Death of a Dreamer: John Lennon
December 8th, 1980, a day in which music lost one of the greatest contributors of all time.
It started out as a busy day for Lennon, with a photoshoot for Rolling Stone magazine by photographer Annie Leibovitz. She promised the photos would make the cover after trying to coax Lennon into some photos with only him as the subject, but he was intent on having his wife Yoko Ono in the photos.
The photoshoot was followed with a radio interview that was to air at 5:40 that evening in San Fransisco, on RKO. While being escorted out to a waiting limo by the RKO staff, fans were gathered and waiting for Lennon like usual. One of the ‘fans’ waiting for him was Mark David Chapman; Chapman had planned to murder Lennon previously but had at the last second decided against it. The seemingly innocuous Chapman happily pushed a copy of Double Fantasy at Lennon to autograph. The always gracious Lennon asked Mark Chapman if that was all that he wanted, to which Chapman gave a smile and nod.
Later on outside of the Dakotas around 10:50pm, Chapman waited in the shadows by the archway entrance to the building. John apparently looked at him and recognized him from earlier, but instantaneously Mark Chapman fired five hollow point bullets out of his weapon. Four hit Lennon in the back and shoulder. He stumbled into the lobby where he dropped a box of cassette tapes he was carrying as he went down and hit the floor.
Chapman calmly sat reading a copy of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and waited on the steps for police, fully aware of the heinous act he had just committed.
Lennon was rushed to the hospital in a police cruiser due to the extent of his injuries; the inside of that cruiser would be the last thing John would ever see as he lost consciousness on the way. He arrived at Roosevelt hospital without a pulse. The emergency room doctors tried valiantly to resuscitate him, but to no avail.
John Lennon was pronounced dead upon arrival around 11:00pm. At the moment Lennon was pronounced dead, “All my Loving,” a Beatles song, came over the loud speaker.
Despite pleas by Ono to withhold information of her husband’s death so she could tell her son in her own way, the information was all over television with a quickness. News producer Alan J. Weiss was being treated in the E.R and saw Lennon being transported in surrounded by police. He promptly called his news station, where the story climbed the ranks.
It ended up as Breaking News on Monday Night Football during a game between the Patriots and Dolphins; this greatly distressed the sportscasters, one of whom interviewed Lennon in 1974.
The result of losing John Lennon besides the obvious loss of his artistry was an unprecedented amount of grief and mourning from the world over. At least three Beatles fans committed suicide, which led to Yoko Ono asking fans to not give into their grief. On December 14, 1980, there was a worldwide 10 minutes of silence for Lennon.
His murderer was eligible for parole in the year 2000; however, Chapman has been denied 9 times since then and hopefully will continue to serve for the rest of his life.
Journalists should take away from this incident consideration of the families of people such as Lennon, and allow the families time to communicate tragedy among themselves before publishing it.
Ethics need to and should play a bigger part in journalism.
The world is unlikely to ever see another person as influential and well-loved as the one and only John Lennon.