December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died

by Keith Elliot Greenberg

Overview

(Book). December 8, 1980: The Day John Lennon Died follows the events leading to the horrible moment when Mark David Chapman the paunchy, mentally ill Beatles fan calmly fired his Charter Arms .38 Special into the rock icon, realizing his perverse fantasy of attaining perennial notoriety. New York Times -best-selling author Keith Elliot Greenberg takes us back to New York City and the world John Lennon woke up to, and we follow the other Beatles, Lennon's family, the shooter, fans, and New York City officials through the day. Once the fatal shots are fired, the pace only becomes more breathless. The epilogue examines the aftermath of the killing the moment when 100,000 New Yorkers stood in silence in Central Park; the posthumous reunion of the Beatles in the studio, with George, Paul, and Ringo accompanying recordings of their old friend and the undying legacy that persists to this day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617130892
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2012
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Keith Elliot Greenberg (New York, NY) is a New York Times-best-selling author, and producer for America's Most Wanted. He has authored more than 30 nonfiction books and written for such outlets as Maxim, the Village Voice, New York Observer, USA Today, Playboy.com, and US Weekly.

Editorial Reviews

Were he still alive, John Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday on Oct. 9, 2010. But the former Beatle was infamously gunned down by Mark David Chapman, a self-aware, mentally disturbed fan who fired four fatal shots into Lennon's back on Dec. 8, 1980. Greenberg's latest is an absorbing but disjointed chronicle recounting everything from Chapman's choice of attire that morning to a radio interview Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded inside their Dakota apartment building, during which Lennon said, "I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried, and I hope that's a long time." Greenberg (Perfect Beauty: A Glamorous Socialite, Her Handsome Lover, and a Brutal Murder) eschews a chronological hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute account, telling the story via loose flashbacks to Beatles history, Lennon's New York days and Chapman's troubled past. He still manages to build suspense despite a known ending, a feat which reflects the depth of his investigative experience (he's worked for 48 Hours and MSNBC Investigates). His interviews with the first two police officers on the scene, Dakota resident and Lennon neighbor, Ellen Chesler, and New York Daily News reporter, Paul LaRosa add compelling layers to an already famous story. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

True crime author Greenberg (coauthor, Perfect Beauty: A Glamorous Socialite, Her Handsome Lover, and Brutal Murder) chronicles the final hours of former Beatle John Lennon's life on the day of his murder in New York City. Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, were busy recording, doing a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz, and giving interviews for their just-released comeback album, Double Fantasy. Greenberg frames the day's events by intercutting details of Lennon's biography as well as histories of the other Beatles, Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, and even the police officers who were first on the scene that night. VERDICT The book does not cover much new ground, and Beatles and Lennon fans will be aware of most of the facts presented here, but this is an interesting examination of one of rock's darkest days and a poignant reminder of what was lost when Lennon died. Philip Norman's recent John Lennon: The Life is more suitable for readers seeking an in-depth look at Lennon's life.—Jim Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. Lib., NJ

Library Journal

A panoramic view of the events leading up to the infamous murder of John Lennon (1940–1980).

Lennon plainly said that one reason he relocated to New York City was that he could be, if not anonymous, at least left alone there. He didn't bank on the dozens of die-hard Beatles fans—never Lennon-as-solo-artist fans—who camped out on his doorstep, a few of whom he even befriended while gently encouraging them to get a life. He had had premonitions for years, saying at the height of his Beatles fame, "We'll either go in a plane [crash] or we'll be popped off by some loony." Unfortunately so, and as America's Most Wanted producer Greenberg (co-author: Perfect Beauty: A Glamorous Socialite, Her Handsome Lover, and Brutal Murder, 2002, etc.) writes, each of the Beatles, and particularly George Harrison, lived in understandable fear of being killed by a deranged admirer. The author's account is sometimes moment by moment, sometimes a sweeping view of decades, and it often jumps backward and forward in time, occasionally yielding reader whiplash. Yet, in the space of a relatively short book, he ably captures all the right themes, from the hazards of fame to the curious reception of Beatles lyrics among a certain class of fans, who regarded them as life instructions. Greenberg does not shy from remarking on some of Lennon's less likable features, including his de facto abandonment of son Julian, but neither does he paint Lennon as a monster deserving of comeuppance, in the manner of the loathsome Albert Goldman. The author is also evenhanded in his portrayal of murderer Mark David Chapman, who, of course, has found Jesus in prison and is said to be lobbying for release. However, Greenberg attributes the celebrity-killing meme of the 1980s and beyond—to say nothing of the breakup of Wings—to Chapman's example, noting also that Chapman liked the Beatles less than he liked Todd Rundgren.

Timely and significant—a dark look through a dark glass onto the events of 30 years past.

Kirkus Reviews