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These are all of our primary sources.

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These are all of our secondary sources.

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(F) Article looking back on John Lennon's assassination

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(F) Article looking back on John Lennon's assassination

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Did you know John Lennon was shot four times by a deranged fan? This is from a Fox News story looking back on the murder of John Lennon and how it impacted musical history. It's an example of a secondary source because, first of all, this was written 43 years after the murder. Also, the writer did not have a first-hand account of the murder and what happened, rather relying on multiple other primary sources to support their claims. Many primary sources coming together is a secondary source.

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John Lennon, the legendary Beatles member and one of the most influential musicians of all time, was assassinated 43 years ago on Dec. 8, 1980.

The British-born singer died at the age of 40 after being shot in front of his apartment building, The Dakota, in New York City.

The shooter was a deranged fan named Mark David Chapman, who fired four bullets from a .38-caliber revolver into Lennon's back and shoulder, hours after the rock star signed an autograph for him.

"I'm shot," Lennon said in his last words before collapsing on the ground, according to witnesses.
BEATLES' JOHN LENNON 'SHOCKED' PAUL MCCARTNEY WITH CONCERN OVER LEGACY AFTER DEATH
Prior to his death, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were returning to their apartment after a recording session. Chapman shot the singer at approximately 10:50 p.m. as he was walking through the entryway of The Dakota, according to The Associated Press.

Less than 10 minutes later, Lennon was taken by a police car to Manhattan's Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. New York City Medical Examiner Elliot Gross told The Washington Post Lennon was shot twice in the back and twice in the shoulder, and his cause of death was "massive hemorrhaging and shock."

"An unspeakable tragedy," legendary sports host Howard Cosell told the nation near midnight, interrupting the dramatic final seconds of a Monday Night Football broadcast.

"John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York, the most famous perhaps of all the Beatles, shot twice in the back. Rushed to Roosevelt Hospital. Dead on arrival."

Cosell's dramatic words spoken on national television, decades before the internet spread news instantly, were the first many Americans heard of the celebrated musician's death. The world learned soon after initial reports that Lennon was actually shot four times.

An estimated 100,000 Beatles fans flooded The Dakota and Central Park in the hours after the tragedy for a tear-filled vigil that shut down traffic across several blocks of Manhattan.

Lennon is survived by Ono, now 90, and their son Sean, now 48, and his son Julian, now 60, from a previous marriage. In a 2007 interview with BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Ono recalled suggesting getting dinner after she and Lennon left the studio on the night of his death.

"No, let's go home because I want to see Sean before he goes to sleep," Lennon told Ono. Those were his final words to her.

Over the past year, new developments in Lennon's death have emerged. Here's a look at what to know.

Lennon's killer up for parole again next year

Mark David Chapman was 25 years old when he murdered Lennon. The unemployed security guard from Hawaii reportedly began planning the murder three months earlier and flew to New York City to commit the crime. According to The Washington Post, Chapman confessed immediately after shooting the musician.

PAUL MCCARTNEY CAPTURES THE BEATLES' INNOCENCE,' CHALLENGES AMID RISE TO FAME IN NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS

"I just shot John Lennon," Chapman told a doorman at The Dakota. The gunman remained on the scene and was arrested. In June 1981, Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 20 years to life in August of that year.

In September 2022, Chapman was denied parole for the 12th time. During his parole hearing in August 2022, Chapman told the board he killed Lennon because he was seeking fame and knew that his actions were evil at the time, according to The Associated Press.

Chapman said the decision to kill Lennon was "my big answer to everything. I wasn't going to be a nobody, anymore."

"I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there," Chapman said. "I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.

"This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody, and nothing was going to stop that," he added to the board. "I hurt a lot of people all over the place, and if somebody wants to hate me, that's OK. I get it."
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The board denied Chapman's request for parole, citing his "selfish disregard for human life of global consequence."

In addition, the board noted Chapman's actions left "the world recovering from the void of which you created."

Chapman's next parole board appearance is scheduled for February 2024.

The Beatles' final song with Lennon released

On Nov. 1, the surviving members of The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, released the band's final song, which included contributions from all four members following the group's breakup in 1974 and Lennon's death.

"Now and Then" featured vocals from Lennon and guitar performed by the late George Harrison, recorded six years before he died from lung cancer at the age of 58 in 2001.

According to a press release for the song, Lennon recorded two demo cassette tapes with vocals and piano in the late 1970s while living at The Dakota.
PAUL MCCARTNEY REVEALS HE 'DREAMS' ABOUT THE LATE JOHN LENNON: 'THEY'RE ALWAYS GOOD'
In 1994, Ono gave McCartney two cassette tapes with demo recordings of Lennon's unfinished and unreleased songs. McCartney, Starr and Harrison were able to record two songs based on one of the cassette tapes, "Real Love" and "Free As a Bird," which were released in 1995.

The two songs on the other tape were "Now and Then" and "Grow Old With Me." The latter song was released in 1984 on the Beatles' album "Milk and Honey," the band's sixth and final studio album that featured posthumous recordings by Lennon.

McCartney, Starr and Harrison tried to record "Now and Then," but the audio quality of Lennon's vocals and piano was too poor.

However, the 2021 release of "The Beatles: Get Back" docuseries, directed by Peter Jackson, allowed for a renewed attempt to finish the song. In the series, Jackson's team was able to "de-mix" the original film's mono soundtrack, isolating instruments, vocals and the individual voices of the Beatles in conversations.
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The team applied the same technique to Lennon's home recordings, and McCartney and Starr added new bass and drums along with guitar previously recorded by Harrison in 1995.

"There it was, John's voice, crystal clear," McCartney said in a statement. "It's quite emotional. And we all play on it. It's a genuine Beatles recording. In 2023, to still be working on Beatles music, and about to release a new song the public haven't heard, I think it's an exciting thing."

Ringo Starr said, "It was the closest we'll ever come to having him back in the room. So, it was very emotional for all of us. It was like John was there, you know. It's far out."

Revelations from new documentary

A three-part documentary, "John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial," was released by Apple TV+ Dec. 6. The series, which examines Lennon's death and the events leading up to his murder, featured interviews with eyewitnesses, some of whom were speaking publicly for the first time.

Jay Hastings, who worked as a concierge at the front desk of the Dakota, gave his first-ever interview about the night of Lennon's death. When asked why he had finally decided to speak about Lennon's death, Hastings said, "Time's passed. We're on the record. Once and done."

Hastings recounted the immediate aftermath of the shooting and revealed Lennon's final words.

BEATLE GEORGE HARRISON WAS STABBED 40 TIMES BY INTRUDER WITH 'HOMICIDAL MISSION' TO 'DO GOD'S WORK': BOOK
"He runs past me. He goes, 'I'm shot,'" Hastings recalled in the series, via the New York Post. "He had blood coming out of his mouth. He just collapsed on the floor. I half-rolled him to his back and took his glasses off, put them on the desk. And Yoko was screaming, 'Get an ambulance, get an ambulance, get an ambulance.'"

Richard Peterson, a taxi driver who was parked in front of the Dakota at the time of the murder, recalled watching as Chapman approached Lennon before shooting him.

"Lennon was walking in, and this kid says, 'John Lennon.' He was a chunky guy. I'm looking at him through the front window of my cab. I'm looking at him shoot him. This guy just shot John Lennon," Peterson said, according to The Telegraph.

"I thought they were making a movie, but I didn't see no lights or cameras or anything. So, I realized, 'Hey, this ain't no movie,'" he added.

Another taxi driver, Mark Snyder, remembered driving Chapman on the day of Lennon's murder.

"The first thing he said to me was, 'I'm a producer for the Rolling Stones. I just got back from a recording session with the Beatles. They all got back together again,'" Snyder said in a clip from the docuseries.

"What am I gonna say to that? 'OK, yeah, sure.'"

Snyder recalled that Chapman was "flipping through this book madly. It was a notebook, and I looked in the rearview mirror, and there was nothing but empty pages."

After dropping Chapman off at his stop, Snyder said his passenger walked around to the driver's side window to pay his fare.
Fox News Digital's Kerry J. Byrne and Elizabeth Stanton contributed to this report.
"He said, 'My name is Mark David Chapman,'" Snyder recalled. "'You'll remember my name.'"

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Beatles legend John Lennon assassinated 43 years ago: What to know

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John Lennon was murdered 43 years ago Dec. 8. Here's a look at new developments, including his killer's potential parole, the Beatles' final song and a recent series about his death.

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Death of a Dreamer: The Assassination of John Lennon

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(G) Biography about the Assassination of John Lennon 

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(G) Biography about the Assassination of John Lennon 

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This book tells the story of John Lennon and how he came to be assassinated. This is a prime example of a secondary source because it is a biography telling Lennon's story that built up to his assassination. The writer did not experience the murder herself, but rather, she had to do research look for other sources and putting them together. This was also written in 2012, which is not in the same time period as the murder, so it's not a first hand account of the murder and what happened but it still informs about the assassination.

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(B) A Newspaper article written during the time of John Lennon's assassination 

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(B) A Newspaper article written during the time of John Lennon's assassination 

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After John Lennon's assassination, countless of newspaper were written shortly after. This newspaper is considered a primary source because it was written shortly after his assassination. Therefore, being written very close to the event, being considered a primary source.

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LENNONYC - Promo | American Masters | PBS

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This documentary investigates the home life between John Lennon and his wife after his death. It dives into their home in NYC, living with their son Sean. It emphasizes his life before and after he was infamously assassinated.This piece of evidence is an example of secondary source because it is a collection of multiple primary sources.

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LENNONYC takes an intimate look at the time Lennon, Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, spent living in New York City during the 1970s.

"New York became a part of who John and I were," said Ms. Ono. "We couldn't have existed the same way anywhere else. We had a very special relationship with the city, which is why I continue to make this my home, and I think this film captures what that time was like for us very movingly."

"The period that Lennon lived with his family in New York is perhaps the most tender and affecting phase of his life as a public figure," said Susan Lacy, series creator and former executive producer of American Masters as well as a producer of the Lennon film. "Just as the generation that had grown up with the Beatles was getting a little older and approaching a transitional time in their lives as they started families, they saw this reflected in Lennon as he grew from being a rock star icon into a real flesh and blood person."

"I have long been moved by the honesty and directness of John's music," said Michael Epstein, LENNONYC director, producer and writer. "And, by using never-before heard studio talkback of John from this period, I think I was able to give the viewer a window into John Lennon that had not been put to film before."

Following the breakup of the Beatles, Lennon and Ono moved to New York City in 1971, where Lennon sought to escape the mayhem of the Beatles era and focus on his family and private life. At the same time, he created some of the most acclaimed songs and albums of his career, most of them written at his apartment at The Dakota on Manhattan's Upper West Side, including Mind Games, Whatever Gets You Thru the Night, I'm Losing You, and Woman. He also remained highly active in the anti-war movement as well as numerous other progressive political causes.

As much as New York made an impact on Lennon and Ono by offering them an oasis of personal and creative freedom, so too did they shape the city. At a time when New York faced record high crime, economic fallout and seemed to be on the verge of collapse, Lennon and Ono became a beloved fixture in neighborhood restaurants, at Central Park, at sports events and at political demonstrations.

Lennon and Ono also bonded with millions of their fellow New Yorkers in their experience as immigrants. The film traces their struggle to remain in the U.S. when the Nixon administration sought to deport them, supposedly based on a narcotics violation, but which Lennon insisted was in response to his anti-war activities.

features never-before heard studio recordings from the Double Fantasy sessions and never-before-seen outtakes from Lennon in concert and home movies that have only recently been transferred to video. It also features exclusive interviews with Ms. Ono, who cooperated extensively with the production and offers an unprecedented level of access, as well as with artists who worked closely with Lennon during this period, including Elton John and photographer Bob Gruen (who took the iconic photograph of Lennon in front of the skyline wearing a "New York City" t-shirt).

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LENNONYC - Promo | American Masters | PBS

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This fall, as the world remembers John Lennon on what would have been his 80th birthday, and the 40th anniversary of his death, American Masters presents LENNONYC, a film that takes an intimate look at the time Lennon, Yoko Ono and their son, Sean, spent living in New York City during the 1970s.

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(C) A photograph of people crowding around the Dakota apartment building in New York on December 8, 1980 hours after reports that Lennon was assassinated. 

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(C) A photograph of people crowding around the Dakota apartment building in New York on December 8, 1980 hours after reports that Lennon was assassinated. 

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This photo was taken when people started crowding the apartment in New York. It was taken after reports said that he was shot and fatally wounded outside his apartment. This photograph is a primary source because it was taken at the scene only a few hours after he was assassinated.

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(D) A live interview of Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's Assassin 

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(D) A live interview of Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's Assassin 

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This interview was done with the assassin himself. Therefore, someone who committed the act, but also one who experienced the event from the start to the end. When someone experiences the event when it took place, it is automatically a primary source.

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(I) Encyclopedia briefing John Lennon's life story and assassination 

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(I) Encyclopedia briefing John Lennon's life story and assassination 

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This is a Britannica Encyclopedia article about the assassination and life of John Lennon prior to assassination. It was last updated in March 2024, which is very recent and not very close to the time of assassination. Also, this is an encyclopedia article that is historic and uses multiple sources from history that may include primary sources. The writer obviously would not have had a first hand account of the murder and what actually happened, relying on accounts from other people and other sources.

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John Lennon (born October 9, 1940, Liverpool, England-died December 8, 1980, New York, New York, U.S.) was a leader or coleader of the British rock group the Beatles, author and graphic artist, solo recording artist, and collaborator with Yoko Ono on recordings and other art projects.

Lennon's fun-loving working-class parents married briefly and late and declined to raise their quick, sensitive, gifted son. Separated traumatically from each of them by age five, he was raised strictly (in Woolton, a Liverpool suburb) by his maternal aunt, Mimi Smith, whose husband died during Lennon's adolescence, as did his biological mother, who had taught him to play the banjo. Such circumstances were not uncommon in the wake of World War II, but in Lennon they generated anger that he sublimated with brilliance and difficulty and an intense need for human connection. At age 21 he married the supportive, traditional Cynthia Powell, whom he divorced in 1968. At age 28 he married the independent, unconventional Yoko Ono. And much earlier, at age 16, he founded a skiffle band that evolved into the Beatles, the most important musical group of the second half of the 20th century.

The Beatles were essentially a joint venture between practical pop adept Paul McCartney and alienated rock-and-roll rebel Lennon, but, as a disruptive cultural force, they always bore Lennon's stamp. Musically, just two of countless examples are the forthright candour his vocal added to Smokey Robinson's vulnerable "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" in 1964 and the "I used to be cruel to my woman" bridge he added to McCartney's positive-thinking " Getting Better" in 1967. Culturally too, Lennon assumed the role of the candid provocateur. All four Beatles were witty, all four irreverent. But only Lennon would have observed "We're more popular than Jesus now" or boiled the story of youth culture down to "America had teenagers and everywhere else just had people."

Lennon's genius encompassed writing and the visual arts, the only field in which he received formal training. His natural gifts in both were considerable, but in the end he proved a minor humorist and a casual if indelible cartoonist. In music, he had less inborn facility, though his paternal grandfather worked for years as a blackface minstrel. But music was where he put his substance. Lennon was one of the great rock rhythm guitarists, his signature a nervous rest-one-two-and-rest that complicated his foursquare attack, and his strong, nasal singing overshadowed McCartney's more physically capable rocking and crooning. Declarative where the rockabilly singers he admired were frantic, almost a blues shouter in spirit if not in timbre, Lennon often undercut the masculinity of this approach with a canny, playful high voice deployed to humorous and even campy effect.

Such layered, contradictory meanings typified the Beatles, part of whose power lay in the multiplicity and collectivity they projected. But as Lennon began to withdraw from the Beatles, a process accelerated as of 1968 by his relationship with Ono, his declarative side took over. This dovetailed with the artistic ideas of Ono, a well-born Japanese avant-gardist seven years his senior. Lennon was first fascinated and then influenced by her terse, sometimes paradoxical directives, such as: "Count all the words in the book instead of reading them" ("Number Piece 1," from the book Grapefruit [1964]). Much of the music Lennon recorded after 1968-from "Yer Blues" and "I'm So Tired" on The Beatles (1968) through the solo debut Plastic Ono Band (1970) through his half of Double Fantasy (1980)-reflects Ono's belief in art without artifice. Whether or not they actually eschewed artifice, that was one impression they strove to create.

Until Double Fantasy, most of the films and recordings Lennon created with Ono were of limited public usefulness. But the stark Plastic Ono Band is generally considered a masterpiece, and the more conventional Lennon album that followed, Imagine (1971), is a major work keynoted by its beloved title track, a hymn of hope whose concept he attributed to Ono. Like the earlier "Give Peace a Chance," " Imagine" is living proof of the political orientation that dominated Lennon's public life with Ono, which came to a head in 1972 with the failed agitprop album Some Time in New York City and the defeat of Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern by incumbent Pres. Richard Nixon, whose administration was attempting to deport Lennon, a vocal and adamant opponent of the Vietnam War.

Lennon's most enduring political commitment was to feminism. When he and Ono separated in the fall of 1973, he spent a "lost weekend" of more than a year drinking and making highly uneven music in Los Angeles. When the couple reunited, they soon conceived a son, Sean, born on Lennon's birthday in 1975. Lennon retreated from music and became a reclusive househusband, leaving his business affairs to Ono. The details of this very private period are unclear, although it is unlikely that the couple's domestic arrangements were as idyllic as they pretended. Nevertheless, as a piece of art, their marriage projected as powerful an image as their activism had. It ended as fact when Lennon was shot to death by a deranged fan, Mark David Chapman, in front of his Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980. But it continues as part of Lennon's legend, which remains undiminished.

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John Lennon | Biography, Songs, Albums, Death, & Facts

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John Lennon (1940−80) was the coleader of the British rock group the Beatles, solo recording artist, and collaborator with Yoko Ono on various art projects.

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(J) Memoir for the 43rd Anniversary of John Lennon's Death

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(J) Memoir for the 43rd Anniversary of John Lennon's Death

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This is based on Lennon's 43rd death anniversary. It honors the legacy of John Lennon. Also, it shows the imagine circle near the strawberry fields. Also, Elton John held a performance in remember of Lennon's album called imagine. Overall, his legacy wouldn't have ended if it weren't for the assassination. This is secondary because it is after his death, relying on outside sources to get the information.

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(E) A news video on the day John Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980.

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(E) A news video on the day John Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980.

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This is a video about the John Lennon death on the day he was assassinated, and at the scene. It includes eyewitnesses, the doctor who tried to save him, and details about what happened the day he was assassinated. It is a primary source because it is about what happened on the day before the incident and after it.

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He was shocked late this evening in front of his apartment building in New York City. Apparently he was killed almost immediately a man who shot John Lannan walked up to the musician as he was leaving his limousine. According to eyewitnesses who said Bristol and on. And then fired at him point blank at least five times. Standing by now in New York with more details is ABC's Linda Asher. John Lennon was murdered on his way home just outside the celebrated Manhattan apartment house the Dakota where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and a five year old son. Apparently he stepped out of the limousine and headed through the gates towards the vestibule when a man emerged and fired seven times. According to police sources at the man had been seen at the apartment house earlier and later in the evening when Lennon arrived. The man appeared to be rational he called out Lenin's name then crouched police sciele. And fired. The four cops pulled John Lennon out and put him into the back of a police car and is now he was bleeding from his mouth anything he was terrible site. John Lennon's body was immediately rushed in a police car here to Roosevelt hospital just thirteen blocks away from his apartment in upper Manhattan. He was dead on arrival they tried resuscitation and they tried transfusions. But nothing works if you. Had multiple gunshot wounds in his chest. In his left arm and in his back. There were seven wounds in his body. And implement. I don't know exactly how many bullets there where there were seven. I could. There was a significant injury the major vessels inside the chest which cause there. Massive amount of blood loss which probably resulted in his death. Do you lose consciousness I don't know evenly in all I'm certain that I would elderly woman died first shutout. Students that didn't stop a number of Lennon's fans from gathering at the hospital land at his apartment house. To pray. And to remember. Insurer ABC news New York. John Lennon was shot a well known New York apartment building the Dakota house on. West 72 street and ABC's Rita sends a standing by live at the Dakota now. We don't want to what have you been able to learn since the shooting. Greater sentence than your image. I don't know you're on. Great instead what we know about this suspect at this time is first of all his identity 25 year old Mark David Chapman. He comes from Hawaii police tell me he's been to the New York area about a week. And began to hang around the Dakota apartment over the weekend asking about John Lennon. He apparently ran into him up for the first time this evening about 5 o'clock. Asking Lenin for his autograph Lenin gave it to him on the jacket cover the idea of a record. Lennon went off to a recording session and we are told that Chapman no remained at the hotel. Until mr. Lenin returned about 11 o'clock this evening. Police officials. Describe what happened this way they say the Chapman came up from behind. Yeah about mr. Lennon's name and ante to 38 revolver. There were at least five shots spent they were seven gunshot wounds three. Considering both in entrance and exit wounds. The worst damage came from the chest wounds. Lenin they shouted that I know I've been shot he stumbled up several steps into the Dakota and collapsed inside and an office area. And was taken immediately to Roosevelt hospital where we are told he was dead on arrival. There is little known about that 25 year old Chapman only that he's been staying at a local YU. Several days and then another hotel in the last a day or two. I he has have been taken to the twentieth police precinct. Fingerprinted they're checking for prior arrest records also allowed for any. Know him. They don't have any yet there they charged him officially would murder but the reason for this attack. Unknown. Yet. Accurate sense.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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Video: ARCHIVAL VIDEO: John Lennon Killed in 1980

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He was shocked late this evening in front of his apartment building in New York City. Apparently he was killed almost immediately a man who shot John Lannan walked up to the musician as he was leaving his limousine. According to eyewitnesses who said Bristol and on.

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(A) Artifact; The gun that killed John Lennon

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(A) Artifact; The gun that killed John Lennon

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The gun is considered a primary source and artifact because it was used during the time of the assassination. It was also personally used by the assassin in the process of killing the victim. Therefore, by it being used during the scene, it is considered to be a primary source.

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(L) TIME Magazine written in the time period of his assassination 

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(L) TIME Magazine written in the time period of his assassination 

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Written in 1980, this TIME magazine featured John Lennon's assassination in the Dakota building. This magazine is considered a secondary source because it does not include any first hand witnesses. Therefore, although it was written during the time period of his death, it does not include any statements or confessions, and states facts that one remembers in memory of John Lennon. There's no first hand account of the author.