Mourning Lennon
Shock and grief at the loss of an icon
Alex Q. Arbuckle
Dec. 8-14, 1980
At approximately 10:50 p.m. on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were returning to their home at The Dakota on 72nd Street in New York. Earlier that day, the couple had posed for Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz, signed autographs for fans outside their home, and spent several hours mixing music at the Record Plant Studio.As the pair exited their limousine and walked into the courtyard of The Dakota, Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu who had received an autograph from Lennon earlier that day, stepped out of the shadows by the archway. Chapman drew a revolver and fired five shots, striking Lennon in the back with four .38 caliber hollow point rounds. While the concierge attempted to stem the bleeding, the doorman disarmed Chapman, who calmly waited for police to arrive. When they did, they handcuffed Chapman and rushed Lennon to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.A producer from ABC happened to be at the hospital, and called the station. A few minutes later, Lennon’s death was announced during Monday Night Football.The outpouring of grief was immediate and widespread. Thousands gathered outside The Dakota and around the world. In Lennon’s hometown of Liverpool, 30,000 convened in his memory. Six days after his murder, 225,000 mourners filled Central Park, and joined millions around the world in 10 minutes of silence.
Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps, of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash, which, in duty bound, we have to take. - Howard Cosell, ABC Monday Night Football, Dec. 8, 1980
There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean. - Statement from Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, Dec. 9, 1980
Lennon was a creature of poetic political metaphor, and his spiritual consciousness was directed inward, as a way of nurturing and widening his creative force. That was what made the impact, and the difference — the shock of his imagination, the penetrating and pervasive traces of his genius — and it was the loss of all that, in so abrupt and awful a way, that was mourned last week, all over the world. - Jay Cocks, Time, Dec. 22, 1980
