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On this day 44 years ago, on December 8, 1980, music said goodbye to one of its most outstanding and iconic voices. John Lennon was murdered in New York City, next to the Dakota building. A 25-year-old man named David Chapman shot Lennon and killed him.
A crime that could have been a conspiracy, madness or revenge
John Lennon was returning from the recording studio with Yoko Ono and stopped to greet his fans before Chapman shot him. In the last moments of his life before he died, he managed to say: "I've been shot", at the same time that Chapman witnessed the scene calmly with a book in his hand called 'The Catcher in the Rye', saying to the authorities when they arrived at the scene: "I'm sorry to ruin your night".The book Chapman chose was not just any book, as he clearly identified with Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's work. Chapman did the same as the character: he rejected what he considered hypocrisy and falsehood in society, finding all this in Lennon.
Who was Chapman?
Chapman had a difficult childhood, marked by abuse and addiction problems, finding in religion a way of escape. He liked the Beatles, but he could not stand to hear Lennon say that "they were more popular than Jesus Christ", something that fueled Chapman's obsession.
David, before committing the murder, left clues and traces in his room at the Sheraton hotel: an open Bible and a Rundgren music cartridge, raising several doubts about his mental health. At first, he pleaded not guilty, saying he had mental problems, but later accepted guilt, saying that God had asked him to do it.
The crime committed by Chapman provoked and triggered rumours about various conspiracy theories, emphasising possible links to the CIA and the MK Ultra programme, in which Chapman was psychologically manipulated. Once behind bars, he had psychotic problems and said: "I now understand that I didn't kill a symbol, but a man," leaving his crime in the history of music, which is now 44 years old.