Research Paper On John Lennon

John Lennon was a strong believer in fate. In one of his songs, titled All You Need is Love, John says, “There’s no where you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.” This brings up the question of whether or not he was meant to be on that sidewalk, at that moment, on December 8, 1980, with five bullets in his back. If someone had told him not to come home that night, or go in the back door, would he have listened? The truth is, there is no advice I would give John, because it wouldn’t have made a difference. It was his fate. He lived his life freely, and the way he wanted to live it. John Lennon was open to his fans, and this left him accessible to a mentally unstable man in search of fame.

Since 1964, when John and The Beatles appeared

on the Ed Sullivan show, John was extremely famous. Their song, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ reached #1 in the United States (“John Winston Lennon”). Unlike most celebrities, John was open to his fans. He did not disguise himself in wigs and sunglasses, or hide behind a wall of bodyguards. He was approachable, and open for signatures and pictures. One day, when walking out of The Dakota, where he was living at the time, he was approached by a young man asking for an autograph. “I had a black, BIC pen, and I said, ‘John would you sign my album’, and he said ‘sure’” (Hirzel). Little did Lennon know that this was Mark David Chapman, his soon-to-be killer.
Mark David Chapman was a mentally ill man who decided to use whatever means necessary to get a moment of glory. In an interview after the shooting he described himself saying, “Mark David Chapman was a failure in his own mind. He wanted to become somebody important” (Hirzel). To him, Lennon was the way to become famous. In this same Interview, he says, “Mark David chapman struck out at something he believed to be phony, something he was angry at, to become something he wasn’t.” (Hirzel) With one thought, to finally be well known, in his head, Mark formed a plan, and waited for Lennon to get home.
On December 8th, his last day alive, John and his wife, Yoko Ono, were returning from the Hit Factory, where they had been recording a single for their new album ‘Double Fantasy’ (Corbin 3). Mark David Chapman had spent the entire day waiting outside The Dakota. He had interacted with Lennon earlier in the day, but Chapman did not believe that was the right time to kill Lennon. Now, as they were coming together again that evening, they both felt that they were where they were supposed to be. The car pulled up to the Dakota, and Yoko got out first, with her husband following a little while after. Mark walked behind the two. The fateful moment had arrived. “He called out, ‘Mr. Lennon.’ As john turned to face him, Chapman dropped into a combat position and fired his .38 caliber revolver at John, emptying five bullets into his back” (Corbin 3).
Between Lennon’s open personality, and Chapman’s mental instability, there is no advice I could have given that would have stopped the two from coming together. Could I advise John Lennon not to interact with his fans? Is there anything I could have suggested to the mentally unstable Mark David Chapman that would be louder than the voices in his head? Is there any advice that would have turned the hand of fate and prevented the shooting? One could only imagine.