John Lennon

Shot on 8 December 1980 outside the Dakota building in New York by Mark David Chapman; the former Beatle was killed returning home hours after autographing his killer album.

Overview

Lennon, the most politically audible of the Beatles and a New Yorker of five years, was returning from a recording session at night when Chapman, an obsessive fan from Hawaii armed with a Charter Arms revolver and a copy of The Catcher in the Rye, fired four times into his back at the Dakota entrance; he was pronounced dead at Roosevelt hospital. Chapman had asked for and received Lennon autograph on a newly pressed Double Fantasy that afternoon, and waited by the archway all evening. He pleaded guilty and is serving twenty years to life, with parole repeatedly denied. Strawberry Fields in Central Park marks the mourning; the vigil of that December week filled the city. The killing of a musician in the middle of Manhattan froze a generation memory, and December 8 is kept by fans worldwide.