{"id":522413,"date":"2026-04-10T00:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522413\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T00:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:30:19","slug":"john-lennons-final-24-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522413\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lennon\u2019s final 24 hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/p>\n

(Credits: Yoko Ono)<\/p>\n

Thu 9 April 2026 20:04, UK <\/p>\n

\u201cNow Daddy is part of God\u201d. That\u2019s how Sean Ono Lennon poignantly reflected upon the death of his father, John Lennon<\/a>. <\/p>\n

At only five years old, he added, \u201cI guess when you die you become much more bigger because you\u2019re part of everything.\u201d These profound words struck with tremendous resonance as the world grieved the senseless loss in the frenzied aftermath of the event.<\/p>\n

Lennon was a great many things to millions of people and his loss had a seismic impact. In the immediate hours following the attack, word began to spread. Stevie Wonder was performing at the Oakland Coliseum and was tasked with announcing the news. \u201cI want you all to understand that I\u2019m not a person who likes to be the [bearer of] bad news,\u201d Wonder announced. <\/p>\n

Clearly shaken, he informed a shocked audience, \u201cFor those of you who don\u2019t know this \u2026 it\u2019s been really hard for me to do this show tonight but [I] did it in memory of people like this man. \u2026 He was shot tonight. \u2026 I\u2019m talking about Mr. John Lennon. \u2026 I know that you would want me to continue to express the same feelings as he has in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of similar shattered remarks echoed from performers around the globe. Thereafter, people began to focus on how something like this could happen in the first place and America\u2019s views on gun control were called into consideration. <\/p>\n

As ever, questions regarding the perpetrator, Mark David Chapman, began to enter the conversation. The looming how and why begged to be answered. Yoko Ono offered the following explanation to her son: \u201cHe was probably a confused person\u201d. The consensus ever since hasn\u2019t been much different.<\/p>\n

When the dust settled on the tragedy, the final take home from the senseless loss of a legend was the legacy that he left behind. This is a legacy that Yoko Ono and Lennon\u2019s children<\/a> have continued to uphold to this day. Yoko Ono herself would recall the happiness that the pair shared with their children in the final weeks of his life. <\/p>\n

\u201cJohn and I were gloriously happy in the first week of December,\u201d she reflected. \u201cIn our minds, we were a team \u2013 old soldiers.\u201d He was making music once more, and even his final day reflects the sense of reinvigoration he was experiencing as an artist. As Paul McCartney would comment, it was a \u201ccruel blow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet, it was perhaps Elliott Smith who assuaged that blow with an apt response in 2001 when he proclaimed, \u201c[To] be honest, I rarely think of John Lennon as dead. There\u2019s too much life in his music to think of him as gone.\u201d With his influence continuing to grow, it seems that quote will remain as timeless as Lennon himself.<\/p>\n

Below, we are looking at the final 24 hours of Lennon\u2019s life in an exploration of the immediate timeline that led to the tragedy.<\/p>\n

A timeline John Lennon\u2019s final 24 hours:\"\"\/From the beginning\u2026<\/p>\n

It was one of the warmest December days on record in New York when Lennon quietly arose and gazed out of his Dakota building apartment over the city\u2019s skyline to the clear azure blue skies beyond. <\/p>\n

Ahead of him was a busy day with a photo session and radio interview promoting\u00a0Double Fantasy. The joint Yoko Ono and Lennon record had been his biggest success for almost a decade. When Yoko Ono emerged in the living room later that morning, she found her husband lost in contemplative thought, looking out over Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Breakfast<\/p>\n

Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their day with breakfast at the Caf\u00e9 La Fortuna. Lennon gets his usual favourite: eggs benedict and a cappuccino. <\/p>\n

Prior to his photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz, Lennon decides to get a quick haircut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Promo work<\/p>\n

Lennon arrives at the photoshoot with Leibovitz and pitches an idea \u2013 he will be photographed nude clinging to a clothed Yoko Ono. <\/p>\n

This concept later becomes the iconic\u00a0Rolling Stone\u00a0cover from January 22nd, 1981.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Radio time<\/p>\n

Following the brief shoot, Dave Sholin arrives to conduct a radio interview with Lennon. Their chat lasts for a whopping three hours as they muse on a range of subjects. <\/p>\n

Given what followed, the line: \u201cWe\u2019re either going to live or we\u2019re going to die. I consider that my work won\u2019t be finished until I\u2019m dead and buried \u2013 and I hope that\u2019s a long time\u201d remains the most profoundly tragic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The first meeting with Chapman<\/p>\n

After the conclusion of the interview, Lennon heads towards the subway and encounters his killer for the first time that day. <\/p>\n

Mark David Chapman hands him a copy of\u00a0Double Fantasy\u00a0and asks Lennon to sign it. Lennon wrote: \u201cJohn Lennon, 1980. Handing it back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Last year, this singed record went on sale<\/a>. It was believed to have sold for around $1.5 million by the private collector group Goldin Auctions.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\u2018Walking on Thin Ice\u2019<\/p>\n

Yoko Ono and John Lennon take a cab to The Record Factory where they begin work on a song called \u2018Walking on Thin Ice\u2019. <\/p>\n

During the session, they are informed by David Geffen that\u00a0Double Fantasy\u00a0has gone gold. Lennon was so confident that \u2018Walking on Thin Ice\u2019 would continue their success that he told Yoko Ono that she had just recorded her first number one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The shooting<\/p>\n

After leaving the studio at around 10:30pm, a limousine drops Lennon and Yoko Ono off at the Dakota building, Yoko Ono quickly shuffles towards the lobby while Lennon collects cassettes of the day\u2019s recordings and a few pieces of equipment. <\/p>\n

As he walks towards the entrance Mark David Chapman calls out \u201cMr Lennon\u201d then fires four shots into Lennon\u2019s back and a fifth misses.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The immediate aftermath<\/p>\n

Lennon is able to crawl up the steps towards the lobby and cries out \u201cI\u2019m shot.\u201d <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Mark David Chapman remains at the scene, removes his coat and begins reading the J.D. Salinger novel\u00a0The Catcher in the Rye. He is arrested as soon as the police arrive on the scene two minutes later.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The final words<\/p>\n

Lennon is asked by an attending officer, \u201cAre you John Lennon?\u201d he is able to reply, \u201cYes,\u201d but has lost so much blood that he loses consciousness afterwards. These were Lennon\u2019s last words.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Confirmation of death<\/p>\n

Seven doctors work on Lennon at Roosevelt Hospital. <\/p>\n

They perform an emergency thoracotomy, but his injuries are too severe, and he is pronounced dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tragedy may remain stark when laid out, but more often than not, when we look back, it is a cataclysm subsumed by a legacy that far outstrips the despair of its end. As Lennon said himself, \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of death because I don\u2019t believe in it. It\u2019s just getting out of one car, and into another.\u201d<\/p>\n

With music and a mantra that changed the world, the boon he offered is one that could never be taken away. As Yoko Ono would poetically put it when reflecting on the morning after his death was announced, \u201cI saw John smiling in the sky. I saw sorrow changing into clarity. I saw all of us becoming one mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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