JOHN LENNON SHOT:

December 8, 1980

John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed
popular music in the 1960s, is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York
City. The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment
building when Mark David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a
.38-caliber revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely, was rushed to the hospital but
died en route. Chapman had received an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day
and voluntarily remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by
police. For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the
Dakota--Lennon's apartment building--and demonstrations of mourning were held
around the world.John Lennon was one half of the singing-songwriting team that
made the Beatles the most popular musical group of the 20th century. The other
band leader was Paul McCartney, but the rest of the quartet--George Harrison and
Ringo Starr--sometimes penned and sang their own songs as well. Hailing from
Liverpool, England, and influenced by early American rock and roll, the Beatles
took Britain by storm in 1963 with the single "Please Please Me." "Beatlemania"
spread to the United States in 1964 with the release of "I Want to Hold Your
Hand," followed by a sensational U.S. tour. With youth poised to break away from
the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the "Fab Four," with their
exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the
shift.The Beatles sold millions of records and starred in hit movies such as A
Hard Day's Night (1964). Their live performances were near riots, with teenage
girls screaming and fainting as their boyfriends nodded along to the catchy pop
songs. In 1966, the Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative
studio recordings, such as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, a
psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music.
The Beatles' music remained relevant to youth throughout the great cultural
shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius
of the Lennon-McCartney team.Lennon was considered the intellectual Beatle and
certainly was the most outspoken of the four. He caused a major controversy in
1966 when he declared that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus," prompting
mass burnings of Beatles' records in the American Bible Belt. He later became an
anti-war activist and flirted with communism in the lyrics of solo hits like
"Imagine," recorded after the Beatles disbanded in 1970. In 1975, Lennon dropped
out of the music business to spend more time with his Japanese-born wife, Yoko
Ono, and their son, Sean. In 1980, he made a comeback with Double-Fantasy, a
critically acclaimed album that celebrated his love for Yoko and featured songs
written by her.On December 8, 1980, their peaceful domestic life on New York's
Upper West Side was shattered by 25-year-old Mark David Chapman. Psychiatrists
deemed Chapman a borderline psychotic. He was instructed to plead insanity, but
instead he pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. In
2000, New York State prison officials denied Chapman a parole hearing, telling
him that his "vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be
acknowledged." He remains behind bars at Attica Prison in New York State. John
Lennon is memorialized in "Strawberry Fields," a section of Central Park across
the street from the Dakota that Yoko Ono landscaped in honor of her husband.