On the night of 8 December 1980, pop icon John Lennon was gunned down in the entrance of The Dakota, a cooperative apartment building in Manhattan where he lived whenever he was in New York.
Lennon was declared dead at the Roosevelt Hospital, where he was rushed after he was shot in the back four times by his assassin, Mark Chapman.
Only hours before killing Lennon, Chapman had asked the former Beatle for an autograph. It was common for Lennon to oblige fans waiting outside The Dakota to meet him and get his autograph, and Lennon unwittingly signed a copy of his new album, 'Double Fantasy', for his would-be killer.
"Is this all you want?” he apparently asked Chapman, who smiled and nodded in agreement.
This moment between Lennon and Chapman was caught on film by fan Paul Goresh, who happened to take a photo of the encounter.
Having waited for Lennon outside his luxury apartment building since mid-morning, Chapman was lurking in the shadows of the archway of The Dakota when Lennon arrived home in his Limousine at around 10:50 pm.
It's said that Lennon briefly glanced at Chapman as he walked passed him, recognizing him from their earlier meeting. Seconds later, Chapman took out a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver and fired five hollow-point bullets at Lennon from behind. The first bullet flew over the singer's head and hit a window before the second two struck the left side of his back and the other two penetrated his left shoulder.
Bleeding profusely from his mouth and his external wounds, Lennon is said to have staggered up five steps to the reception area and saying: "I'm shot, I'm shot."
Chapman, meanwhile, remained on the scene, seemingly reading a copy of J. D. Salinger's novel, 'The Catcher in the Rye'.
A 25-year-old security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, Chapman reportedly dropped his gun and calmly removed his coat and hat to show that he wasn't carrying any concealed weapons. He then sat down on the pavement, waiting for the police to arrive.
In his copy of 'The Catcher in the Rye', Chapman wrote "This is my statement", signing it "Holden Caulfield", after the novel's protagonist.
It's believed that Chapman's motivation for killing John Lennon was rooted in the musician's famous statement that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus”. A born-again Christian, Chapman also felt that Lennon was a hypocrite for telling fans, in his songs, to imagine a life without possessions, while he himself lived the life of a millionaire with many luxury possessions.
Chapman has, however, over the years listed many different reasons why he killed Lennon.
He was sentenced to 20-years-to-life and remains in prison to this day. Chapman has been denied parole more than 10 times, largely due to repeated campaigns against his release, most notably by Lennon's wife Yoko Ono.