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1980 had been a prolific year for John Lennon, after a five year hiatus from the music industry. His latest album, Double Fantasy, had debuted at number one around the world. One month later, he was walking home from a latestudio session where he & his wife Yoko Ono had been working on their next project, when he was confronted by a fan whom John had given an autograph earlier in the day. As John turned away to enter the Dakota apartment building on New York's Upper West Side, the fan, Mark David Chapman, shot him in the back 5 times with a .38 caliber revolver. As Ono held John's head, and as John was slipping away from loss of blood, the doorman of the Dakota screamed at Chapman, "Do You know what you've done?" Chapman replied matter-of-factly, "I've shot John Lennon." Lennon was later pronounced dead-on-arrival at Roosevelt Hospital, at the age of 40. The world responded with an outpouring of grief that had usually been reserved for the passing of royalty. Lennon's albums wer re-released, and saw sales rivaling those when the albums were new. Mark David Chapman claimed that he was motivated to kill Lennon for his 1969 remarks about Jesus, and that voices in his head had told him to commit the murder. Chapman was convicted and sentened to 20 years to life. |
| The 80's History Project Crimes The Murder of John Lennon Decemeber 8, 1980 |
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| John Lennon |