John Lennon died on this day in a hail of gunfire

[ghostsinthemachine]

Shot four times in the back by a guy who had enough documented mental health issues to disqualify anyone in a normal society, by a guy who came to New York with a gun in his possession and murder on his mind but then found that he could not buy ammunition in New York. He then went to Georgia and acquired it from a freind who was a police officer. The gun and the bullets that killed John Lennon.

He spent some time reconnoitring the Dakota Apartments building, the New York home of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but encountered a major flaw in his assassination plan; the law in New York forbade the purchase of bullets by civilians. He was forced to travel to Atlanta to see a friend, who had become a deputy sheriff, who provided him with the ammunition he required. By 10th November he was back in New York, when Chapman claims that the chance viewing of the film ‘Ordinary People’, in which Timothy Hutton plays a suicidal teenager caught up in the midst of a dysfunctional family, provided a reality check to his obsession. He called his wife, told her that he loved her, that he had defeated his demons, and that he was coming home. http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/crime-files/mark-chapman--the-assassination-of-john-lennon

John Lennon left behind an indelible legacy of music that evoked a range of emotions. Songs like "Real Love" (with the Beatles), "Jealous Guy" and "Imagine," to name a few, were a testament to his musical genius.

John's last day:

It was 33 years this Sunday that Lennon was fatally shot in front of his New York City home by deranged fan Mark David Chapman. Only two months earlier, on October 9, 1980, Lennon had celebrated his 40th birthday with his wife, Yoko Ono, and five-year-old son, Sean (who coincidentally shares the same birthday). The occasion was uniquely momentous for Lennon, as Ono had surprised both her husband and son with a sky-written message above their Manhattan apartment building: "Happy Birthday John & Sean - Love Yoko." That November, Lennon and Ono had released the collaborative project Double Fantasy, and only weeks before his tragic death, Lennon had been overjoyed by the news that the record had gone gold. http://www.biography.com/news/john-lennons-tragic-death-33-years-later-a-timeline-of-event

The day afterwards when talking with my dad he, never a reasonable man, said "maybe it's time to do something about guns in this country".. He was a hard core gunner, Republican racist through and through.


Also, when someone wanted to kill a Beatle in England,where in the entire country guns are banned, someone tried to stab George Harrison. he lived through the attack, John did not.