Series: Lennon documentary: Beatles murder does not expire

The Beatles song “Now and then” is probably still ringing in many people’s ears right now. John Lennon had the Beatles song, which was remixed using AI technology and became a number one hit in this country more than half a century after the Fab Four split up, in his apartment in the New Yorker at the end of the 1970s Dakota Building taken. On December 8, 1980, the then 40-year-old ex-Beatle was shot dead by Mark David Chapman on his way home in front of this venerable building near Central Park.

The three-part documentary series “John Lennon: Murder without a Trial” on Apple TV+, originally narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, which can be streamed just in time for the 43rd anniversary of the pop icon’s death, offers some eyewitness accounts of the events at the time – from people, who were directly involved in the case but have never commented publicly. In addition to the doorman of the Dakota Building, in front of whose eyes not only the murder took place, but who had been watching the perpetrator in front of the house all day, the psychiatrist who examined Mark David Chapman immediately after his arrest also has his say for the first time. The question of whether the perpetrator was guilty or not became a widely discussed matter in the media during the course of the trial.

“John Lennon: Murder without a Trial” reconstructs December 8, 1980 in great detail. Radio journalist Laurie Kaye, who conducted a daytime interview with John Lennon – the first he had given in years – tells how she met her idol as a young reporter. Then we went to the studio, where Lennon recorded songs with producer and friend Jack Douglas, who also speaks in detail.

The documentary paints the picture of an artist who was in the middle of the creative process and went through this day in good spirits, which also seems to have been professionally successful for him. Until he was suddenly shot down in front of his front door with five shots from a fan who had had him sign an album that morning. The documentary shows producer Jack Douglas standing excitedly with his wife in front of the emergency room and not being allowed in. Police officers have their say, as does a taxi driver who at first thought he was standing in the middle of filming. “But there were no cameras,” he says.

In addition to this very precise and successful reconstruction of the day, »John Lennon: Murder without a Trial« primarily asks about the perpetrator’s motives, which are still unclear today. The then 25-year-old Mark David Chapman, who was still in prison, was arrested without resistance and later explained that he wanted to use this murder to promote J. D. Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye.” The convinced Christian, who had declared Lennon his enemy after the legendary statement that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, later stated that he wanted to become John Lennon himself through the murder.

Was Chapman just crazy? His lawyer at the time spoke at length and assured that his client should have been sent to a psychiatric facility rather than to prison. Chapman only pleaded guilty at the beginning of the closed court proceedings and, above all, confirmed his guilt. For the public, who mourned en masse in front of John Lennon’s house, sang Beatles and Lennon songs and gathered for a gigantic mourning event in Central Park, the perpetrator’s motives never became truly transparent or understandable.

Chapman’s mental state is the central theme that runs through this documentary, which also features, for the first time, previously unpublished recordings of the suspect’s interrogations during pre-trial detention on Rykers Island. Of course, the documentary, which conveys a lot of contemporary history and in which Yoko Ono and other Lennon confidants have their say, also touches on the common conspiracy theories surrounding Lennon’s murder, as some believed that the secret service had the anti-nationalist character, who was politically unwelcome to the US government Peace activists killed.

Lennon’s murderer, who is now remorseful, remains in prison and applies for his release every two years, but this is repeatedly denied, even at the insistence of Yoko Ono.

Available on Apple TV+