The poignant final words John Lennon said to his wife, Yoko Ono
On the evening of December 8th, 1980, John Lennon of The Beatles was fatally shot in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City. Though Beatlemania had abated following the band’s dissolution in 1970, the Fab Four were still among the most admired pop stars worldwide thanks to successful solo careers and an immortal influence on subsequent artists.
Tragically, Lennon was shot by a deranged “super-fan” named Mark Chapman. The troubled 25-year-old was a huge Beatles follower and became obsessed with Lennon and jealous of his popularity and lavish lifestyle. In a 2022 parole hearing, Chapman admitted that he had “evil in my heart” and said that killing Lennon was “my big answer to everything. I wasn’t going to be a nobody anymore”.
Six hours prior to the shooting, the former Beatle had autographed Chapman’s copy of his latest album, Double Fantasy, on his way to a session at The Record Plant. The incident occurred as Lennon and Ono returned home later that evening. As the gunshot resounded in the archway, Ono ducked from the noise before turning round to see Lennon lying on the floor. “John’s been shot,” she screamed.
Chapman remained at the scene, allowing the NYPD officers to arrest him as he sat, appearing to read J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. It later transpired that Chapman was partly motivated by the novel’s central character, the “phony-killer” Holden Caulfield, and his contempt for hypocrisy.
Lennon was cremated the following day at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. It is still unclear exactly why Ono opted to avoid the traditional funeral, but instead of a ceremony, she requested ten minutes of silence around the world.
Just over 26 years later, Ono appeared on an episode of Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 and candidly discussed Lennon’s final moments with the presenter Kirsty Young. In between selecting her favourite songs, of which Lennon’s ‘Beautiful Boy’ was the Castaway’s Favourite, Ono detailed her final conversation with her husband.
While travelling in the car on the way back from The Record Plant, Lennon spoke to Ono for the last time. “I said, ‘shall we go and have dinner before we go home?'” Ono recalled. “And John said, ‘No, let’s go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep.'”
Listen to ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’, the Double Fantasy track John Lennon wrote for his and Yoko Ono’s son, Sean, below.
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