sky in Lennon's memory.

Every 8 December a memorial ceremony is held in front of the Capitol Records building on Vine Street in Hollywood, California. People also light candles in front of Lennon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, outside the Capitol Building. From 28 to 30 September 2007, Durness held the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival which was attended by Julia Baird (Lennon's half-sister), who read from Lennon's writings and her own books, and Stanley Parkes, Lennon's Scottish cousin. Parkes said, "Me and Julia [Baird] are going to be going to the old family croft to tell stories". Musicians, painters and poets from across the UK performed at the festival.

In 2009, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's New York City annexe hosted a special John Lennon exhibit, which included many mementos and personal effects from Lennon's life, as well as the clothes he was wearing when he was murdered, still in the brown paper bag from Roosevelt Hospital. Ono still places a lit candle in the window of Lennon's room in the Dakota on 8 December. In 2012, Bob Dylan released the Lennon tribute "Roll on John" on his Tempest album.

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