John Lennon’s last words were “I’m shot”, according to a new documentary.
The Beatles icon was shot dead aged 40 by obsessed fan Mark David Chapman, 68, outside his New York City apartment building the Dakota on December 8, 1980, and a new Apple TV+ documentary contains a claim from a doorman in the building he heard John’s final words as blood poured from the ‘Imagine’ singer’s mouth.
Concierge Jay Hastings says in Apple TV+’s three-part documentary ‘Lennon: Murder Without a Trial’: “(John) runs past me. He goes, ‘I’m shot.’ 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’.”
Taxi driver Richard Peterson also says on the docuseries, due out on 6 December, how he was sat in his parked car outside the Dakota building and witnessed the shooting.
He says: “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.
“I thought they were making a movie, but I didn’t see no lights or cameras or anything so I realised, ‘Hey, this ain’t no movie.’”
Actor Kiefer Sutherland, 56, narrates the documentary, and its makers say they were granted extensive Freedom of Information Act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorney’s office.
It features interviews with John’s friends as well as Chapman’s defence lawyers, psychiatrists, detectives and prosecutors.
The show’s title is taken from the fact there was minimal investigation of the murder as Chapman waited at the scene and plead guilty as soon as the police arrived.
He was sentenced to serve a prison term of twenty years to life for second-degree murder.
In 2020, Chapman publicly apologised to John’s wife Yoko Ono, 90, during a parole hearing by saying: “It was an extremely selfish act. I’m sorry for the pain that I caused to her. I think about it all of the time.”
Chapman was denied parole for the 12th time last year, meaning he will remain behind bars until February 2024 at the earliest, while John’s voice features on the newly-released Beatles track ‘Now and Then’.