John Lennon: Life, Times and Assassination

by Phil Strongman

In 1976 or 1977, Lennon first started to dream about a stranger who asked for an album to be autographed then returned later, angry and with a loaded gun.... Who really killed John Lennon? John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono moved to New York in 1971, in part to escape the vitriol of the British press who blamed Ono for the breakup of their beloved Beatles. They had hoped to live quietly in America and raise their son Sean. But, just nine years later and three weeks after the release of his final album, Lennon was shot dead in the archway of his Manhattan apartment building by Mark Chapman. It is impossible to understate the extent of Lennon’s celebrity at that time and the shockwaves his slaying sent around the world. Chapman was swiftly tried and found guilty by the American courts as a lone wolf assassin, a Beatles fanatic with a grudge and a history of psychological problems. But was he? Who financed Chapman’s flight from Hawaii to execute the killing? In this meticulously researched study, British author Phil Strongman digs into Chapman’s background. He discusses the evidence for US agency involvement in the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and others and draws inescapable parallels with the death of John Lennon, whose political activism and high-profile support for the anti-Vietnam war movement had, by the late 1970s, put him firmly on the radar of the CIA and FBI. Forty years after the FBI and the CIA opened files on the ex Beatle, Strongman questions the facts behind the killing and goes beyond the realm of conspiracy theory, to leave the reader in little doubt as to the part played by covert forces in the assassination of one of the twentieth century’s most charismatic and influential men. Phil Strongman is a well known music journalist and author, who has contributed to MOJO among many other publications. He has written Pretty Vacant, the definitive account of the punk movement, and made the well received documentary Anarchy! The McLaren Westwood Gang. He has also written the only study of John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd - Metal Box - and a novel called Cocaine, set in the drug fuelled music scene of 90’s London.

Genres: Music, Biography

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 31, 2010

Reviews

[Wes F · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not exactly what I thought when I purchased it (well, I got it cheap from a BookBub.com notice). It's not as much about John Lennon's life, as it is about the turbulent times of the 60s and conspiracy theories regarding the assassinations of public figures such as John F. & Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and then, added to this group, allegedly also of John Lennon. The author weaves quite a bit of information & supposed "facts" on these killings--stating eventually that each of them were the results not of a lone, crazed killer/shooter, but were the result of elaborate planned plots, all involving the CIA. I find it hard to believe, though I'm not past recognizing that the US government has had its hand in some very nefarious and horrible plots, including targeted assassinations.

But, I don't believe that the CIA &/or US government was involved in the murder of John Lennon. I think the "evidence" that Strongman puts forth involves a bunch of straw men, and he really offers no new, hard evidence to prove that the shooting was anything but a murder by a disturbed person. And, anyways, I wanted to learn more about Lennon's life, but felt Strongman focused more on various alleged assassination plots and characters than on Lennon himself. There were some interesting bit of historical events to pick up from the discussions of these momentous events in the 60s, so all was not lost. Read this on my Kindle.

[Glen Chern · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I’ve ever read that made any connection between the assassination of John Lennon and President John F. Kennedy. The author presents a compelling argument to support the premise that both crimes were committed as part of conspiracies, rather than by lone nut gunmen. Author Phil Strongman occasionally confuses the reader with very complex descriptions of the conspiracies, which is why I only gave the book a four-star rating.

What I especially enjoyed about this book was the author’s biography of John Lennon, which includes Lennon’s youth and his connections with his fellow members of The Beatles. I got somewhat confused by his description of Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono as well as May Pang. Overall, Strongman did a remarkable job of portraying Lennon as an inspirational figure.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty Good

I started it thinking that like most conspiracy books that it would be hogwash. I was pleasantly surprised though. I fact checked many of his statements, and found numerous sources for them. Worth a read.

[Tracy Abramovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking

I thought this book as very thought provoking and well worth the read. It makes a lot of sense and puts doubts on the reliability of the USA.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the conclusions the author leapt to were difficult to believe, but there were a lot of strange parallels between assassinations at that time.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have struggled with my rating for this book on a number of fronts, finally settling on three stars.
The first thing to confess, is that I go along with Phil Strongman's views on the assassinations of the 1960's, fully rejecting the lone-nut rhubarb. Secondly, the story behind Lennon's murder contains so many holes, enough to fill the Albert Hall. I read Fenton Bresler's book some years back which documents the many unanswered questions that have been taken up in this book. On top of the strange world travel itinerary and the mysterious lost days in Chicago that I have never seen adequately explained, there is the case of the Dakota doorman. I recently came across a Mr Perdomo in Warren Hinckle's 'Deadly Secrets' which I provide below:-

"Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo was, for over ten years, the head of the CIA’s supersecret Operation 40 in Miami. He was a plain man of undifferentiated features, which was, in his profession, an asset. He was a professional spy. It is testimony to the importance his employers gave to his carefully nurtured anonymity that when he died, of natural causes, in 1974, his family was not notified until after the funeral."

It is a fact that the Dakota doorman was not named in press reports of the assassination for many years after the act.
Another conspiracy schmiracy fact not reported by Mr Strongman concerns Lennon's good friend actor Sal Mineo.

Lennon’s friend Eliot Mintz was researching the murder of Robert F. Kennedy with Sal Mineo. Mineo was stabbed in a Hollywood parking lot shopping for groceries. Mineo was not robbed, just murdered. Sal Mineo was going to make a movie about RFK’s murder called Sirhan Sirhan and Lennon was going to finance it. Mineo got death threats by phone; he was going to play Sirhan Sirhan, the U.S. Government patsy they blamed for RFK’s murder.
John Lennon was outraged by Sal Mineo’s murder. Mineo was murdered at the time (just before) the HSCA hearings in the late 1970’s. Mineo was killed before the hearings because they couldn’t let Mineo’s movie, that would have shown the people the true facts about Robert F. Kennedy’s murder that did not make sense and would have demanded an investigation.

'John Lennon Life, Times and Assassination' also includes text that covers U.S. government involvements in the Kennedy and King murders of the 1960's. My personal feeling is that while this author is quite correct in his linkage, he states many incorrect details and includes much hearsay into his hypothesis. The reason for my three star rating. Having said that, as stated above, the official explanations to JFK, MLK and RFK's killings are all fayre for the outright gullible. In each case, all accused were patsies!
There is no doubt that Phil Strongman is a man to my own heart as regards to his feelings for John and his distress at his murder. I have previously read Strongman & Parker's 'John Lennon & the FBI Files' as well as Professor Wiener's 'Gimme Some Truth'. Unfortunately I have also come across Jack Jones' Chapman biography 'Let Me Take You Down' which contains all the false drivel about the shooter, but ignores all the unexplained.