John Lennon /// Part 1 /// 447 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign
[Music] please [Music] it's been placed in total perspective for us I'll finish this they're in the
hurry up offense third down four Ormond it'll be fourth down foreign will let it run down for one final
attempt he'll let the seconds tick off to give Miami no opportunity whatsoever timeout let's call 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 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 rush to Roosevelt Hospital Dead on
Arrival hard to go back to the game after that news flash which in Duty found we have
to tell Frank indeed it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] 1935 marked the start of a severe uptick
in international conflicts invasions Mass death and War across the globe first it was Italy's invasion of
Ethiopia and then the Spanish Civil War in 1937 Japan invaded China and in the mid to late 1930s Japanese forces had
sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union in Mongolia and Europe Germany and
Italy were becoming more and more aggressive and then on September 1st 1939 Germany invaded in Poland the
United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum to Germany to cease military operations but this was ignored so
France and Britain declared war on Germany and thus began World War II a little more than a year later during the
deadliest conflict in human history a global war that would result in 70 to 85 million fatalities both civilian and
Military a baby was born John Lennon was born October 9 1940 and Oxford Street maternity hospital and
Liverpool England during a German air raid Liverpool is located on England's Northwestern coast and is a bustling
Port City the city has a reputation for toughness culture and diversity John would be born
to both of his parents Julia and Alfred Lennon Alfred Lennon was a merchant Seaman and John was named John Winston
Lennon after his father's Father John who went by Jack Lennon and the prime minister of course Winston Churchill
during and after the birth the German air raid raged on this means bomb warning sirens going off and screaming
can you imagine bringing a child into the world in your city heck the hospital you are in is under heavy threat of
being bombed the hospital was sending patients and guests to the seller for better protection they were also sending
people home they were putting the babies under the beds for better protection John's mother Julia was for the most
part a single mother during John's childhood he saw very little of his father who went by Freddie most of his
life who went AWOL while serving in the Navy after Julia's sister complained to Liverpool's Social Services twice Julia
gave custody of John to her sister so for several years John was brought up by his mother's sister Mimi there was
some more time spent with living with his father and then his mother again but ultimately John would be returned to
Mimi and she and her husband would raise John for most of his childhood in his early teens he got his first guitar and
spent many hours learning and playing at the age of 15 Lenin formed a skiffle band called The Quarry man this named
after his school Corey Bank high school well in skiffle would be the type of music they would be playing it's
old-timey music then on July 6 1958 John and a young man maybe some of you have heard of this is some guy named Paul
McCartney the two met for the very first time Paul joined the band and shortly after Paul recommended that his friend
George Harrison joined the band as well and soon The Quarrymen became an early version of The Beatles sadly John
Lennon's mother Julia passed away before John was 18. Julia Lennon was struck by
a car while she was walking home now this tragic event led to Lenin drinking heavily and often getting into fist
fights and a lot of aggressive behavior this Behavior would continue for about two years or so
in May of 1960 the ban was renamed the silver Beetles b-e-e-t-l-e-s and of course later
renamed Again The Beatles b-e-a-t-l-e-s I think there has always been some debate on who named the band
and why the unique spelling I've heard different sources say different things the story that I like the best is John
said something like a flaming man or a man in Flames appeared and spoke to him in one of his dreams and said you'll be
called The Beatles with an A and so it was well I think any time that you have the biggest band in the world and the
biggest band in history there's a lot of folklore that goes along with a band of
that size if I were in the band Captain I would certainly be taking credit for having come up with the name I'm just
whether I did or not even if you are a Ringo the the last to join after they already named it the Beatles I I have no
shot at being in a band like the Beatles so I'm just I'm just making weird comments at this point the Beatles
first concert was at the cavern Club in Liverpool in March of 1961. the following year in 1962 a man named
George Martin signed the band to a record deal years later Martin said he was not particularly impressed by the
band's demo tapes but he liked their wit and their humor on August 23 1962 John married his
pregnant girlfriend Cynthia Powell this was a very simple very small ceremony after the ceremony John and the Beatles
left Liverpool to play a show out of town spending their wedding night apart was fitting as it would set the pattern
for their life together John was away all of the time and was on the road when Cynthia gave birth to their son Charles
Jillian Lennon who was born April 8 1963. yeah they're mainly signed because of their manager Brian Epstein and also
Epstein would be the one that would kind of manage them on all their decisions you know one being if you have
a girlfriend or a wife we don't answer questions about that we just act like it doesn't exist that same year in 1963 the
band really took off and would go on to be one of the biggest and most popular bands in the world ever hear of the term
beetlemania in 1964 The Beatles toured the United States of America for the first time during which they appeared on
The Ed Sullivan Show I think this level of popularity in a band was something that people never seen before the
closest thing was possibly Elvis and they were so huge that people actually called them the four Elvises John Lennon
was no stranger to controversy in 1966 he made an off-the-cuff remark in an interview with the evening standard
saying Christianity will go it will vanish and Shrink we're more popular than Jesus now I don't know which will
go first rock and roll or Christianity and I think this is where his honesty starts shining as far as he's willing to
say what he actually believes and I think one of the things that people get twisted is I think there was a part of
him that was saying look we're bigger than Jesus and I don't know if that's okay I don't know if that's the way it
should be yeah I don't know that he was bragging which I think some people took it to be
that way at the time I think we just have a situation where this is a young man who's making an observation and
threw it out there again and off the cuff remark well words have meaning and sometimes consequences so this led to a
Beatles boycott in the U.S especially in the Deep South and a quick internet search you can find images of gatherings
with bonfires and people a lot of them teens really burning Beatles albums this seems like an over reaction
especially looking back on it now I remember Captain when I was 14 I had a newspaper out a smaller route
and I took my whole first paycheck and I used that paycheck to purchase Ozzy Osbourne's live and Loud album
and about the same time I was going off to this this other church with my friends for evening Gatherings or and
weekend Gatherings and they did a lot of social activities for young teens at that time as well so I was intrigued by
the friendship and by this new church and very quickly after going there I get this flyer we're
having this get-together where you can bring your rock and roll and heavy metal albums and we're going to burn them and
I thought I just spent my whole paycheck right to buy this album that I that I'd
wanted for months and I I couldn't see the connection between that church and why I needed to burn the album so that
was the last social gathering at that church for me and of course in typical John Lennon quick wit fashion he had a
remark for that as well saying that if people wanted to burn the albums they had to buy them first well and what's
funny to me about this is the early Beatles music was so pop and was so friendly there wasn't any
controversy going on and the music itself right I think it was just simply that statement again this seems to be
more of something that was going on in the deep south of America where I've heard other people say that it was kind
of a mixed bag of reaction for other parts of our country where maybe mom or dad was on the side of you can't listen
to The Beatles no more son or daughter but the other was like hey this is just a 25 year old kid saying something silly
he doesn't really mean it it's not a big deal it's just it's just music right but
this would change the Beatles forever because their touring was getting so out of hand and at the time we didn't have
the technology to have these big sound systems so these guys were going and playing in front of all these screaming
fans and they couldn't even hear themselves play and then on top of that because of these remarks we had groups
showing up like the KKK to stop these concerts to protest and also there was threats against their
lives from groups like the KKK and at a lot of these concerts we have something that I think is just bizarre but hey
there are big big Die Hard fans out there for everything in this world but you see when you look back at the
footage you see teenage girls fainting and passing out in the audience yeah that's normally what happens when I go
to Crime Con on November 9 1966 John met a Japanese American artist named Yoko Ono her art was on display in
London both John and Yoko were married to other people but a connection was made and the two were determined to stay
in touch in 1967 The Beatles manager Brian Epstein died of a drug overdose and many marked this event as the
beginning of the end for the band and obviously we're just going over some bullet points I mean the history and the
details of the Beatles career their lives in the band and out of the band is so extensively researched because they
are the biggest band of all time so obviously we're not going to cover every single point of The Beatles career in
1968 John Lennon's marriage was over he admitted to Cynthia that during their marriage he had many Affairs and his
friendship with Yoko was now becoming a romance well and I just want to be clear
on something because I think as somebody that is such a big icon like Lenin one of the things that's
overlooked is you know he was abusive towards his first wife he was physically and verbally abusive and that's not just
coming from his son saying so Julian but that's also he admits to that John even
goes as far to say check out songs like better on Sergeant Pepper's and he's talking about himself within
that song and how he needs to uh change and and not do these things and it's not
an excuse in any way but when your mother is taken from you uh from off-duty police officer when your father
isn't around and you're raised by your aunt you're going to have some kind of early trauma that can affect the way you
behave in relationships well and he's mixing that anger with drugs and alcohol as well with uh self-medication in
November of 1960 68 the band released the album titled The Beatles which would also later be known as The White Album
one I think this is one of the reasons why the Beatles became one of the biggest bands of all time because like I
said they're too big to tour so all they could do is spend time in the studio and
they were doing this at a at a time where technology was catching up so now you didn't have just like a four track
you could put more like instrumentation make something bigger and they were able
to create so many records per year because that's all they had to do well speaking of which Captain It is believed
that on August 18th when the band got together collectively to record a song called the end
this would be the last session with all four members together in the recording studio
and then this is followed by John telling the group in a band meeting in September of 69 that he was leaving the
band it seems like this information did not make its way to the public who knows for what reasons but it wasn't
until the following year when Paul McCartney stated in an interview in April that the band was breaking up yeah
there's all these again it's such a big band there's so many conflicting stories
but one of the things I think is interesting is they were doing a documentary their last record was going
to be Let It Be and they just thought we're going to strip it down go back to like the
original rock and roll style that we're doing and then they felt like it was disappointing so they actually made a
conscious effort to go back in the studio and record Abbey Road which is amazing piece of work and quit so yes
maybe John was the one that said hey I'm leaving or maybe Paul was the one that said I'm leaving first but
all four of the members knew this was coming to to an end and regardless of how it went down you could see for
months and months the four of them slowly going their separate ways yes they were going their separate ways but
it was also interesting because they're setting out on a bigger business venture together under Apple
music then in 1970 John Lennon's debut solo album John Lennon slash plastic Ono band was released
soon after Captain we have Lennon and Ono who moved to New York City in August of 1971. I found one source that said
that Yoko was taking too much criticism in the papers in London and that was one
of several reasons why the two chose to relocate again because the ban was so big there was a blame game going on some
people blame Paul McCartney for breaking up the ban and a lot of people blamed Yoko Ono a lot of people blamed Yoko Ono
for breaking up John Lennon's first marriage as well if it seems like if people did not like Yoko they just
blamed her for everything and we know that Lenin's marriage was pretty much doomed because of his own
actions for many years anyway a thing that's not talked about a lot because again he has such this iconic symbol to
him that people never want to talk about the negative stuff but during the last few years of The Beatles he was a heroin
addict and so was Yoko so the fact that that had a major play on on their business relationships their
personal relationships and and people putting blame on on her because they were seeing their friend be a drug
addict basically when the two moved to New York City they immediately embraced the U.S politics
and became involved speaking they were activists for a peace movement and the couple released their happy Christmas
War is Over single in December of that year John Lennon was not greeted with open
welcome Arms by everyone here in the states when he chose to relocate in fact it was the Nixon Administration that
took on what was called a strategic countermeasure against John Lennon's anti-war anti-nixon propaganda this
would lead to the administration and some involvement with the FBI as well to surveil John Lennon to keep tabs on him
it's even suggested that they were tapping wiretapping his phone and they were threatened by Lenin why would would
Nixon be threatened by somebody like John Lennon Well there's going to be an election coming up and they were afraid
that this guy who is involved in politics he's vocal that he has the ear of the American
Youth and that he could drive if he wanted to he could drive masses of people to the
left to join the Democratic party and vote that way against Nixon in the upcoming election that is a very scary
thing to see that this guy all by himself has more control and more influence than the president of the
United States one this is during the whole Peace Love hippie movement and so they were doing this to a lot of artists
they were having the FCC come down hard on shows that lean left artists that lean left but also during this time him
and and yokaro aren't getting along too well and and he's having his what they call the Lost weekend but even before
that we have the Nixon Administration what they're going to try to do Captain is they don't want Lenin to stay in the
United States right so you can't set up residency here and we have our reasons this would lead to several years of
legal battles with the immigration authorities and the Very basics of it are this they
did have reasons to not allow him to stay one he had overstayed his welcome so to speak when he first got here you
have to start filing for things and applying for citizenship and and the right to stay in which he didn't do so
in a timely manner and that all seems a bit arbitrary especially when we're talking about an individual that they
didn't seem to want to be here second of all there was an arrest that took place back in London and they would
often cite that as well that's further reason that we don't want this individual to be in our country he
couldn't obey the the laws of his own country before coming here and I think you pointed this out well and so have
several others that the simplest reason what Lenin believed and what is probably
correct is that he was outspoken for peace and against the war they didn't want that to have an effect on the
upcoming election and then we have the situation where where you're right him and Yoko Ono are
not getting along and a lot of that is again some of John's self-destructive behavior and his well irresponsible and
Unfaithful behavior and this leads to the Lost weekend which was about an 18-month period of time where the two
were were separated from about roughly 73 till 1975. yeah and what's interesting is
Yoko actually yeah basically told uh hooked John up with May ping and they basically had a relationship
for a couple years I believe they got back together at the Elton John concert that Elton John had in New York
basically Elton John played on a John Lennon song and said if it ever got to number one you're gonna have to come out
and and do a live performance and that'd be like John Lennon's first live performance in years
and that would be when Yoko and John would get back together yeah so you have this period of roughly 18 months and
it's all kinds of debauchery most of it taking place out in LA with other friends and other stars as well title it
the last weekend the two get back together John and Yoko Ono and they are going to have a baby together on October
9 1975 and this is a very unique thing here we have Sean Toro Ono Lennon who is born on October 9th
1975. this shares the same birthday as his father John Lennon also born on October 9th well this is going to create
a big shift in John's life he's going to remove himself from the spotlight he's not going to write any songs he's going
to be a stay-at-home dad and raise his son like he did not do with his first son yeah on his 35th birthday John
Lennon would step away from music and he would decide to become a father and be a real father for
the first time come down [Music] [Music] I want to ask you about writing I mean writing 10 songs in a week is I believe
you did we mentioned it earlier for the walls and bridges album that seems to me
to be an awful lot of pressure how exactly do you go about writing John these days or both of you in fact as a
combination which of those two is the more important and looking back at it whenever I comment about writing all
seem to have been suffering whether it was right in Day in the Life or whatever it's some kind of sufferings I always
seem to have an intense time writing and thinking this is the end and nothing's coming and this is dumb and this is no
good and all that business so not writing for the five years which I didn't I didn't pick up a guitar or
anything I'm not trying to write not making attempt to write or anything like that
so what you said about wars and bridges applies to double fantasy I was in Bermuda and Yoko was in New York doing
some business I was in Bermuda with Sean and The Nanny and that kind of stuff and then when we made a tentative
decision to make a record I didn't have any material then suddenly it all came to me all the songs that are on Double
Fantasy all came within a period of three weeks I mean in Bermuda after five years of nothing not trying but nothing
coming anyway no inspiration no anything then suddenly boom boom boom boom boom he's a very fast writer because it's an
inspiration he just comes through him so it's just a matter of writing it down almost when we do Double Fantasy I was
in New York and he was in Bermuda we were sort of communicating on the phone I would say well what about this and
then he would call me maybe four hours later and said what about this be singing to each other and that was the
dialogue it was very strange and we went through sort of like uh paradoxical feeling of well half resisting well I
don't want to hear a song now I'm very tired but well I mean I've heard yours I was like well let's hear it then you
know that sort of thing I went through that and then we were going to go to studio and because of that I felt we're
both big-headed people and so maybe we're gonna fight like crazy over remix or this and that you know because we
both have very definite ideas and I'm sure that John felt that way too John must have felt well can we really work
together but somehow we were so well and we were all prepared to maybe have a difficult time but don't you think yeah
it was the easiest session I've ever done I think five years is an awful long time what sort of mental discipline did
it involve resisting picking up a Guitar well it wasn't a matter of resisting the
first half a year or year I had this sort of feeling in the back of my mind that I
ought to I ought to and I'd go through periods of panic because I was not in the enemy or the billboard or being seen
at Studio 54 with Nick and Bianca I mean I didn't exist anymore that I got a little fear of that would come like a
paranoia and then it would go away because I'd be involved with a baby or involved with whatever other business
that we're involved with but that only lasted about nine months and then it was suddenly like a oh
it just went away and I realized there was a life after death you know I mean there was a life without it did you
enjoy that realization great it was like oh my God I would sit around thinking what does this remind me of what does
this remind me of I thought this reminds me of being 15 I didn't have to write songs of 15 I wrote it if I wanted to or
I played rock and roll if I wanted to I didn't have to do it I would I didn't have some imaginary standards set up by
me or some group of critics or whatever in other words back to the days before the pressure so I sort of got back to
that and then that's when I suddenly could do it again with ease the most enjoyable thing for me apart from
putting them on the tape when you first put them is the inspirational in the spirit because when the songs really
come and you're not sitting down like a Craftsman writing I can do that you know you want a song
about bananas for a movie I could do that okay you know I'm quite capable of turning it out like that I wouldn't
enjoy it so much maybe but I could do it on that level but my joy is when you like possessed like a medium I mean I'll
be sitting around and it'll come in the middle of the night all the time when you don't want to do it you know that's
the exciting part so I'm lying around and then this thing comes as a whole piece you know words and music and I
think can I say I wrote it I don't know who the hell wrote it I'm just sitting in this whole damn song comes up so it
you're like driven and you find yourself over on a piano a guitar and you put it
down because it's been given to you or whatever it is that you tune into there's John Lennon discussing his break
from music and then the Rejuvenation of his music career which took place in 1980. before we get to that there
Captain let's give a little more background here we have the Linens John and Yoko who were living at the Dakota
which is also known as the Dakota apartments this is a building located on the northwest corner of 72nd Street and
Central Park West in Upper West Side of Manhattan they were subleasing an apartment from actor Robert Ryan for a
brief period of time now Ryan passed away in 1973 and after that event the lenins wanted to purchase the unit that
he was living in well the board is a little particular at this apartment complex the Dakota and they weren't so
hip to the idea of the Linens living there purchasing an apartment in the beginning that might have had something
to do with John having trouble getting residency here in the United States eventually that goes away and what we
have is John and Yoko they purchased five different apartments at the Dakota two of them were living quarters for
John on Yoko and their son together Sean and they had a unit that was purchased for Sean's Nanny and her husband so that
they would be in the same building on call they could tend to Sean's needs whenever it was necessary and they also
purchased two other units these were simply used for storage yeah John had a lot of Endeavors when he talks about all
these other business things going on while some of these business things were real estate transactions and to show you
how picky the board has been over the years for the Dakota first off we should probably point out that this is a very
old building I mean the Dakota was constructed between 1880 and 1884 and it was a historical
landmark even well before Lenin's death now the board denied living quarters to people such as Gene
Simmons from Kiss Billy Joel and Carly Simon now some other famous people that have lived there throughout the years
are John Madden Rosie O'Donnell Joe Namath and Judy Garland what I always find interesting about this time period
is when his friends say that they talked to John how happy he was staying at home
and I think some of that has to do with the fact that he wasn't there obviously for his first child and to to try to do
it correct and be the guy he wanted to be and that he was able to do that for his second son Sean yeah there's nothing
more fulfilling than being a good father a good husband and I also think some of
that too is a certain level of sobriety that he did not partake in for many years of his
life and you have what is an Angry Young Man Who is fueling some of that anger with drugs and alcohol and you can't
start to let go or work through that anger and grow until you start to let go of that drugs and alcohol while also
being one of the most famous people in the world I mean that has to be I'm sure there's a burden that
comes with that as well yeah right right and I and then I also think as an artist
um having a situation where you're supposedly the best so then your competition is yourself so you always
have to top yourself and then after the breakup there's a competition between the members and I think there's
something nice about just going hey I'm going to let all that go and like he says in the interview it's like
when it's all over with there's actually a life after that right one thing that I find fascinating is the
clip that we played there you can hear Lenin in his own words saying look there was not
a resistance in an effort put forward on my behalf to not create music there was
simply a lack of creativity and a lack of anything coming through a lack of that that energy that I once had and he
describes it in many ways as a job but where he's going to find inspiration and that renewed sense of creativity it will
be from a trip that he takes to Bermuda in the summer of 1980. now something very interesting happens to Lenin on
that trip he's aboard a yacht this is like a 43-foot sailboat with a crew well they're out there and the Seas get rough
my friend the storm is coming in and this is a pretty powerful storm the crew is experiencing seasickness
John Lennon is not he is the only one that can really pull it together in hold the wheel and try to keep the craft
steady well let's go back a little bit because he wasn't part of the crew he was basically cooking for the crew
saying hey look guys I'm not I'm not the manly guy I can't do this stuff but hey
I can cook for you well like you said they all get sick and then the guy that's saying well I'm not I'm not manly
enough to take over the ship has to take over the ship and for several hours he has to fight
his way through the storm sailing this boat through the storm there and he said this was one of the
most profound experiences in his entire life if not the most and it was that moment followed by his
stay in Bermuda that was really the inspiration that the light switch just clicked right back on for him and all
this stuff just pouring through all of this good music just pouring through but I also think there's probably a little
bit of fear too like look I'm being a good husband I'm being a good man I'm being a good father can you do both can
you be a great artist and be all those things I also think that there's a bit of the
weight of the situation when you're out on that boat there's a possibility that you and the
rest of the guys are not going to survive that storm right there's a certain fragility to life that becomes
very you become very aware of and maybe that was a bit of a kick in the pants for him to get him back on his
horse again in October of 1980 we have another special event in John Lennon's life he turns age 40 and on that same
day his son Sean turns age five and Yoko surprised both of them with having a you know where you have the plane and
they write in the sky she wrote a message to both of them that says happy birthday
to John and Sean love Yoko they were able to view this out their apartment Window
in November of 1980 is when they would release the album Double Fantasy this is John Lennon's return to music and the
album is taking off it very quickly went gold well at this time too he's doing a
lot of interviews he did a big famous Playboy interview and one for the Rolling Stone magazine
yeah on the evening of Friday December 5th 1980 John Lennon spoke to Rolling Stone editor Jonathan cot for more than
nine hours at his apartment in New York's upper west side and this interview was so long nine hours that's
a long long time to be sitting down and have a discussion it continued on at the
record plant recording studio and that brings us up to December 8th 1980. that morning John Lennon and Yoko
Ono woke up in their apartment as they did most mornings they went out and had a nice breakfast they typically would go
to a cafe or someplace within walking distance of the Dakota for their breakfast or maybe hop in a limo and go
grab something to eat out in the town while out that day John decides to get a haircut this is important because he has
a photo shoot that they will will be doing at the couple's apartment at the Dakota the photo shoot was scheduled for
11 A.M on that day on Monday December 8th Rolling Stone magazine photographer Annie Leibowitz arrived at Lenin's
apartment for the photo shoot this is going to go with the interview that he had just done three days prior
and the plan was to run this interview with some photographs for the interview as well as a
photograph for the cover of the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone magazine this is
going to one fly off of this the newspaper stance for the magazine great for the magazine but it's also further
promotion for the Double Fantasy album that is recently been released during this photo shoot Annie Leibowitz she
thought that you know what would be a good idea I would like to snap a photo of John and Yoko both in the nude right
let's get something where people were out there talking spread the word do something controversial a little bit
it's going to be good for the magazine good for the album well Yoko says I'm not real comfortable being fully nude
for this photo shoot so what we have is what would become the the Rolling Stone magazine
cover was a Polaroid shot a single Polaroid shot of Yoko Ono lying fully clothed
on her back and you have John Lennon who is completely nude and he's kind of holding his wife in a way that he's
almost in like the fetal position yeah it's become one of the most iconic pictures of John and Yoko
at 1pm San Francisco radio producer Dave sholin arrives at the apartment to conduct what will become John Lennon's
last interview this is about a three hour session where John talks and the thing is when you look back at this
interview as well as the one that was conducted three days prior there are some kind of Haunting statements that
John makes only because we now know these are the last interviews right but in this
interview with Dave scholin John says quote we're either going to live or we're going to die I consider that my
work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried and I hope that's a long time I believe that John felt a great deal of
admiration towards the 60s because that was his Heyday that was his Pinnacle and
then dealing with the breakup of The Beatles the competition between members this lost weekend I think he looked down
upon the 70s and thinking okay well now things are better we're getting things together
the 80s are going to be a really special time one of the quotes from the December
5th Rolling Stone interview that I wanted to point out too is John says quote Give Peace a chance not shoot
people for peace all we need is love I believe it end quote after the interview at 4 30 John and Yoko were scheduled to
go to the recording studio they had a session scheduled where they were going to record a track that they were working
on together now when John and Yoko first go outside of the Dakota they observed that their ride is not there they would
typically travel by way of limousine and this seemed to upset John a little bit he didn't like to wait around especially
not out front of the Dakota because as we already pointed out we got famous and interesting people
that lived there so you get these people that gather and hang out and they're looking to see somebody famous and many
of these people are looking to catch a glimpse of John and Yoko in particular as well as try to maybe snatch a an
autograph from John while outside of the Dakota so the Dave schullen who did the
interview he offers a ride to John and Yoko and I think he was a little surprised when when they decided to wait
around for the limo that was was arriving late now during this time we have a young man
who approaches John Lennon and he hands John a copy of the Double Fantasy album wanting his autograph
John signs the young man's album and he signs it John Lennon 1980 gives it back to the young man and now he's going to
get his ride they're going to go off to the studio while he is writing or signing his
autograph on the cover of the Double Fantasy album somebody snaps a picture which captures John Lennon looking down
at the album cover and the young man standing just over his left shoulder looking down as John is signing the
autograph we would later know the man in the picture with John Lennon to be that
of Mark David Chapman I'll post all these pictures on our Instagram at True Crime garage and also on Twitter and
Facebook at the recording session things seem to go exactly the way that John and
Yoko wanted they loved the outcome they loved the result of their hard work at the record Studio
and before they leave the recording studio John makes sure to get a cassette of what they just recorded because he
and Yoko would like to listen to it again and again they're very pleased with the outcome of this then they're
going to be picked up by a limo at 10 35 from the music studio to head back to the Dakota
at 10 48 pm the limo stops just outside of the Dakotas Gateway and Yoko climbs out of
the limo followed by John who's carrying a tape recorder and several cassettes John walks past the man that he had
signed the autograph before just hours before Mark David Chapman and he passes by the
man and he moves on at this point Mark Chapman and there's some debate over this Captain if Chapman
said anything or if he didn't say anything most sources that I found seem to say
that he said Lenin or Mr Lenin to which John may have started to turn but it didn't matter because by this point Mark
Chapman has already put himself in a a stance where he is ready to shoot at John Lennon he gets into combat stance
pulls out a gun from his coat pocket and fires five shots at the most famous man
in the world John Lennon was hit with 38 Caliber hollow bullets at Close Range four of the five shots would hit Lenin
and Lennon would stumble up a set of stairs into the building's office where he collapsed falling face down the night
Watchman is in this same office and he sees all of this go down so he hits the alarm which is going to a media
immediately summon the police and within just a minute or two we have the street
in front of the Dakota is now full of cop cars and Sirens going off very quickly Mark Chapman is cuffed what
Chapman did was as soon as he shot Lenin apparently there was somebody that said
something to him like what are you doing do you realize what you've just done get
out of here just get out of here and Chapman says to that person where would I go
and I've seen reports that say that he set the gun down and then he also took off his coat he
had on a big coat right and Chapman took off this coat apparently for the reasoning of he wanted police to know
right away that he was not armed he's not holding a gun he's not concealing a weapon and he starts
thumbing through the pages of his favorite book The Catcher in the Rye he's arrested and cuffed without
incident to which we have the police officer when the police walk up to him and approach
him Mark Chapman says to the officers I'm sorry I ruined your night and one of the cops says what do you mean ruined
our night you just ruined the rest of your life right Mark Chapman tells the officer that there's a big person and a
little person inside of me today the little person won and again when he's asked if he knew
what he just did do you know what you just did Mark Chapman replies I killed myself I'm John Lennon they stepped out
of limousine and they went inside the gate panel and then all of a sudden they heard five six shots and that was it
four cops pulled John Lennon out and put him into the back of a police car and his mouth he was bleeding from his mouth
and he it was a terrible sight Mr Chapman came up behind him and called to him Mr Lennon
as he arrived at that doorway and then in a combat stance he fired he emptied the Charter Arms 38 caliber gun that he
had with him and shot John Lennon the news spread quickly within minutes fans the curious and
reporters are at the Dakota apartment building waiting for news from Roosevelt Hospital John Lennon was brought to the
emergency room of the Roosevelt site St Luke's Roosevelt Hospital this evening shortly before 11 pm
he was Dead on Arrival the first reaction disbelief why would someone stalk and kill John Lennon and
why now when Lenin was just coming out of five years of seclusion almost immediately a vigil of stunned fans
gathered at the Dakota [Applause] [Music] thank you so much for joining us here in
the garage if you need more True Crime garage check us out on the Stitcher app all of our old episodes are there for
free and we also have a bonus show called off the Record and that's on Stitcher premium see you back here in
the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't leave foreign [Music]

John Lennon /// Part 1 /// 447

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week, forty years ago a legend was murdered. John Lennon was a worldwide icon and he was shot and killed in the streets of New York City by a madman. Join us in the Garage was we take a glimpse at John’s life, his murder and the maniac who shot him.

The full archive of True Crime Garage is available on the Stitcher listening app - for FREE. Our show “Off the Record” is only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

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Brief Summary

John Lennon’s life, Beatles fame, controversies, and tragic assassination are discussed in detail.

Key points

John Lennon's Birth Amid Chaos. John Lennon was born during a German air raid, highlighting the tumultuous times.
The Beatles' Controversial Remarks. John Lennon's statement about being more popular than Jesus sparked outrage and boycotts.
John and Yoko's Relationship. John Lennon's tumultuous relationship with Yoko Ono began while both were still married.
The Beatles' Breakup. John Lennon revealed he was leaving the band, marking the beginning of the end for The Beatles.
Nixon's Fear of Lennon. The Nixon Administration surveilled John Lennon due to his anti-war activism.
John Lennon Becomes a Father. On October 9, 1975, John Lennon becomes a father for the second time, marking a significant shift in his life.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Can you imagine bringing a child into the world in your city under heavy threat?

Describing the chaotic circumstances surrounding John Lennon's birth.

5:49WatchNov 11, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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