Who Killed John Lennon?

Rating:
Summary: This book asks very disturbing and challenging questions
Review: When I first saw this title I said, "No, no, no. I'm not ready for this. I still haven't come to terms with several other murder conspiracies and I don't need this one." I was inclined to take the story at face value, that which was offered by the major media at the time. I certainly did not want to think there was something more sinister behind the Lennon killing. When I picked up the book out of curiosity I found not the ravings of a "conspiracy nut," but a very coherent and rational investigation into the murderer. It had been "an open and shut" case, so few questions were ever raised about it. But the book reminded me that some of the reports about it had made me wonder at the time. I had not pursued the questions then and believed that I was being told the truth. Like others who loved John Lennon, I was grief stricken at the time and not inclined to ask a lot of questions. But when news reports described Chapman's movements the week of the murder, they said he traveled to Hawaii, to Chicago, sold some paintings, then came to New York. I wondered: if this guy is such a loser as they describe, who can barely get a job, where does he get the money to travel widely and deal in art? This book picks up that thread and examines Chapman, where he came from, how he spent his life before he entered history as another "lone assassin" and where, indeed, he did find the means to travel and purchase expensive works of art. The resulting picture is not pretty, does not inspire confidence in our government agencies. Some of the FBI documents on the surveillance of Lennon, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, reflect the frightening cloak-and-dagger mindset of agents of the bureau as they watch and take notes on Lennon as he goes to the deli to buy yogurt during a recording session, or whatever else his daily routines entailed. Whatever your final conclusion, it is hard not to be disturbed by how these people are spending your tax money. I wish the book were still in print.