The Assassination of John Lennon

The Assassination of John Lennon

John Lennon once said, “I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it. It's just getting out of one car, and into another” (Goodreads Quotes). John Winston Lennon was a musician, artist, activist, and poet whose death emotionally shook and traumatized thousands of America's people. He was born in Liverpool, England, October 9, 1940, during a German air raid in World War II. As a child Lennon’s mother, Julia, taught him how to play the banjo, piano and purchased his first guitar. However in July of 1958 she was struck by a car and killed. This harrowing event would prove to be one of the most traumatic incidents in his life. Elvis Presley was Lennon's original inspiration for his first band called the Quarry Men, named after his school (Biography.com Editors). Over the years the Quarry Men would change their members and name many times, however their most memorable form was as the Beatles with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr when America first met them on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. From there on out Americans were in full “Beatlemania”, making the Beatles the first British band to make it big in the United States. Even after the heart-wrenching Beatles break-up, Lennon still seemed to capture American hearts, and connect with them in ways like no other, but America had no idea what was to come of their beloved Peacemaker.

John Lennon was first a beatle and musician, but he was also an activist for peace. After the beatle broke up Lennon used his fame to protest the vietnam war, and promote peace and love around the world. However, not everyone was his biggest fan. Mark Chapman was born in 1955 and is living in a prison to this day in Attica State Prison in upstate New York. He was a Beatle fan from day one and he even had his own band to try to emulate the Beatles. Mark was a strict christian, and supported Lennon on his peace mission. But why did this man pull the trigger on John Lennon? Mark had loved the Beatles through thick and thin but believe it or not one quote from John Lennon was enough to provoke him. "We're more popular then Jesus now." That is what set him off. From that day forward he stopped listening to the Beatles. Chapman first bought a .38-caliber pistol, then borrowed $2,500 from a credit union and flew to New York City on December 6, 1980. He began to spend long hours stationed outside the Dakota, where Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono and their son lived. On Dec. 8 Lennon was leaving the Dakota to go to a recording studio, when Chapman for the first time went up to him and had him autograph his most recent album, which was Double Fantasy. Later that day, when John returned Chapman went up the Lennon again and shot him 4 times