Transcription: He World Loses a Legend
Compiled from wire reports
NEW YORK CITY – Former Beatle John Lennon, 40, who led a revolution in popular music that captured the imagination of an entire generation was shot to death Monday night outside his exclusive Manhattan apartment house.
He was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, less than a mile from the Dakota, the famous apartment building where he lived with his wife, Yoko Ono. Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival at the hospital.
Police said the shooting took place as Lennon emerged from a limousine outside the apartment building.
Lennon suffered seven gunshot wounds in his chest, left arm and back, “causing significant injury to major blood vessels in his chest causing massive blood loss,” according to Dr. Stephan Lynn, director of emergency room services at Roosevelt Hospital.
The doctor said that intensive resuscitation efforts failed.
It was only “a matter of minutes” from the time that Lennon was shot until a police car brought him to the hospital, -Lynn said. Yoko Ono was with her husband during the trip.
A 25-year-old former mental patient and “devout Beatles fan” who authorities say came to New York expressly to kill John Lennon was arraigned on second-degree murder charges Tuesday in the slaying of the legendary singer-songwriter.
Mark David Chapman entered no plea at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court, but his court-appointed attorney said his client had twice attempted suicide and asked that he be given a psychiatric examination because of doubts he could understand the charges.
The court agreed, ordered Chapman held without bail, and instructed that authorities at Bellevue Hospital take precautions against a suicide attempt.
As Chapman was being arraigned, tributes poured in from around the world.
President Carter said Lennon “helped create the mood and music of our time.” President-elect Ronald Reagan called the death “tragic” and said “we have to find an answer” to stop such violence.
Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, said there would be no funeral, and asked instead that fans all over the world take part in a silent vigil “to pray for his soul.” She said in a statement the exact time would be announced later.
More than 100 people jammed the spectators’ section of the heavily guarded courtroom and dozens of court workers were in the well of the court to watch as Chapman was arraigned.
According to police, Chapman waited in the shadows of the wrought iron gateway of the Dakota and shot the musician as he returned from a recording session Monday night. Chapman was arrested without resisting, moments after the slaying.
Assistant District Attorney Kim Hogrefe charged that Chapman, who most recently lived in Hawaii, had “borrowed to come to New York City to do what he had done.”
Police said Chapman had no record of arrests. Hogrefe had said at the arraignment that Chapman had an arrest record dating back to 1972, but police later said that was a mistake.
A police source who asked not to be identified said detectives remained un-certain about a possible motive for the killing. According to the source, Chapman told detectives that he was unhappy with the way Lennon scribbled his autograph on a record album just seven hours before the killing.
Police said they found an autographed copy of Lennon’s new album during a morning search of Chapman’s mid-Manhattan hotel room.
Chapman was a musician himself, according to people who knew him in Georgia, where he grew up.
A former high school classmate from Decatur, Ga., Tommy Morris, said Chapman was “a real devout Beateles fan.”
Beatles co-founder, Paul McCartney, looking pale, told reporters at his Sussex farmhouse in southern England that “John was a great guy. He is going to be missed by the whole world.” McCartney, who feuded with Lennon before and after the Beatles’ breakup in 1970, said “I’ll be paying my respects privately.”
Another former Beatle, George Harrison, also was said to be deeply upset and to have cancelled a recording session.
Ringo Starr, the former Beatles drummer, and his fiancee, actress Barbara Bach, slipped into the Dakota under heavy guard Tuesday to visit with Lennon’s widow.
In Lennon’s native Liverpool, Lennon’s death elicited dismay and anger. “It’s bloody terrible, bloody terrible,” said John Chambers, head of the local Beatles’ Fan Club.
Police said Chapman had visited the gate of the Dakota on Saturday and Sunday, asking the doorman and others about Lennon.
