The pacifist singer was shot in 1980 by a fan, Mark David Chapman, for whom he had signed an autograph a few hours earlier.
On Monday, December 8, 1980, John Lennon was murdered. Defining or cataloging the artist, musician, singer-songwriter, composer, poet, cartoonist, producer, writer, pacifist, activist and actor would be complicated, but not as complicated as understanding why Mark David Chapman shot him five times.
Just a few hours before, John Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy, his latest album, when the man who would tear him from this world approached him to have a word with him, as soon as he left his Dakota building, in front of Central Park. from Manhattan.
Chapman waited for hours for him to return from Record Plant Studios, in a limousine. As soon as John Lennon stepped onto the street, the killer camouflaged himself among the fans and began shooting him. Yoko Ono was next to him when the shooting occurred. One of the bullets passed through Lennon's back, causing a wound in his right lung; another of them hit his left arm; the third, on his neck; and the fourth bullet caused bleeding in an artery of the heart. And this wound caused his death.
After being shot, John Lennon climbed five steps of the stairs of his building mentioning his last words: “they shot me.” And he collapsed on the floor.
Meanwhile, he stood there, calmly waiting for the police to arrive to arrest him.
Currently Lennon's murderer, 66, remains in the Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in western New York.
For the eleventh time, he was denied the parole that he requested through his lawyer. This new refusal will cause him to remain in prison for at least two more years.
One of the people who most fervently opposes the release of the murderer is Lennon's widow. Yoko Ono stated that she fears for the safety of her family.
