John Lennon’s Death: Inside His 1980 Murder and Where His Killer Is Today

John Lennon left an immeasurable mark on the world, both in life and in death.

Considered by many to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time, the musician rose to fame as a member of The Beatles and enjoyed a prolific solo career after the group broke up in 1969. Sadly, his life was cut short: he was shot and killed outside his residence, the Dakota, in New York on December 8, 1980.

The killer, Mark David Chapman, confessed at the scene of the crime. He later told the parole board that he was a Beatles fan “seeking fame”. “I knew what I was doing and I knew it was evil,” he said in September 2022. “I knew it was wrong, but I wanted fame so badly that I was ready to give everything and take human life.”

Lennon is survived by his wife, Yoko Ono, and two sons, Julian and Sean Lennon, who worked hard to keep the late musician’s legacy alive.

“I remembered him as a kid — goofy, funny, sarcastic, charming,” Julian told PEOPLE after watching the 2021 docuseries. The Beatles: Come Back. “I fell in love with him all over again because he was the guy I remember before everything went haywire.”

Lennon’s former bandmate Paul McCartney also revealed that the “Imagine” singer once thought about how he would be remembered posthumously.

“I remember him saying to me, ‘Paul, I’m worried about how people will remember me when I die,’ and it kind of shocked me,” McCartney recalled on an episode of his iHeart Radio podcast, McCartney: Life in Verse, 2023. “I said ‘OK, wait, just wait. People will think you were great, you’ve already done enough work to show it.’ ”

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Lennon’s death is the subject of upcoming AppleTV+ documentary series John Lennon: Murder without trialwhose premiere is on December 6. The three-part series features interviews with eyewitnesses, friends of the late Beatle and members of Chapman’s legal team.

Here’s what you need to know about John Lennon’s death.

How did John Lennon die?

John Lennon in 1973.

Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

On December 8, 1980, Lennon was shot twice in the back and twice in the shoulder with a .38 caliber pistol. The Washington Post reported that the New York Medical Examiner, Dr. Elliot Gross, attributed Lennon’s death to “massive hemorrhage and shock” caused by gunshot wounds.

According to the autopsy, two bullets struck Lennon’s left lung before exiting his chest. One bullet that went through his shoulder hit his left arm bone, while the other pierced his left lung before lodging in his neck.

When did John Lennon die?

Lennon is believed to have died moments after being shot. According to the Associated Press, the singer was shot at 10:50 p.m. He was brought to nearby Roosevelt Hospital less than 10 minutes later and was pronounced dead on arrival.

“Death occurred in a very short time,” Gross said two days later, noting that Lennon was “essentially pulseless” when he arrived at the hospital.

Where did John Lennon die?

Exterior of Dakota, an apartment building in Manhattan.

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Lennon was shot outside his apartment building, the Dakota, on Central Park West on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He was pronounced dead at nearby Roosevelt Hospital.

How old was John Lennon when he died?

Lennon was 40 years old when he was killed, and he recently celebrated his birthday on October 9.

Who killed John Lennon?

John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman.

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Longtime Beatles fan Mark David Chapman, an unemployed security guard living in Hawaii, pleaded guilty to shooting Lennon in June 1981. He reportedly confessed just moments after the incident, telling a panicked doorman, “I just shot John Lennon,” according to The The Washington Post.

Chapman and Lennon had met earlier that day when a Beatles fan got the artist’s autograph on a copy of the album Double fantasy. The native of Hawaii bought the gun three months before and traveled to New York to commit the crime.

In 2020, Chapman told the parole board that he was motivated by jealousy. “I thought he has all this money, lives in this beautiful apartment and makes music that represents a more cautious lifestyle, a more giving lifestyle,” he told the board, according to ABC News. “It made me angry and jealous compared to the way I was living at the time. There was jealousy there.”

He added: “I killed him… because he was very, very, very famous and that’s the only reason.”

What did John Lennon do on the day he died?

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in November 1980.

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On the day of his death, Lennon and Ono recorded a cover for Rolling stone with the famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, who took photos of the couple in their home in New York. (Three days earlier, Rolling stone‘s Jonathan Cott interviewed Lennon for over nine hours; their conversation was published in its entirety only in 2010.)

In the photo, the “Imagine” singer is completely naked and wraps his body around Ono, who is fully clothed. “We felt comfortable because it was Annie, who we respected and trusted, so John seemed to have no problem taking his clothes off,” Ono told the publication in 2004. The image was later named one of the magazine’s best covers of the previous 40 years since by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

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That day, Lennon also sat down for an interview with RKO Radio before heading to the Record Plant, a recording studio in NYC

Before leaving, he signed a copy of his album Double fantasy for Chapman outside the Dakotas. Another fan, photographer Paul Goresh, snapped a photo of Lennon next to Chapman. These would be the last photos of the musician, and Ono later asked Goresh for photos, he recalled to NJ.com in 2015.

“It was somehow harder for me to look at that photo than the one of death,” Ono later wrote to fans in The The New York Times and The The Washington Post. “John was in a hurry that afternoon. He didn’t have to sign an autograph, but he did, while the man was watching him, the man who was later to betray John.”

Who was with John Lennon when he died?

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968.

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She was with Lennon at the time of his death. According to The The Washington Post, the couple pulled up to the Dakota in a limo and got out together before heading to the door of their building. Lennon turned around when he heard someone calling his name, at which point he was shot.

“When John fell beside me, I felt as if we were in a guerrilla war, not knowing who or where the enemy was,” Ono later wrote.

What were John Lennon’s last words?

Yoko Ono and John Lennon with their son Julian in 1968.

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Witnesses claimed Lennon’s last words were “I’m hit”, uttered just moments before the former Beatle collapsed.

His last words to the widow were, however, gentler. That’s what she said to BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that on the way home from the studio she suggested dinner before going home, but Lennon replied, “No, we’re going home because I want to see Sean before he goes to bed.”

How did the public react to the death of John Lennon?

Monument to John Lennon “Strawberry Fields.”.

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After Lennon’s death, fans gathered in front of his residence. As one man who showed up in Dakota told NPR, “I took it … as a personal loss. The man changed my life, you know, and I just had to come here to make sure it was true. I don’t even know why I’m standing here. It’s great. I just can’t believe it.”

A silent vigil was also held in Lennon’s honor on December 15, 1980; It invited the public to participate “from anywhere” at that time. About 100,000 people gathered to pay their respects to the Beatle together in New York’s Central Park, according to The The Washington Post. Another 2,000 gathered in Chicago, and a memorial concert for 30,000 was held in Lennon’s hometown of Liverpool, England.

A monument called “Strawberry Fields” was later erected in Central Park.

What legacy did John Lennon leave behind?

John Lennon in 1966.

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With numerous musical accolades – Lennon himself has seven Grammys, including a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Beatles remain the best-selling group of all time – he left a lasting impression on his loved ones.

“When John died, it was so hard,” bandmate McCartney said in December 2022. “It was hard for everyone in the world because he was such a beloved character and such a crazy guy. He was so special.”

John Lennon was honored by his sons, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on the 40th anniversary of his death

In addition to the abundant honors and memorials erected in his name, Ono was awarded the John Lennon Award in 1997 with the BMI Foundation, which offers scholarships to aspiring songwriters and composers.

Lennon’s legacy also lives on through his two sons, Julian and Sean Lennon, who continue to honor him in their own music; his wife Ono; and his remaining bandmates, McCartney and Ringo Starr. (George Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001.)

Where is John Lennon’s killer now?

Mark David Chapman 2010.

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Chapman has been in jail since his arrest after the shooting. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in June 1981 and was sentenced two months later to 20 years to life in prison. In September 2022, he was denied parole for the 12th time.

Ono opposed Chapman’s release for years. In 2015, she told The Daily Beast: “He did it once, he could do it again, to someone else. It could be me, it could be Sean, it could be anybody, so there’s that concern.”

Chapman will be eligible for parole in 2024.

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Source: HIS Education