On the evening of 8 December , the English musician John Lennon , formerly of the Beatles , was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota , his residence in New York City.
The killer, Mark David Chapman , was an American Beatles fan who was envious and enraged by Lennon's lifestyle, alongside his comment that the Beatles were " more popular than Jesus ". Chapman said he was inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from J.
Salinger 's novel The Catcher in the Rye , a "phony-killer" who loathes hypocrisy. Chapman planned the killing over several months and waited for Lennon at the Dakota on the morning of 8 December. Early in the evening, Chapman met Lennon, who signed his copy of the album Double Fantasy and subsequently left for a recording session at the Record Plant. Later that night, Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono , returned to the Dakota to say goodnight to their son before an impromptu date night.
As Lennon and Ono approached the entrance of the building, Chapman fired five hollow-point bullets from a. Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital in a police car, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at p. Chapman remained at the scene reading The Catcher in the Rye until he was arrested by the police. It was later discovered that Chapman considered Lennon's friend David Bowie a target. A worldwide outpouring of grief ensued; crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota, and at least three Beatles fans died by suicide.
In lieu of a funeral, Ono requested ten minutes of silence around the world. Chapman pleaded guilty to murdering Lennon and was given a sentence of twenty-years-to- life imprisonment. He has been denied parole thirteen times since he became eligible in Mark David Chapman, a year-old former security guard from Honolulu , Hawaii , was a fan of the Beatles with no prior criminal convictions.
