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John Lennon was a brilliant,
genius songwriter.

[Chris Connelly] He was one
of those magical people,

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emblematic of an entire age.

[man] A working-class kid from Liverpool.

He was one of the originals
of this century,

no question about it.

The Beatles,
it was a musical revolution.

[Philip Norman] He was a rebel.
He was a radical.

He became an activist for peace.

[man] He said a lot of things
that a lot of people believed in.

It just spoke to a generation
in a different way

than anyone else
has been spoken to before.

[Michael Epstein] Some of us
had a healthy relationship

with his celebrity, but there are others
that felt like they owned him.

-[man] Who got shot?
-John Lennon.

[reporter] John Lennon was
shot and killed tonight in New York City.

[Howard Cosell]
An unspeakable tragedy.

I said, "Do you realize
what you have done here?"

And he said, "I killed myself."
He said, "I'm John Lennon."

[reporter] People came out here,
singing Beatles ballads.

They just want to try to feel close

to the man whom they say
touched their lives.

That's how much love
people had for John Lennon.

[Joel Siegel] His music made
our good times better.

His music made our bad times
at least livable.

If he hadn't dreamed so beautifully,

it wouldn't hurt so much.

[Elliot Mintz] Here we are,
40 years later,

talking about this man
and this man's music.

[birds tweeting]

[John Lennon] My role in society,
or any artist or poet's role,

is to try and express what we all feel.

Not as a preacher, not as a leader,

but as a reflection of us all.

[Jack Douglas]
John, he was always a person

that was ahead of the curve.

His lyrics were always about the truth.

I asked him at one point

what his secret was
for writing great songs.

He said, "You write the truth
and you make it rhyme."

[Lennon] It sort of dawned on me

that love was the answer
when I was younger.

My first expression of it
was a song called, "The Word."

"The word is love" seemed like
the underlying theme to the universe,

or to everything that was worthwhile.

[Epstein] Who was John Lennon?

At one time, John Lennon was probably
the most famous rock and roll musician,

maybe the most famous artist in the world.

[crowd cheering distantly]

Growing up, I remember seeing
the Beatles on Ed Sullivan

and being totally stunned.

[reporter] The Beatles, who originated
as a small-time act out of Liverpool,

now have no rivals
as the kingpins of the teenage set.

[Epstein] John Lennon formed and led

and was the Beatles
along with Paul McCartney,

George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

[reporter] And here they are,

fresh from their triumphant appearances
in the United States.

[Andy Newmark] You couldn't live your life
through the '60s with the radio on,

hanging out with your friends

and not know every Beatles song
from beginning to end.

[reporter] What do you like
about the Beatles, anyway?

Their music, and the way they dress,
and their hair and their looks.

-[reporter] They look like girls to me.
-They do not!

[Epstein] They were
the greatest band in history.

They transformed rock music.

They transformed pop culture.

[Norman] Beatlemania,
initially, in the 1960's,

this incontinent screaming of young woman.

[reporter] Forty young ladies fainted,

but authorities feel
that some were playing possum

so that they might be
lifted over the fence

and thus be nearer their idols.

[Bob Gruen] The smart one
would be John Lennon.

The cute one was Paul McCartney.

The deep one would be George Harrison.

And cute one number two
would be Ringo Starr.

[Earl Slick] John was my favorite Beatle.

He was the irreverent, you know,
rock 'n' roll guy.

[reporter] How long will you be
in Montana?

I have'nt got a clue.
I didn't even know we were here.

In the sense, you know,
looking back today,

using different words,

we would say he would be
the punk guy from the Beatles.

[crowd cheering]

[Norman] He was too intellectually good
for Beatlemania.

The screaming, this wailing of adoration

that greeted them wherever they went,
completely sickened him.

John was so offended

that they weren't listening
to the Beatles' music.

[Connelly] In 1964,
the band even starred in a film

that made fun of the hysteria
of Beatlemania,

A Hard Day's Night.

[Lennon] We were involved
in so many things,

and we were putting out
so much work,

and we were making movies,
making public appearances,

performing at shows and all--

Traveling the world and doing all that.

There was no time to reflect.

[Epstein] It was an empty,
hollow experience for John.

At the peak of his popularity,

he's writing and singing
a song like "Help."

-It's our latest record.
-[crowd cheering]

The Beatles promoted their album Help

on the TV show Blackpool Night Out.

[Epstein] "Help" is a cry for help.

[Norman] He was a mass of insecurity.

No matter how famous he became

or how much people showed
they loved and adored him,

he never felt loved, he never felt secure.

He thought he wasn't loved as a child,

because his mother had given him over

into the care of his mother's
older sister, John's Aunt Mimi.

His Aunt Mimi was the force in his life.

When John's mother died, John was 16.

[Epstein] Years later,

he'd found that pop stardom

didn't fill the void.

It didn't ease the pain
that defined his life.

He found meaning and purpose in Yoko.

Yoko Ono was an artist from New York
who was living in London at the time.

He met Yoko first in 1966.

He would fall in love.

He was married already to Cynthia.

[Kurt Loder] John was married early on,
even when the Beatles started out.

He and his wife had a son,
named Julian.

[Epstein] But he would fall in love
with a Japanese artist

and already be married, have a kid.

It's hard to describe
how radical that was in '68.

[reporter] John Lennon,
he and his girlfriend Yoko Ono.

[woman] John! She's horrible!

Cynthia's better than her!

[reporter] That girl next to me just said,
"Cynthia is better than her."

-Cynthia is John Lennon's wife.
-[woman] We hate Yoko!

[reporter] Yoko Ono is his girlfriend.

[Elvis Mitchell] Yoko Ono was a rebel
and a troublemaker.

He got license from her
to be the person he'd always wanted to be.

[Norman] The reason that Yoko had
such an effect on him when they met

was that Yoko said, "You can be yourself.

"You don't have the say yes all the time.

"You can just do what you want.
If you want to do real art..."

John thought art was what Yoko did.

Collage, performance art,
that kind of thing.

It never occurred to John
that a song like "Norwegian Wood" was art.

It was art.

You've gone a long ways from "I Wanna Hold
Your Hand" to "Eleanor Rigby."

What direction are you trying
to move your music?

You know, we're just trying
to move forward,

and people seem to be trying
to just sort of hold us back.

[Connelly] The Beatles.

They'd gotten together
when they were very young.

They had lived very intense
lives together.

And for creative reasons
and for business reasons,

these guys started pulling apart.

[reporter] The event is so momentous

that historians may one day
view it as a landmark

in the decline of the British empire.

The Beatles are breaking up.

[Connelly] Yoko Ono was initially vilified
by Beatles fans.

They saw her as stealing away John Lennon.

But Yoko Ono did not break up the Beatles.

The Beatles broke up the Beatles.

Some of the things
people have said about you

haven't been very kind lately.

-No, no. No.
-Does this get you down?

It was a bit depressing
the way they kept picking on Yoko,

you know, and saying she was ugly

and all the personal things like that.

But I know she isn't, so...

John and Yoko left England

because the press
was attacking Yoko so viciously.

And so, they left to come to New York.

And in New York,
they got a lot more respect.

The 1970s was a time of turmoil
in New York.

There was a lot of people out of work.

But even with the shortages of money

and the lack of opportunity,
the lack of jobs,

it was a very exciting time
and it was a very creative time.

[Lennon] In New York,
it's a bit like London, only more so.

I mean, you're always hearing
congas going on in the park all the time.

It's like a festival going on.

[Gruen] The hip-hop developed,

punk rock developed, disco developed

all at the same time

and different parts of the city
coming together,

bouncing off each other.

Yoko had a lot of friends here
who were artists, like Andy Warhol.

[Connelly] Elton John and John
had a long-standing relationship.

He was tight with David Bowie as well.

John loved New York,

and New York, America, was freedom.

[Gruen] People didn't run up the street
and bother John and Yoko.

They wouldn't bother them
the way, you know,

Beatlemania kind of fandom.

But he was over the Beatles.

In fact, one time
one of the fans said to him,

"Hey, John, when are you gonna
get the Beatles back together?"

And John just looked at him and said,

"When are you gonna
go back to high school?"

You know, he was very proud
of being in the Beatles,

but that was something that
he had done, and it was past,

and like high school, you don't go back.

You go forward.
You do something else.

[Epstein] He was happy to say hello.

He loved his fans
and loved New Yorkers.

Some of us had a healthy relationship
with him and his music and his celebrity.

But there are others that didn't.

There are others that felt
like they owned him.

[artillery fire]

[protesters] Peace now!
Peace now! Peace now!

[angry shouting]

[Lennon] Politics was in the air
in those days.

Come on, you know, you couldn't avoid it.

[angry shouting]

[Epstein] When John and Yoko
arrived in New York,

I think they were at their most political.

[crowd shouting]

[Lennon] Being artists,
when we get into something,

we get into it,
you know what I mean?

-We wanted to be right there.
-[Yoko Ono] Just so involved.

[Lennon] Down on the front lines,
you know?

But as, like we always said to everybody,
with flowers, but still right down there.

We want to go all the way with it.

I read somewhere
that the war movement was over.

Ha-ha!

[Gruen] He had a way of coming up
with simple lines,

like, "All we are saying
is give peace a chance."

[Gruen] Everybody thinks that,

but John gave people
the words to express that.

[Mintz] "Give Peace a Chance"

was an anthem for those who believed

in finding an alternative to war.

The time has come for action.

[Epstein] John was very vocal
about his opposition to Richard Nixon.

He made Nixon's enemies list.
Nixon was hell-bent on deporting him.

And it ruined his life for many years.

Almost destroyed his career.

He came out of it, miraculously,
but it was a huge burden.

All of these songs that he's writing,
they're not the most melodic songs.

They're protest songs.

And the public is, at best, indifferent.

The critics hate it.

And I think John's really wounded by it.

He finds himself in '72
having purged himself,

in many ways, of his popularity.

[Gruen] It was a very
depressing time for him,

and he had difficulty dealing with that.

[Epstein] John had really become reckless
inside their marriage.

Yoko sent John away.

He went to L.A. for some 18 months.

John would call it "the lost weekend."

[Gruen] While John was in Los Angeles,

it sounded like times were
getting pretty wild out there.

And we had had some pretty wild
times in New York,

and I knew that John could
get out of hand when he drank a lot.

It was Keith Moon, Harry, me, Ringo,
all living together in the house,

and we had some moments, folks.

But it got a little near the knuckle.

That's when I realized,
there's something wrong here.

You know, this is crazy, man.

[Norman] He spent several months, really,
for the first time in his life,

being what he thought of
as a sort of carefree bachelor,

but actually hating it, really,
and pleading with Yoko to have him back.

So then he went back to Yoko.

[Gruen] One day I drove up to Central Park
with John and Yoko.

It turned out that they were going to see

the apartment at the Dakota
for the first time.

I think John liked
the English gothic castle

kind of feeling of the place.

[Epstein] You go to the Dakota,

I don't want to say
you're going to an ivory tower,

but you are kind of removing yourself.

[Tony Palma] It was one of the most
well-known buildings.

It was occupied by all,
very famous people.

[Mintz] Lauren Bacall
and Leonard Bernstein,

and Roberta Flack and Judy Garland.

The kind of place that
people go to who want quiet.

[Andrew Alpern] The Dakota
is the dowager queen mother

of apartment houses.

It started out as the only large building
on Central Park West.

Gradually, the city grew up,
but the Dakota remained.

It remained the most distinctive building
in the entire city.

We all know that first impressions count,

and first impression
of the Dakota is its entrance.

A two-story-high archway.

And beneath it,
a very elaborately designed

wrought iron gateway.

You don't pass the Dakota
and think it's an ordinary building.

[Gruen] Going through Times Square,
I'd seen some guy selling

the New York City T-shirts
on the sidewalk.

And I bought a few, and I bought
one, and I gave it to John.

It was the summer of '74

when we were taking pictures
on the roof of his apartment.

And with the skyline
all around us, I said,

"You still have that New York T-shirt

I gave you last year?"
And he said, "Yeah."

And I said, "Well,
why don't you put it on then?"

We took a series of pictures.

We never really expected
that picture was going to be

the one that he would be
remembered by so well.

[Palma] He used to go into a coffee shop
around the corner on 71st Street.

And the owner,
he introduced him to me once.

He says, "Oh, you know,
this is John Lennon."

He pretty much walked around
the neighborhood and, you know,

lived an open life there.

And he wasn't concerned
with security or anything.

[Epstein] For the very first time

since the very,
very beginning of the Beatles,

he doesn't have a record contract.

He's free.

And so, he retreats back into the Dakota,

he retreats back into family life.

He becomes a father.

Sean was born on John's birthday,
on October 9th, 1975.

[Lennon] He was born on October the 9th,

which I was, so we're almost like twins.

If I'm feeling depressed,
without him even seeing me,

he sort of picks up on it.

And he starts getting that way.

So it's like I can no longer afford
to have artistic depressions,

which usually produced a miserable song,

but it was something
I could use, you know.

Now I have sort of more reason
to stay healthy and bright.

I can no longer wallow in it.

[Douglas] I ran into him.

He said, "I'm giving Sean
swimming lessons

at the Y across the street."

He said, "I've been the house husband,"
you know.

"And I've never enjoyed life more."

And the look of him
when I saw him, it was--

He looked so different.

He looked so calm and relaxed.

As he would say, he found himself centered
for the first time.

[Alan Weiss] When I was a producer
of Channel 7 Eyewitness News,

we had a reporter named Joel Siegel.

He went to cover the Big Apple Circus
to do a story on it,

and while he was there,
he noticed that in the audience

was John Lennon, just sitting
amongst all the ordinary people.

And Joel went up to him and said,
"Could I ask you a few questions?"

And very often celebrities say,
"Nah, not now.

I'm with my family.
Speak to my agent."

And John said, "Sure."

How does he like to the circus,
do you think?

How do you like the circus?

-I see.
-He's so excited,

he can't say a word, you know?

He's got a little bored applauding,
you know it?

What's your favorite part of the circus?

I like the clowns and the little dogs.

Would you give it all up
to run away and join the circus?

I've already given it up.

I haven't decided where to run, though.

[Siegel laughs]

[Gruen] After spending five years
raising his son Sean,

and basically being
withdrawn from the business

and withdrawn from the pressures
of being in public life,

John learned a lot about becoming an adult

by learning that a sober life
is actually a very rewarding life.

He sings about it, right?
"Watching the Wheels."

[Gruen] That's what he learned
in those five years, from 1975 to 1980,

what it was like to have a relationship,
what it was like to have a family.

[Gruen] John was very comfortable
being in New York.

He liked New York.

[Mintz] Bob Gruen was also not only
their favorite personal photographer,

he was a friend.

[Gruen] It was an early spring day,

and we got some really great pictures.

There's a nice picture of them
skipping up Central Park West.

We went into Central Park.

I remember John had this floppy hat on,
like a hippie style,

and I got pictures with him
and Yoko tucked underneath it.

They were passing some flowers,
little yellow flowers, around the tree.

And so, that was the kind of experience
they could have in New York.

[Lennon] I didn't really
think about music at all.

My guitar was sort of hung up
behind the bed, literally.

And I don't think
I took it down for five years.

[Laurie Kaye] In 1980,
the urge to make music hit again.

John basically said that,
like, suddenly he was possessed.

He started hearing songs in his head,
and he was inspired.

[Lennon] Oh, it came over me
all of a sudden, love!

I didn't know what came over me!

[Yoko Ono laughs]

I just suddenly, like, had...
if you'll pardon the expression,

diarrhea of creativity.

[Mintz] Yoko encouraged him
to travel to Bermuda

to evoke his creative chops,

and travel by boat to Bermuda.

[Lennon] I sailed from Newport
to Bermuda. Three thousand miles.

Seven days at sea for my first ocean trip.

And it was the most fantastic experience
I ever had.

[thunder rumbles]

[Epstein] A day out,
a terrible nor'easter hit.

The crew was felled.

One person after another, seasick.

[Lennon] The captain says to me,
"Do you want to take over the wheel?"

I said, "Do you think I can?"
He says, 'Well, you’ll have to.

"There’s no one else who can do it."

[Epstein] Which is an amazing image.

I mean, they tie John to the boat
so that he doesn't blow out to sea.

[Lennon] A couple of waves
had me on my knees.

I was just hanging on
with my hands on the wheel.

Six hours, driving the boat,
keeping it on course.

I was having the time of my life!

I was singing sea chanteys and shouting at the Gods!

I felt like the Viking, you know... It
won’t go away. You can’t change your mind.

It’s like being on stage:
once you’re on, there’s no getting off.

[wind gusting]

[seagulls squawking]

[Epstein] When he got down to Bermuda,
he started to write.

[Mintz] He recorded demo tapes.

[Lennon] Take one of the new one.

[Mintz] Yoko, in the meantime,

was in New York
writing some of her own songs.

They would speak by telephone.

[Yoko Ono] Should I do it
from the beginning? Okay.

[Mintz] They would share
their songs together.

[Lennon] It inspired me completely.

As soon as she would sing something to me
or play the cassette down the phone,

within 10 or 15 minutes,

I would suddenly
get this song coming to me.

[Mintz] Songs just began
to fall upon him from the sky.

[Lennon] I suddenly had all this material
after not really trying,

but not not trying either, for five years.

One, two, three, four.

[rings]

One day, I could hear the phone ringing.

And I answered the phone,
and the voice came on and said,

"If you're interested in doing something
really interesting and different,

"be at the 33rd Street Pier where
the seaplanes land tomorrow at noon."

Click. At the time, I was thinking,

I would really love to do
something very interesting and mysterious.

And I'll ride in a seaplane.
Sounds like fun, too.

The plane took off, flew over and down
into where they had a mansion.

So I go inside, and Yoko said to me,

"What I tell you now is top secret,
and you can't ever tell anyone.

"John wants to make another record,
and he wants you to produce it."

She hands me an envelope.

It said, "For Jack's ears only."

-And the phone rang.
-[rings]

It was John.
He said, "Listen to the cassettes

"that are in that envelope,

"and if you think it's crap
we won't even bother.

"But if you think it's good material,
let's go into the studio and do it."

I went back and I listened,
and I was amazed.

Jack puts together a crack band
that can really play.

[Douglas] I made phone calls

to great musicians
Tony Levin, Hugh McCracken,

George Small, Andy Newmark.

[Newmark] I received that phone call.

I happened to be
on a concert tour in Europe.

I was excited.

I was told not to share it with anyone.

And as soon as I hung the telephone up,

I went to sound check
and I told everybody in the band.

[laughs]

[Douglas] I told John that we're going
to bring in a wild card: Earl Slick.

Earl played with David Bowie.

I walked in the control room,

and John gives me the,
"Oh, it's good to see you again."

We had worked together once
with David Bowie on "Fame."

And I didn't remember.

So it was kind of a running joke
through the recordings.

In the middle of nowhere,
over the mic he'd be going,

"Do you remember me now?"

[Douglas] The sessions were all fun.

Earl didn't know any of the material.

First day he came in,
I put sheet music on Earl's stand,

and Hugh McCracken went over
and turned his sheet music upside down.

It might as well have been
space alphabet, I didn't know.

[Douglas] Earl couldn't read sheet music,

but he sat there
and made believe he could.

Pretty soon, everyone was in hysterics,

because he was obviously,
you know, bluffing.

[laughs]

So we were off to a good start with Earl.

We jammed a lot.

We played a lot of Beatles songs,
in between takes sometimes.

And if a Beatles song came on the radio,

everything stopped
and he would tell us the story

of how that song was made
and what happened that day.

His absolute love for the Beatles
was so obvious to us.

In fact, he said he loved them,
they were his brothers.

We worked for a month with top security.

The reason that John
didn't want to let anyone know

that this record was being made
was because he was very insecure

about whether he still had the stuff
after the five years that had gone by.

[Ken Womack] There had been
so much pressure building up,

by the late 1970's,

what would happen if he came out
and fell on his face?

What if nobody listened?

What if nobody were to be excited
by John Lennon's great return again?

[Epstein] He said, "This is a story.

"It's a story about a man
becoming 40 years old.

"He's halfway through his life."

[Lennon] I'm not trying
to compete with my old self

or compete with the young new wave kids
or anything like that that are coming on.

I'm not competing with anything.

I'm trying to go back and enjoy it
as I enjoyed it originally.

And it's working.

[Douglas] Things have changed.

We're not adolescents playing
rock 'n' roll music.

The songs are about where we are now.

[Lennon] You know, I mean,
I went right back to my roots.

It's not going back to being
Beatle John in the '60s.

It's being John Lennon.

[Gruen] In the fall of 1980,

while John and Yoko
were still mixing the album,

they released the single, "Starting Over."

It's that dialogue between men and women

that he and Yoko
were so intent on expressing.

And Scott Muni came on the radio
and he played "Starting Over."

They were so happy hearing it on the radio
they started dancing.

[Dave Sholin] It's fascinating that
you have an artist like John Lennon,

who had so much success

that would still get that
rush of excitement

of hearing their song come through

and being played on radio.

He didn't find happiness
in front of a crowd of 10,000 people.

He found it at home with Yoko and Sean.

And that's the person
who emerged in 1980.

[Lennon] And let's face the reality.

I've had the boyhood thing
of being the Elvis

and getting my own spot on the show.

I want to be with my best friend.
My best friend's my wife.

Who could ask for anything more?

[Epstein] It wasn't the same John Lennon
that had walked away from it in '75.

A totally different John Lennon
went back into the studio.

He said, "I don't care
if they get it right now.

"They'll get it one day.
They'll understand."

Few artists have ever been
as influential as John Lennon.

This new album, Double Fantasy,

so how does it reflect
John's attitude today?

[Gruen] But they were very happy
that the record was out

and that people liked it,
that people liked them.

They really seemed to be starting over.

[police whistles blowing]

John and I sat on the floor
for about two hours,

and that's when he was
telling me how happy he was

about the record was going up the charts
and was going to be popular.

WLS, John Lennon.

[Gruen] And then as the sun was coming up,

we left the studio, probably 7:30,
8:00 in the morning,

and there's some pictures of them
standing on the sidewalk on 44th Street,

which, oddly enough, was the same place

that I had taken pictures
the very first night

I had met them at the recording studio,
at the Record Plant,

and I took some pictures
there on the sidewalk.

He said, "Okay, well,
we'll see you later."

[Connelly] December 8th, 1980,
would be the day that changed everything.

It's just unfathomable to think
it's the last day of his life.

[Womack] Part of the next phase
of the print campaign

is a Rolling Stone cover story.

There's a lot of excitement in the air.

Big photo shoot with Annie Leibowitz,

arguably the leading female photographer
in rock 'n' roll certainly,

but perhaps in popular culture.

[Epstein] That portrait, I think,
is the essence of that relationship.

I mean, John, naked,
like almost like a newborn,

wrapped around Yoko for security.

The ballast that's holding them together.

And it's a daring,

dangerous portrait.

And it's beautiful.

It's just gorgeous.

[car horn honks]

[Womack] So the interview team
that arrived next,

after Annie Leibowitz left, was RKO Radio.

It's led by Dave Sholin.

So we had arrived at the Dakota
somewhere around noon.

The visual of John opening up the door,

literally jumping up,
leaping into the room

and extending his arms like,
"Hey, folks, I'm here."

[Lennon] I'm sorry I'm late.

[Yoko Ono] Yes, we're on. We're on, dear.

[Sholin] Hi. Hello.

-[Kaye] Hi.
-[Lennon] What is it?

Oh, it's a microphone.
Okay, let me get relaxed.

[Yoko Ono] Just like this, you know?

[Lennon] Hello, hello. Testing, testing.

Hello, Dave. How are you?

[Kaye] He was just happy.

Happy to be alive,

and happy to think of the years
that he had ahead of him

with Sean, and making music,
and with Yoko.

And it was bubbling up from him.

It was beautiful.

[Lennon] And we feel like this is just
the start, now, you see.

Double Fantasy, like, this is our--
The first album.

I know we worked together before.

We even made albums together before.

But we feel like this is the first album.

I feel like we've--
Nothing happened before today.

[Kaye] Right at the very beginning
of the interview,

we talked about what John did
on a daily basis.

Sean was foremost in his mind.

[Lennon] My life revolves around Sean.

And John was the one with Sean,

and making sure that he ate the right food

and didn't watch the wrong things on TV,

and that sort of thing.

So that was really pretty amazing to hear.

Not what you would have expected.

So you made this conscious decision

to give yourself to your son,
to the relationship.

[Lennon] And to learn from him, too.

And I learned a lot from the child,

because they're not hypocrites
and they're not phony.

Then one day we sort of lying
down on the bed together,

and he just sat up and said,

"You know what I want to be
when I grow up?"

I said, "No, what's that?"

He looked me right in the eye
and said, "Just a daddy."

[Kaye] Sean telling him
that when he grew up,

he wanted to be "just a daddy,"
you know,

which resonated with John.

[Lennon] He caught me off guard there,

because... "just a daddy."

I said, "You mean you don't like it

"that I'm working now, right,
and going out a lot?"

He says, "Right."

Because I hadn't been
in the studio for five years

or whatever, so he's used to me
being around all the time.

[Sholin] We had spent three and half hours
together at the Dakota,

talking about everything
from music to politics.

[Lennon] I still believe in love, peace.

I still believe in positive thinking
when I can do it.

I'm not always positive,
but when I am, I try and project it.

[Sholin] He had just turned 40.

As he said, this is like
he's opening up a new chapter.

That was the mood of the day,

and he could not have been more upbeat.

[Lennon] And we're going
into an unknown future,

but we're still all here.

We still--
While there's life, there's hope.

[Sholin] When I hear that quote
play in my head,

knowing what happened
in the events of that day...

it stops me in my tracks.

[Connelly] On December 8, 1980,

John Lennon is continuing to do press
for his album Double Fantasy

with this RKO radio interview
that was considerably extensive.

[Kaye] The end of the interview,
after the tape machine was turned off,

we still managed to talk
for a while about things.

And I had brought along
a copy of Grapefruit,

which was Yoko's book of poetry.

And they were, "Oh, let us autograph that.
Let us sign it for you."

And, of course, I was thrilled.

Thank you. It does mean a lot.

[Lennon] Oh, it's a pleasure.

You know, I'm a fan of people, too,
you know?

I like people to sign their books
when they give them to me

and all that.

[Sholin] We packed up our gear

and we went down to the front
of the Dakota.

[Kaye] And I remember stepping outside
and being a little chilly.

The sun was out,

but it was still kind of cold.

[Womack] Paul Goresh, who was
an amateur photographer, taking photos.

[car horn honks]

And all of a sudden,
guess who shows up?

[Womack] John and Yoko walk up.

They're waiting for their limo,

and it's not there.

And they're a little perturbed.

The limo wasn't waiting for them
to take them to the studio

as it should have been.

And so, John hung around
the curbside for a while.

[Womack] John walked out, he said,
"Where are all my fans?"

It was a little quiet.

Well, there were a few there.

[Kaye] There was one character,

one of those Beatle fans
standing on the sidewalk,

who was bugging them for an autograph.

[Norman] And this young man
came up to John

and thrust a copy of the
Double Fantasy album at him

without saying anything.

And John said,
"Oh, do you want me to sign this?"

John signs it, "John Lennon, 1980."

Says, "Is this what you want?"

Hands it back to him,
and as he's signing it,

Goresh takes this photo of them.

[car horn honks]

[Sholin] Their car hadn't arrived.
Ours was there.

[Womack] Dave and his crew offer to give
John and Yoko a lift to the Record Plant.

[Kaye] Then they got into the limo

and went off to the studio with our team.

And I stood there on the sidewalk

just sort of savoring the moment

and remembering the last three hours.

And as I did, that same character

kept bugging me
and kept confronting me.

"Did you talk to him?
Did you get his autograph?

"What'd he say?
Did you talk to him?"

He kept repeating it over and over.

And I backed off,
and he kept coming towards me.

There was something wrong
with this human being.

[Douglas] He said, "Yoko's got this song.

"She's got this poem called,
'Walking On Thin Ice,'

"and I think it's a hit.

"And I want to make something out of it."

[Womack] They're excited
about this new song.

John, in fact, has been listening to it
nonstop all weekend.

He is in love with this tune

and ready to get back to work
at the studio.

[Douglas] It was myself, John and Yoko.

We were just having a blast
making this track

out of a loop which became,
"Walking on Thin Ice."

And then Yoko did
this great poem that she'd--

Spoken word over it
with this little song...

[Douglas] He was sure that this song,
"Walking on Thin Ice,"

was going to open up
a new world for Yoko.

Yoko said,
"Do you want to go to the Stage Deli?"

But John wanted to go back
to the Dakota building

to say good night to his son Sean
before he went to sleep.

[Douglas] We finished that night,

and we said we were going to come in

and master the single
the next morning.

Both John and Yoko were thrilled.

They loved the way it came out.

It was perfect.

It couldn't be any better that night.

The future looked great.

And so, I walked them
to the elevator and went home.

And somebody was waiting
for him there.

[Norman] And when they returned,

John got out of the car.

[car door slams]

[Womack] Yoko walks first,
is ahead of him by a few paces.

And John follows.

And he glances at a fellow
in the shadows briefly.

And the young man came out of
the shadows and called his name.

And it's the fan from earlier,
the one who wordlessly had the autograph

signed for him on the cover
of Double Fantasy.

There's a woman in the Dakota
whose apartment's above the courtyard,

and she heard the sound
of the gunshots wafting through...

[gunshots]

...the seven, eight, ten stories
of the Dakota courtyard,

which amplified the sound.

[Herb Frauenberger] We were just getting
ready to leave the precinct to go out,

and a radio run came over.

[Palma] Shots fired at 1 West 72nd Street.

[siren blares]

So we immediately started
to proceed towards there.

[Frauenberger] I observed a male
laying straight out

with his arms outstretched,

as if he was running and tripped or fell.

[Palma] There was a woman.

She kind of had him straddled,
and she was in shock,

and it was Yoko Ono.

[Peter Cullen]
My partner and I were parked

at 72nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue,

and a call came over
of possible shots fired

in the vicinity of the Dakota.

We were the first two cops on the scene.

[woman] They stepped out of the limousine
and they went inside the gate there.

Then, all of a sudden,
I heard five, six shots and that was it.

[Cullen] Going across the street,
there was a fellow running towards me.

And he said, "Officer, be careful.
There's a guy shooting a gun in there."

My whole life went in front of me
in about four seconds.

You know, we have to get in there
and stop this thing.

It was at about a few seconds later

that Herb Frauenberger
and Tony Palma arrived.

Then we saw bullet holes in the glass.

So now we realize it's--
This is real.

[Cullen] Well, the doorman,
José told me.

He said, "Him, the guy in the overcoat."

He could've been a banker.

He'd probably be the last one

you'd think is going to pull out
a gun and shoot you.

[Frauenberger] He had a copy
of The Catcher in the Rye.

Steve threw him against the wall.

He was actually reading the book.
He had dropped his gun.

He said, "I'm sorry I ruined your night."

I says, "You ruined my night?"

I says, "Do you know you
just ruined your whole life?"

So then he started talking
about a big man inside of me

and a little man inside of me.

"Tonight," he said,
"the little man won the battle."

[Palma] John Lennon was shot
with a five-shot .38 caliber,

snub-nosed revolver,

kind of like an off-duty gun
we used to carry.

[reporter] Patrolman Palma, what happened
when you responded to the call?

He informed me that somebody
had been shot at the scene,

and I asked them where he was,

and they directed me into the office.

I ran into the office,

and there was a man laying on the floor
with his wife standing over him.

Did you know who it was?

Not at that time, no.

He was laying facedown.

And me and Herbie turned him over,

and he was bleeding from the mouth.

A lot of blood from the chest.

[Frauenberger] At that point,
he was still alive.

And when I saw his face, I said,
"I know this guy from someplace."

But I couldn't put it together.

And it was like, all of a sudden,

a voice from behind me says,
"That's John Lennon."

And then, of course, I realized it.

I said, "Holy smokes,
this is John Lennon."

So Tony said,
"No, that's not John Lennon."

I said-- I looked at Tony, I said,
"Tony, this is John Lennon. Believe me."

They put John in the back of a police car.

You just can't stand by
and wait for an ambulance.

We picked him up, legs and arms,

and we carried him
probably 50 yards, maybe.

[reporter] Where was he shot?

Right going into the vestibule
of the Dakota where the cars drive in.

[Frauenberger] We put John
in the back of the car facedown

so that the blood coming out
of his lungs wouldn't choke him.

He didn't look very good.
He got shot at least four times.

[Frauenberger]
I closed the door.

I said, "Jimmy,
Roosevelt as quick as possible.

"As you can see,
he's not in really good shape."

And then Yoko tried to get in,

but, you know, he was laid
across the back seat.

So I just grabbed her and I says,
"Come on, I'll take you in our car."

She was in shock.

She kept saying,
"Is he going to all right?

"Is he going to be all right?"

And I was driving, and Herbie was--

He was trying to calm her down.

I'm thinking,
"This is not going to be good."

In 1980, I was the night
assistant head nurse

in the emergency room
at Roosevelt Hospital.

I worked the 4:00 to 12:00 shift
back in the '70s to '80s.

I answered the call,

and I was only told
we were getting a shooting,

brought in by police car, 20th Precinct.

[Frauenberger] If we would've got
on the radio and said who it was,

that word would have spread like wildfire.

[Kammerer] It was a straight shooting.

Young, healthy, white male.

It was kind of routine, I guess.

I paged the chief surgical resident.

It was Dr. Halleran.

So I go running down to the ER.
And I said, "What's going on?"

They said, "We have a gunshot
wound to the chest coming in."

[Weiss] So it was the night
of December 8th, 1980.

I was on a motorcycle.

I was in Central Park.

And I literally got slammed by a taxi.

I ended up in an ambulance that
took me to Roosevelt Hospital.

So he was in the hallway,
which was not unusual,

because we always had people
in the hallway,

because it was a small ER.

[Weiss] And I was lying in the hallway

when, suddenly,
the doors slammed open behind me

and someone came running in screaming,

"We have a gunshot. Gunshot in the chest.

"It's hitting the door right now."

And they bring this person

literally into the room
that I am lying outside of.

[Sato] We took him to a room
that we called our Minor OR.

It was set up with all
the equipment that we needed

to take care of any shooting.

So we had someone
with four entrance wounds

in his left chest,

and three exit wounds at his back.

And we just jumped on him.
The nurses and the nurse anesthetist.

Someone put a tube in his throat
to breathe for him.

Other people were with scissors
cutting off his clothes.

He was wearing his bomber jacket
with a little fur collar.

And he immediately opened the chest,

grabbed the scalpel, made the cut,
and he had his hands in his chest.

It was just all blood.

His thoracic cavity
was just full of blood.

His heart was flat,

meaning that there was no blood
running through it.

And I am looking into the room.
All his clothes had been taken off.

He's lying with his feet towards me.

His chest is open.

Medical staff is around him
in a semicircle.

They were literally trying
to pump his heart manually

to keep the blood flowing.

And I begin to hear crying.

And there is an Asian woman
in a mink coat coming in,

sobbing on the arms of a big
leather-jacketed police officer.

They didn't bring in a corpse.

They brought in a mortally wounded person.

He's either not going to make it,
or he's...

maybe he's got a small chance
of making it.

[police siren wailing]

[Kaye] What happened the night
of December 8, 1980, was...

unimaginable.

The emotion was so high in me, I just...

like now,
it's like reliving it all over again.

[Kammerer] Everything with that night,

I remember it crystal clear.

[Halleran] It was like a rugby scrum.

This is going on simultaneously.

And we get into a rhythm,
pumping his heart.

[Kammerer] It was,
this is what we have to do.

You work on everybody thinking
they are going to survive,

until the time comes
where you know they can't.

[Halleran] And around this time,
someone said,

"Hey, that looks like John Lennon."

[heart monitor beeping]

I think my heart stopped.

Now it's not just opening up
anyone's chest.

You pause for a second, but you're still--

You're mid-resuscitation,
so you don't-- You don't stop.

Since he was so famous,
I had to get security,

had to block the entrances.

I had to notify hospital administration.

My wife came into the studio in tears

and said, "You, you have to come up
to Roosevelt Hospital. John's been shot."

[reporter] Shortly after Lennon arrives,
some friends arrived,

including record producer Jack Douglas,

who had been recording with Lennon
earlier that evening.

[Douglas] It just sounded impossible.

-Please tell someone I'm here.
-He is the closest to them.

He just left me five minutes ago
before he went home.

[man] Hold on, Miss.

This is his best friend.
This is her best friend.

She needs somebody right now.

And I was in shock.

End of story.

[Weiss] I'm lying there,
my eyes are closed, my head hurts.

And these two officers come out.

And one says to the other,
"Can you believe it? John Lennon."

I open my eyes and I look up.

I said, "Excuse me, officer,
what did you say?"

And he kept pulling himself up the wall

to look in the room.

[Sato] And that's when
one of the security guards told me,

"Do you know who this is?"

And I went, "Well, Mr. Weiss."

And they went, "He's a reporter."

[Weiss] In 1980,
I was the program producer

for Channel 7 Eyewitness News's
6:00 program.

I have to have that piece, all right?

As a news producer,
you're responsible for,

you know,
deciding what stories go on the air

and making sure that your
stories are accurate.

I went, "Oh, [bleep],
get him out of this hallway fast."

How did he end up in the ER that night,

when any other night
would have just been a boring,

you know, several-hour wait in an ER?

[Weiss] I really wasn't sure
that I heard "John Lennon."

And who would believe it anyway?

Who would think that lying in the hospital

that a person brought in with, quote,
"gunshots to the chest,"

could possibly be a member

of the most famous musical group
in history?

[reporter] He was stalked,
followed inside the archway,

and shot in a small vestibule
by a lone gunman.

Gave him his rights,
we recovered the weapon,

got the names of the witnesses,

and made sure
we had all our ducks in a row.

[reporter] Was he disheveled?
What did he look like?

I said before, I believe he was calm.

Inside the precinct,
there were a zillion detectives.

He was there on Saturday
asking about Mr. Lennon.

He was there on Sunday
asking about Mr. Lennon.

And he was there again this afternoon.

[Cullen] He was a fan, obviously.

And I couldn't figure out
what would possess him to shoot.

What drives people
to put five slugs in a guy?

I don't know.
I can't answer that.

[Kaye] Why didn't I know enough
to say to the security guard,

"You shouldn't let him stay here"?

To this day, I can't get over that.

[Loder] You know,
there's always somebody

that wants to take into themselves

that fame and that creativity
that you have,

and there's no other way they can do it.

And the closest they can come
is by consuming you.

[indistinct chattering]

[Weiss] So I know it sounds
a little bloodthirsty.

No, I don't think any
professional as a journalist

would not feel that they had not
done the job to the best of their ability

if they didn't do everything
they possibly could to get the word out.

[Sato] His reporter instincts
went on high.

He was a reporter,
and that's what reporters do.

But he was the plague
of my existence that night.

[Weiss] So I got up,

and I was able to hop on one foot.

I get all the way down the hallway,
and this voice says, "Where you going?"

And I said, "Could you please
just let me make a phone call?"

Hands me the phone,
and I call Channel 7 Eyewitness News.

And I said, "I know I banged my head,
but listen to me.

"I believe John Lennon
may have been shot."

And the assignment editor says to me,

"I heard a call for an ambulance
to 72nd and Central Park West.

"That's where the Dakota is."
I said, "That's it.

"That's the third piece of the puzzle."

I've heard the name John Lennon.

I've seen an Asian woman
who now I'm pretty sure is Yoko Ono.

And you're telling me there was
a call for an ambulance

at 72nd Street and Central Park West?

Get over here as soon as possible.

[Halleran] We worked on him
for about 45 minutes.

Pulse, blood pressure.
He didn't wake up.

And there was just a pall in the room.

Everyone finally was like,

"Oh, okay, this is John Lennon.
This is it."

But at some point,
we're all in agreement this is done.

[heart monitor beeping]

I consider that my work won't be finished
until I am dead and buried

and I hope that's a long, long time.

[Kaye] When John talked about death

or wishing that he had many,
many, many years left to go,

being hopeful about that,

that's the most poignant part
of the interview right there,

given the outcome of that day.

While there's life, there's hope.

[Weiss] I hear a shrill woman's
voice scream,

and there is Yoko Ono

sobbing on the arms of
record producer David Geffen.

I get to the phone

and I said,

"I've got confirmation.
John Lennon is dead."

[Palma] I mean, the shot went out.

It was heard around the world
within an hour.

[Cosell] An unspeakable tragedy
confirmed to us by ABC News.

My mouth hung open.

My jaw dropped.

[Weiss] It's amazing what adrenaline is.

I feel no pain except
for the pounding in my head of,

I cannot believe that this
is actually happening.

So, I called local Channel 7
Eyewitness News.

The assignment editor
called ABC network

and reported that the producer
of the 6:00 news

is in Roosevelt Hospital,

and has gotten confirmation
that John Lennon is dead.

Monday Night Football was on.
I believe it was in overtime.

[Womack] Here's Howard Cosell realizing

that a story has just emerged
that's bigger than this football game.

And what are the news ethics
about doing it?

[Cosell] I can't see this game situation
allowing for that news flash, can you?

[Gifford] Absolutely. I can see it.

-[Cosell] You can?
-You betcha.

If we know it, we’ve got to do it.

[Weis] Howard Cosell did not
want to report that,

but the head
of ABC Network News had said

this is information
that must be put on the air.

[Cosell] John Lennon,
outside of his apartment building

on the west side of New York City,

the most famous perhaps
all of the Beatles,

shot twice in the back,
rushed to Roosevelt Hospital.

Dead on arrival.

A kind of gasp was heard across
the nation when that happened.

[Cosell] Hard to go back to the game
after that news flash.

Think about all the other
musicians or celebrities

that you know who died.

Overdoses, suicide, accidents.

To be shot and murdered
by a fan outside your house,

coming home to put your son to bed.

I mean, it's a pretty...

unsettling story.

[Gruen] I was in my darkroom
developing pictures,

and a friend of mine called me,
actually, from California.

And he said, "I just heard on the radio
that John Lennon is dead."

And I remember hearing that

was the most permanent thing
I ever heard in my life.

[Kaye] I immediately went
to Roosevelt Hospital,

and when I got there,

I saw through the glass doors Yoko.

And I realized
she was holding somebody

and squeezing them so tight and in tears.

It was something I could feel,
his passing.

[David Geffen]
You know, all of a sudden,

everything can change
with the act of a maniac, you know.

John Lennon was alive, happy,
excited about his record,

and a minute later he was dead.

I was with Yoko at the hospital,
and I took her home that night.

[Frauenberger]
There is a photograph of myself

and Yoko and David Geffen
exiting the hospital.

And she was on her way back
to the Dakota.

The front of the place
was crawling with news people,

and a horror show.

There'd be crowds just waiting
to touch me, because I--

Because he died in my arms.

[Sato] I needed a police escort
to get out.

And I walked out and, unfortunately,

my pants were covered in blood,

the bottom of my white pants.

And I had some idiot in the street yell

that he would offer me
$500 for my pants.

[reporter] There were extensive
resuscitation efforts that were made,

but none of them did any good.

There were transfusions
that were attempted.

None of them were able
to save his life.

There's no way to change that.

There's no way to fix that.

There's no way to make it better.

And I remember just kind
of sinking down to the floor.

And then the phone started
ringing some more.

And then I realized that
the whole world was watching.

Late this evening,
one of the world's great entertainers

and musicians,
John Lennon of the Beatles,

was shot outside his New York home.

I thought, "How could something
like that happen in my city?"

You know, I was...

I was heartbroken.

Nobody knew what to make of it.

Like, people having no idea
what to think.

And then immediately
wanting to turn to...

of all things,
turn to John Lennon for solace.

[Connelly] Fans of every description

converged upon
72nd and Central Park West.

[Mitchell] And I remember
being touched by all that.

My primary role at that time

was to be present for Yoko.

She was inconsolable.

We both heard the sounds

of the children singing from the street.

[Ted Koppel]
The vigil outside the building

where John Lennon
and Yoko Ono made their home

lasted into the night.

And she was inside, broken.

And having to listen to these people

outside her apartment
singing John's music.

Couldn't escape it.

[Mintz] I got a call
from Roosevelt Hospital.

They were about to return
John's belongings.

His bloodied glasses...

and his wallet.

This was what was left of John...

in this brown paper bag.

Oh, gosh.

Why would anyone want to do this
to John Lennon?

[Palma] I said to him,

"Do you realize
what you have done here?"

And he looked at me and he said,

"I killed myself."

He said, "I'm John Lennon."

I thought he was crazy.

[reporter 1] There is a new sadness
around the world this morning.

[reporter 2] John Lennon,
the former Beatle, is dead this morning.

[reporter 1] Lennon, the former Beatle,
was murdered in front...

[reporter 2] At least
five shots were fired...

[reporter 3] The former Beatle
made it up a set of stairs,

said, "I'm shot," then was carried...

[reporter 4] John Lennon dead here
at Roosevelt Hospital in New York.

[Gruen] I once heard somebody say
that the most obscene four-letter word

in the English language is "dead."

And that's the way I felt.

[camera shutters click]

[Halleran] This is more
than a president or a pope.

This is John Lennon.
This is really a cultural icon.

[reporter] People conducted
an all-night vigil outside the Dakota,

those who loved John Lennon and...

[Norman] It's become a moment,

like the moment of the assassination
of John F. Kennedy,

which everyone can remember
where they were and what they were doing.

And it cut across all boundaries
and all cultures.

[Loder] It's not often that someone
means so much to so many people.

People had grown up with him
and with the Beatles.

The effect was worldwide.

["World News Tonight" theme playing]

[Koppel] A global generation
that danced and sang

to the music of John Lennon
mourned his death today.

He was a genius, he was a humorist,
he had a lot to give.

I've always liked John
because he was a rebel.

He was one of the originals
of this century.

No question about it.

[reporter] The loss of Lennon, some say,

is like the loss
of a member of the family.

[Gruen] I don't think John had any idea

how important he was
to so many people.

[reporter] All over the world today,
newspapers and radio and television

gave special sustained coverage
to Lennon's death.

[Newmark] And they were playing
all the songs off Double Fantasy

around the clock.

That's all you heard was his music.

[reporter 1] From Madrid to Moscow,
the murder was condemned.

[reporter 2] Polish television tonight
reported the details of his murder,

and so did others in European countries.

John Lennon, after a five-year absence,

had finally released a record album.

[reporter 3] Today, here in Liverpool
and all over Europe,

Lennon's new record is selling out.

[Womack] In the wake of John's murder,

the album just shoots
to the top of the chart.

They have three hit singles.

In death, he really had fully
achieved the comeback

that was in his heart.

[Loder] It wasn't just in the music world.

He was there in everything,

and he was always a part
of people's lives.

And now he never would be again.

[man, on radio] It's just unbelievable
how this could happen.

[Mintz] Julian, who was a teenager,
flew in from England.

He arrived alone.

And one of the things
that Yoko asked of me

was to get Julian outside of the building,

away from what was happening,

to kind of protect him
from public scrutiny

and media attention.

The truth is,
none of us knew how to handle

the enormity of what happened.

[reporter] New York City Police have now
arrested and charged a suspect

in last night's murder of John Lennon.

Prosecutors described the killing
as a calm and rational act

of premeditated execution.

A man described as deranged or a kook.

[Loder] The kid that shot John Lennon

was somebody whose life
was not paying off

in any way for him, I suppose.

And John Lennon is a guy
whose life paid off in every way.

[reporter] The suspect in custody
is identified

as 25-year-old
Mark David Chapman from Hawaii.

[Kaye] I had heard some news reports

where they said
that they had caught him.

[reporter] The defendant was arraigned
on a charge of second-degree murder.

And without even seeing a picture,
I knew that it was that guy.

[reporter] With Lennon at the time
of the shooting was his wife, Yoko Ono.

When doctors told her
Lennon was dead, she cried,

"Tell me it isn't true."

[Norman] Yoko witnessed
this appalling moment,

an indescribable anguish,

and has since not used the killer's name,

which I think most people
would agree with.

They had one of the great love stories,
I suppose.

-[camera shutters click]
-He thought she was,

you know, the sun and the moon
and the stars.

It's very touching, really.

[Womack] John liked to talk to Yoko

about what things would be like
when they're older.

They imagine that they'd
return to England

and they would live
in a little seaside place.

And Sean would, you know,
send them postcards

about his great adventures and travels.

And there they would be
as these kind of doting parents,

possibly even grandparents,
two old codgers living by the seaside.

[Max Robinson] Lennon's wife Yoko Ono said
in a statement this afternoon

there will be no funeral service
for her husband.

Instead, she will set
a time later this week

for all his friends and fans
to pray for his soul.

[Gruen] When Yoko had to tell Sean that
his father wasn't coming home,

he was dead,

Sean said,
"Well, now he's everywhere."

And I think that that might
have been one of the things

that inspired Yoko
to call for ten minutes of silence

anywhere in the world,
everywhere in the world,

because John was now everywhere
and is everywhere.

That Sunday in Central Park
was truly incredible.

We went on the air for an hour,
ten minutes of which

was the ten minutes of silence.

And we had multiple cameras
in the park.

And the moment came when
the only thing you could hear

were the helicopters from the news crews.

[helicopters flying distantly]

[Weiss] Just seeing the tears,

just seeing the sadness
or seeing the grief,

it was really a testament

to just how much this man,
John Lennon,

touched the lives of so many people.

Yoko wanted the world
to take a minute and breathe,

and listen to their own heartbeat.

[Weiss] It was truly incredible.

One thing she never
wanted to be was a widow.

And that was difficult, you know.

[Mintz] The weeks following John's death,

days turned to nights
and the nights turned to days.

It was a blur.

[Gruen] Yoko actually went back
in the studio

and finished the record that they were
working on the night he was killed.

When the album was being finished,
I went to the Dakota

and I listened to the last playback
of the album.

And as we were listening to it,
the sun was coming up over Central Park.

Sean woke up and climbed
into bed with his mother.

It was such a Madonna and child
kind of moment.

I was able to just take my camera
and just take a couple of pictures.

[camera shutters click]

It happened to be Mother's Day 1981.

[Mintz] Sean was deprived
of everything with his father

that would come beyond him
turning five years old.

[Yoko Ono] If Sean wasn't around,

I could have just sort of
chucking everything

and staying in a hotel

and just go to a corner bar
every night or whatever.

I could have been reckless.

Each time I felt like being reckless,

I thought that I have
to just keep the same life

that John and I were leading

in the same apartment
and the same routine,

for Sean's sake.

The trial was scheduled
to start in June of 1981,

six and a half months after the murder.

He was going to plead not guilty
and use the insanity defense.

But he had this thing planned for months.

[Kim Hogrefe] On the day
that he murdered John Lennon,

the defendant went up to Sean,

said hello to him and shook his hand.

[Connelly] What kind of person
reaches out to the child

of the man whom he will later murder?

And thereafter, he remains
at the scene to be apprehended.

[Hogrefe] The fact that he chose
to wait at the scene

was an indication that he was aware

that he had done something
that was wrong.

So basically, his defense fell apart.

He told me that God told him
to plead guilty.

["World News Tonight" theme playing]

[announcer] From ABC,
this is World News Tonight.

...convicted of the murder of John Lennon,

was sentenced to serve 20 years
to life in prison.

[Hogrefe] This was an individual
who was narcissistic,

who thought he was worthy
of great attention.

So he sought that attention
in a very violent way.

[Connelly] Quite understandably,

the coverage of the man
who shot John Lennon was everywhere.

[Weiss] He killed John Lennon
for the sole purpose

of making himself famous.

We should never have given this man

the glory of his name
being all across the country,

all around the world.

In many ways, I think that
we journalists did a disservice.

[reporter 1] The man who murdered
John Lennon 20 years ago

gets his first parole hearing today.

[reporter 2] The New York Parole Board

turned down the man
who killed John Lennon yesterday.

It's a state law that he has to
come up for parole every two years.

It's been turned down every time.

John Lennon's killer was told
he will remain behind bars,

denied parole now for the seventh time...

[reporter 2] ...denied him parole
for the eighth time.

[Hogrefe] The defendant has been
denied parole 11 times now.

[Yoko Ono] I still can't
get over John's death.

I'm still sort of recuperating from that.

Inside, there's something
that is still sort of...

just tight.

[Gruen] Yoko called me.

She wanted me to help her
take a picture of the glasses

that John was wearing
the night he was shot.

She took out John's glasses.

The glasses are broken and bloodied.

And we were both crying.

And it was really horrible to see them.

But when you look at those glasses

and you get just a little bit
of the actual feeling,

it's so horrible,

because it's not just a picture
of some bloodied glasses.

It's a horrible moment
brought out in public

and stated publicly.

She was going to let the world know

that she had been widowed
by gun violence.

And why shouldn't she share that?
Why can't she share that?

That's what she saw.

[Mintz] The next album that Yoko put out

was an album called Season of Glass.

That's where John's eyeglasses
appeared on the cover

to make the point.

It's letting that image itself
do the talking,

and it's just as powerful now
as it was 40 years ago.

[police whistle blows]

[Gruen] After John passed away,
there was talk in the early '80s

of putting a statue of John
in Central Park.

John used to make fun of the statues,

because there's a famous person
with a pigeon dumping on their head.

We wouldn't want some pigeon
standing on John's head.

And so Yoko created a park
for world peace.

Beatle John Lennon would have
been 45 years old today,

and today his widow, Yoko Ono,
and New York City officials

dedicated a 2 1/2-acre site
in New York Central Park.

It was a spot that I guess him and Yoko
used to visit all the time.

[Rita Sands] Just a few hundred yards
from where Lennon lived and died,

New Yorkers honored his memory

by naming this patch of Parkland
"Strawberry Fields,"

after a famous Beatles song.

[Gruen] Yoko worked with somebody
at the United Nations

to get in touch with the leaders
of every country in the world

and ask them all to donate something

so that the whole world could
grow together in Strawberry Fields.

[Mitchell] It's a living monument.

Something to be fed and to be nourished
and to be cared for.

[reporter] 123 nations

donated trees and plants
in Lennon's memory.

[Weiss] You know,
it's got a big plaque there

and a beautiful mosaic

which was actually a gift
from the city of Naples.

It's that single word. "Imagine."

[Mitchell] It's a place that reminds us

of who he was
and what he did with his life

and the statement that
he wanted to make with his art.

[man] Lennon, imagine, peace and love.

If you're in a plane over
Central Park, you look down,

because of the shape of the roads
around that spot in Central Park,

it looks like a teardrop.

[Yoko Ono] This garden is a result
of all of us dreaming together.

It is our way of taking a sad song
and making it better.

[Palma] Three years ago, I visited.

And there were so many people there,
you know.

People go to remember, you know.

That's all John Lennon wanted,
was peace.

And we're serious
about the peace bit, you know.

If we're going to be hounded,
we may as well say

what we have to say
about peace and things.

[Gruen] Every once in a while,
the world gets an artist like that.

And, fortunately,
we had John Lennon to share,

and we have his art
and his words and his ideas.

[Womack] He was heading
toward new entries

in the Great American Songbook.

[camera shutters click]

When we're robbed
of every moment of that,

for however long he would have lived,

you can't calculate it.

[camera shutters click]

[Sholin] If anyone ever wanted
to do something

in the memory of John Lennon,

I would say follow the words of "Imagine."

Imagine all the people
living life in peace.

[Gruen] Everybody thinks that,

but John gave people the words
to express that.

[Norman] It has became
an anthem for the world,

which transcends barriers
of religion and race

and seems to have a timeless message.

It's hard to hear those songs
and not be sad or wistful or angry,

to not want more of John.

[man] We proudly welcome
to the Walk of Fame,

Mr. John Lennon.

[Yoko Ono] I think his spirit and music
were very, very significant

for a lot of people, and still is.

I think it's important
to keep my dad's music

and his message out there
in the consciousness,

because it's a message
that everyone can connect with.

We come here with our hearts
to honor Dad

and to pray for peace.

[Norman] So, a sainthood, really,
has come to John Lennon,

though he would have laughed
at the idea.

What made us love him

was because he was so very far
from being a saint.

[projector whirring]

[Mintz] So, here we are, 40 years later,

talking about this man
and this man's music.

The music lasts
because it was real.

The music hits home
and stays there.