How did John Lennon die? This is who killed the famed Beatles musician 43 years ago.
Clare MulroyUSA TODAY
Tread carefully around emotional Beatles fans – the release of “Now and Then,” which uses extracted vocals from a demo John Lennon recorded in his home in the late 1970s, has us “gently weeping.” Lennon, a lauded musician and peace activist, died 43 years ago.
Former bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunited to complete the track, which also features the late George Harrison who recorded guitar and vocal parts before he died in 2001.
As we remember the “Imagine” singer, here’s a look back at his final days.
Who killed John Lennon?
Mark David Chapman shot and killed Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, as he and his wife Yoko Ono were returning to their New York City apartment. Chapman, 25 at the time, was a former security guard and YMCA employee from Hawaii.
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Chapman is currently serving 20-years-to-life at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Hudson Valley, New York. The board denied him parole for a 12th time in 2022. “I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there,” Chapman told the board in 2022. “I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.”
Who was Mark David Chapman?:Eyewitness accounts of Lennon’s murder
December 8: The day John Lennon was shot That December weekend was the second time in less than two months that Chapman traveled from his home in Hawaii to New York. In past trips, he observed the doormen waiting outside the Dakota, the Upper West Side building where Lennon and Ono lived, according to Jack Jones’ 1992 book, “Let Me Take You Down,” based on interviews with Chapman.
He arrived in New York City on Dec. 6 and checked into a room at the West Side YMCA, about a 10-minute walk from the Dakota. He waited outside for most of the day with other Beatles fans. Around 5 p.m. on Dec. 6, he went back to his room at the YMCA and narrowly missed Lennon heading back into the building.
He tried again on the morning of Dec. 7, waiting outside the building from 9:30 a.m. to about noon, without any luck.
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