Why was John Lennon killed?
The BeatlesJohn Lennon, who gained worldwide popularity as the band's lead singer and guitarist and went on to leave many classic songs even after starting his solo career.
This time, I would like to talk in detail about the day he was killed in front of the Dakota building in the United States.
What happened to him, who was strongly advocating anti-war and peace?
John was shot dead!
For Beatles and John fans, that accursed day is approaching once again.
On December 8, 1980, John was shot dead at the entrance of the Dakota Building (commonly known as the Dakota) in New York City, where he lived with his wife Yoko.
He was still only 40 years old.
Interview in the morning
On this day, he gave an RKO Radio interview at his home around 9:45.
The interview lasted 90 minutes.
Photo session in the afternoon
Shortly after noon, Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz visited John’s apartment for a photo session and conducted the shoot from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
This ended up being the last photo shoot where the two of us posed together.
John and Yoko left the Dakota building at 5 p.m. with the RKO staff.
As they were about to get into the car, JohnI was asked for autographs by several fans, and among them was Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old who worked at a hospital.。
John had been signing for the murderer!
After John signed Chapman's freshly released album Double Fantasy, he asked, "Is that okay?"
Chapman nodded.
This is the very man who shot John dead.
However, at that time I was behaving just like an ordinary fan.
This exchange was filmed by John’s fan, Paul Goresh.
The person appearing on John's right side.
Recording at night
At the Record Plant Studio, John played lead guitar and mixed Yoko’s song “Walking on Thin Ice.”
Between sets that night, John called his aunt Mimi, his adoptive parent who lived in the UK.
We also received a report from David Geffen, who runs Geffen Records—the label that released Double Fantasy—that the news had reported it received a gold disc two weeks after its release.
Incidentally, this jacket photo was taken by the Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama.
The recording finished at 10:30 p.m.
John and Yoko discussed going out to eat, but before that, they decided to return to the Dakota to say good night to their five-year-old son, Sean.
Sean was being carefully looked after by their assistant Fred’s aunt, Helen Seaman.
10:52 PM of fate
It was warm that day, despite it being late December.
The Dakota had a secure courtyard where you could park, but John and YokoI decided to have the limousine stop on 72nd Street near my home and walk back.。
If it had been cold that day, they might have made it home safely without getting out of the car until they reached the courtyard.
John was walking a little behind Yoko.
As they approached the path leading to the courtyard of Dakota House, Chapman emerged from the shadows.
Time is10:52 PMIt was.
At that moment, Chapman was reportedly in a combat stance—feet set slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, arms extended, gripping the handgun firmly with both hands—and fired five shots from the pistol at John.hollow-point bullet(A bullet with a concave, lens-like depression at its tip to increase lethality) was fired.
He used a special .38-caliber revolver; the first shot missed and passed over John’s head, piercing a window of the Dakota building.
The second shot hit the left side of John’s back, and the remaining two went through his left shoulder.
At least one of these shots damaged his aorta.
John went up six steps of the Dakota House stairs, entered the foyer, said, "I've been shot," and collapsed.
The tapes John had recorded earlier were scattered on the floor.
The superintendent immediately draped his blue uniform over John, called the police, and removed John’s glasses.
Yoko cradled John’s head as he whispered “Help,” blood flowing from his mouth.
The manager tried to reassure John, saying, "It’s okay, John. Everything’s okay."
Outside, the doorman snatched the gun from Chapman's hand, kicked it out of reach, and said.
Do you understand what you’ve done?
Then Chapman calmly replied, “Oh, I shot John.”
The gun was found in nearby bushes along with Double Fantasy, which Chapman had gotten John to sign.
He waited, reading Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye, until the police arrived.
When two NYPD officers arrived at the scene, they stood Chapman against the wall of the Dakota and frisked him to check if he was carrying any other weapons.
A set of keys, a novel, and a wallet containing 2,000 pounds in cash were found.
The officer handcuffed Chapman and confiscated the gun.
Yoko asked him to stop, but the police officer turned John onto his back and checked the extent of his injuries.
The police officer asked, “What’s your name?” and John, struggling for breath, managed to answer only, “John.”
The two other police officers who rushed to the scene decided there was no time to wait for an ambulance and chose to put John in their own car and take him to the hospital.
One officer took hold of John’s legs while another supported him under the armpits, lifted him into the back seat, and transported him to the nearest Roosevelt Hospital.
The police officer kept talking to John so that he wouldn’t lose consciousness.
When I asked, “Do you understand that you are John?” the reply was, “I am.”
"How do you feel?" It has been reported that the answer was "It hurts."
The police officer contacted the hospital while driving.
Behind it, another patrol car followed, carrying Yoko, who was becoming increasingly hysterical.
Upon arriving at the hospital, John was placed on a stretcher and taken to the emergency room.
Yoko called the Dakota to check on her son Sean’s safety.
Because John was in cardiac arrest, the doctor performed chest compressions for 20 minutes.
The hospital staff worked hard to perform blood transfusions and surgery, but the doctorAt 11:07 p.m. on December 8, 1980, John was pronounced dead.。
The doctor informed Yoko of John’s death at 11:15 p.m.
Still reeling from the shock, Yoko asked, "Is he asleep?"
She was so distraught that she couldn't accept his death.
The cause of death was reported as exsanguination due to the loss of more than 80% of the body's blood.
Because Chapman used high-penetration (lethal) bullets, the damage was greater.
John's death shocked people around the world and plunged them into the depths of sorrow.
Wasn't John assassinated?
This is mere speculation with no basis, but I suspect that John may have been assassinated.
By the later period, even the Beatles...John began advocating for anti-war peace around the world.However, after the breakup, they intensified those activities even further.
I think he made a major contribution to ending the Vietnam War.
He continued to advocate for anti-war peace, and people around the world—especially young Americans—came to oppose the Vietnam War, leading the United States to withdraw from Vietnam and bringing the war to an end.
However, this was an extremely unpleasant outcome for the U.S. government, the military, and those involved in the defense industry.
They want the United States to reign over the world, to intervene militarily anywhere, and to push arms sales.
To them, John was nothing but a “dangerous person.”
Chapman's inexplicable behavior
Chapman was a fan of John’s and had gotten his album signed by him that morning.
At that moment, another fan happened to be taking a photo.
Judging from Chapman's expression, he looks cheerful, and it's hard to imagine that he would go on to kill John afterward.
If there was an intent to kill, why didn't they kill at that time?
There are other puzzling things as well.
Even though a killer would normally flee right away, Chapman was reading a book as if he were waiting to be arrested by the police.
It is also puzzling that they were using special bullets with high lethality.
Moreover, he had a large sum of money—2,000 pounds.
Converted at the exchange rate at the time, it was 960,000 yen—equivalent to 1,250,000 yen today.
Why was he, an ordinary person, carrying around such a large amount of money?
Isn't it possible that there was another mastermind behind John's assassination who gave Chapman money and commissioned the killing?
As John sang, "Happiness is a warm gun"—with a warm gun referring to the state of a gun barrel heated right after being fired, a phrase he took inspiration from in a gun magazine advertisement during his time with the Beatles—gun ownership is a freedom in America, so inciting someone to carry out an assassination would likely have been an easy thing to do.
It should be noted that the assassination theory is merely a rumor, and officially the incident is considered to have been carried out by Chapman acting alone.
However, just as many people doubt that the Kennedy assassination was the work of Oswald acting alone, suspicions also persist regarding John’s killing that there may have been a mastermind behind it.
John told a close friend shortly before he was killed, “I might be killed.”
Around that time, John and Yoko were placed under FBI surveillance, with their phone tapped and being tailed.
President Nixon and FBI Director Hoover were highly vigilant, viewing their peace activities as having potential influence on the presidential election.
Yoko says this in the final scene of the film she appeared in, “The U.S. vs. John Lennon.”
「I suppose they tried to kill John.
But they couldn’t.
Because his message is still alive. (I think they tried to kill John. But they couldn’t, because his message lives on.)
Here, she clearly says “they” and does not say “he.”
Clearly, she believes there was a mastermind behind Chapman.
However, there was no evidence to prove it, and everything was buried in darkness.
John's soul that still lives on
Although John has departed for heaven, his spirit is still shared by people around the world and continues to live on.
From the Beatles era and even after he went solo, his songs and messages have never faded away.
I want to believe that the peaceful world he sang about in the masterpiece “Imagine” will come someday.