On this day in New York · December 8, 1980
John Lennon Is Shot Outside the Dakota
A man he'd signed an autograph for hours earlier was waiting in the archway when John Lennon came home for the last time.
The facts
- Date
- December 8, 1980
- Location
- The archway of the Dakota, 72nd Street and Central Park West
- Shooter
- Mark David Chapman, 25, of Honolulu
- Time of death
- 11:15 p.m., Roosevelt Hospital
On the night of December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono got out of their limousine on West 72nd Street instead of pulling into the Dakota's courtyard, planning to say goodnight to their son Sean before heading out again. Waiting near the entrance was Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old former security guard from Honolulu, who had gotten Lennon to sign a copy of his new album Double Fantasy outside the same building hours before. As Lennon walked past him toward the archway, Chapman drew a .38 revolver and fired five hollow-point bullets from about nine feet away, hitting Lennon four times in the back. Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital on West 59th Street and pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m. Chapman stayed at the scene reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye until police arrived and arrested him.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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He apologized to us for ruining our night.
NYPD officer Peter Cullen, describing Chapman's demeanor after the arrest
Source: Wikipedia -
There is no funeral for John. Later in the week we will set the time for a silent vigil to pray for his soul.
Yoko Ono, in a public statement issued the day after Lennon's death
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Lennon had moved to New York because he could walk around it like anyone else, and that same openness on his own doorstep was what let Chapman get close enough to kill him. The building's archway and the Strawberry Fields memorial across the street in Central Park remain a fixed stop on the city's map of grief and remembrance decades later.
Sources
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