What were The Beatles's John Lennon's final words
It has been 43 years since John Lennon, the founder, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of The Beatles was murdered. And now, for the first time, Lennon's last words have been revealed. New Apple TV+ documentary John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial features testimonies that will reveal the musician's last words. His murderer, Mark David Chapman's confessions have also been included.
Tracing back the haunting night of December 8, 1980
Eyewitnesses taxi driver Richard Peterson and Joe Hastings, the concierge of Lennon's building have broken their silence and given second-by-second details of the harrowing incident that took place on December 8, 1980, in the documentary. They have described how they saw Lennon fall outside his home, The Dakota's front door where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and six-year-old son, Sean.
'I'm shot' was the former Beatle's last words
In the documentary premiering on Wednesday, Hastings revealed, "(Lennon) runs past me. He goes, 'I'm shot.' He had blood coming out of his mouth. He just collapsed on the floor." "I half rolled him to his back and took his glasses off, put them on the desk. And Yoko was screaming, 'Get an ambulance, get an ambulance, get an ambulance'," he recalled.
'Do it! Do it! Do it!'
Why did Chapman take the extreme step? Recalling the day under hypnosis in preparation for a trial to prove his insanity, the obsessed fan remembered Ono exiting the black limousine first followed by Lennon. "Part of me didn't want to do it. Part of me did. I had a voice in my head, saying, 'Do it! Do it! Do it!'" he said.
The moment Chapman shot Lennon
Chapman was sitting on the curb when Lennon's limo arrived. But, as he was struggling with his inner voice, he had already walked six feet toward the legend. He recalled taking the gun out of his pocket, aiming at the ex-Beatle, and firing all five shots. "It felt like it was not me but it was me," he said.
Why Chapman did what he did?
Obsessed with JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Chapman thought assassinating Lennon would get him closer to the novel's titular character, Holden Caufield- an upper-class disturbed adolescent who is back in Manhattan after attending boarding school. Caufield especially hated "phonies." "I thought I would turn into somebody if I killed somebody. I thought I would turn into Holden Caufield," he said.
'He was the biggest, phoniest bastard that ever lived'
Chapman confessed that he shot Lennon because he was "a phony." "You ever hear (Lennon) say that all you need is love? Here is what I say to that," he said. "All you need is love and $250M. He was the biggest, phoniest bastard that ever lived. I wasn't about to let the world endure 10 more years of his menagerie of bullshit."
