The death of John Lennon was one that rocked the music world, as his assassination was out of the blue – however, a resurfaced clip shows that the singer was warned over a decade earlier.
On December 8, 1980, Lennon, the front man of The Beatles, was gunned down my Mark David Chapman as he returned home from a studio session. At the time, the singer was just 40 years old, and he sadly bled out on the steps outside his home in New York.
Lennon had been on a five-year hiatus from his band after his contract with EMI ended in 1975. The Beatles' company, Apple Corps, was dissolved the following year, leaving Lennon free to attempt other ventures.
This was when he threw himself into being a father to Sean, whom he shared with Yoko Ono after he was born in the same year as the contract release.
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But during this time, John and Yoko planned a comeback record that would showcase both of their music in an album that was to become Double Fantasy. On the night in question, he left a radio show and recording session to meet fans and sign autographs.
It was there that he was pictured with his fan, Chapman. The 25-year-old was a born-again Christian and was reportedly angered by Lennon's claim in 1966 that the band were ‘more popular than Jesus’. He also apparently hated the singer's millionaire lifestyle after crooning about how ‘All You Need Is Love’ to his fans. So, he shot him in the back five times that evening.
Sadly, this very occurrence was warned to Lennon in the late sixties, after he was given a letter from a psychic who told him an assassination attempt would be made on the Liverpool native if he was in the US.
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The letter, which he read out on camera with the BBC whilst sitting beside his wife, said that there would be an ‘attempt to assassinate you' after they allegedly received information during a Ouija board consultation.
Claiming that a spirit called Brian Epstein gave them the information, Ono can be seen laughing with her husband at the note. Epstein was the band’s manager from 61 until his death six years later.
Little did Lennon know that in just over a decade, he would be killed by Chapman.
After the murder, Chapman was interviewed for hundreds of hours by court-appointed psychiatrists which concluded that he was a paranoid schizophrenic, but competent to stand trial. He plead guilty to the murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life.
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In 2022, Chapman was eligible for parole, making it his twelfth time.
According to reports, he claimed he lusted after fame, which is why he killed Lennon, leading to the board denying his application because of his disregard for life.
In March 2024, Chapman was once again denied parole, and in 2027, he will be eligible again while he’s in his 70s.
People online were perplexed that Lennon didn’t take the threat seriously, but mostly, they came to the conclusion that he probably had many threats against his life during his time in the limelight.
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Sadly, this one just happened to be real.
Britt Jones