The Murder of John Lennon Trivia Quiz

Answer: December 8

John Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980, a Monday night, at about 10:50 p.m. He was 40 years old.

For those of you who thought that October 9 sounded familiar, that was John's birthday.

Answer: shot the cover of "Rolling Stone"

Annie Leibovitz had conducted the photo shoot for "Rolling Stone" at the couple's home. It was supposed to be a photo of just John, but he insisted that Yoko be included. The photo, of a naked John clinging to Yoko in their bed, did appear on the cover of "Rolling Stone", on January 22, 1981. It was the third last picture ever taken of John.

Answer: about two months earlier

A pretty good timeline of Chapman's motives and actions has been established by himself, his wife Gloria and others who were close to him. His thoughts of murdering John began in October 1980, when he found out that John had returned to recording and had released the album "Double Fantasy". Throughout the rest of the month of October, Chapman began his preparations - he quit his job and he bought a gun.

He made his first trip to New York on October 30 but nothing came of it. He made a second trip to New York in mid-November, but got scared of what he might do.

He called his wife and confessed his plan and she convinced him to return home. Back at home, he was still experiencing mental episodes and was convinced that he would not be at peace in his mind until John was dead. So on December 6, Chapman was once again in New York City.

Answer: True

Chapman was camped outside the Dakota all day. When John and Yoko ventured outside at around 5 p.m. to go to their recording studio, Chapman had not yet worked up his nerve to kill John. Instead he joined the crowd of people surrounding the couple and had John autograph his copy "Double Fantasy", which was later found at the scene of the crime and eventually sold at an auction in 2003 for $525,000. Another person there that day snapped a photo of John that happened to have Chapman in it as well - so the second last picture ever taken of John Lennon was with his murderer. Chapman later said that he was surprised at how nice and sincere John was; he had expected to be brushed off but instead John smiled at him and signed an autograph. This shook Chapman's determination to kill Lennon and he tried to convince himself to just take the autographed record and go home. But of course he did not.

During his vigil outside the Dakota, Chapman was also introduced to, and shook hands with, John's young son Sean.

Answer: John wanted to see his son

John was anxious to get home to see Sean before he went to bed. They exited their limo and walked through the courtyard to the building's entrance. Yoko went inside first, and John was about to follow when Chapman, who had never left all day, called out "Mr. Lennon!" As John turned around, Chapman dropped down onto one knee and fired five shots from his .38. Two of them hit John in the left side of his back and two more hit his left shoulder.

The fifth shot missed its target.

Answer: I'm shot.

After being hit with the four bullets, John managed to stumble into the building to the concierge's desk and say "I'm shot" before collapsing to the floor. Within minutes there were two pairs of police officers on the scene, and while the first two dealt with Chapman, the second team carried John to their squad car and brought him to the Emergency Room at Roosevelt Hospital.

When asked "Do you know who you are?", John nodded but couldn't speak. He lost consciousness shortly afterwards and was pronounced Dead On Arrival at the hospital at 11:15 p.m.

His official cause of death was hypovolemic shock, due to homicide. At the hospital, the very last photograph of John Lennon was taken - in a body bag. This photo appeared on the cover of the New York Post, to the dismay of Lennon's fans who thought it was tacky and disrespectful.

Answer: The Catcher in the Rye

After shooting John, Chapman remained calm, dropped his gun and sat on the sidewalk waiting for the police to come. He had with him a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye", a cassette player and about a dozen tapes containing over 14 hours of Beatles music. Chapman had an obsession with J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye".

In his delusional state, he thought he was Holden Caulfield on a mission to rid the world of phonies, which he apparently thought John was, because he had suddenly returned to recording music after years of living as a virtual recluse.

Answer: The Tonight Show

The very first announcement was made on "Cable News Network", but they reported only that John had been shot and was on the way to a local hospital. In the middle of "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", an announcer came on the air and informed viewers that John Lennon had died of gunshot wounds, and then returned to the show. Howard Cosell also made a live announcement on "Monday Night Football".

Answer: False

John was cremated, despite allegedly having a deep fear of cremation (according to Albert Goldman in his biography of Lennon). In a different biography, Fred Seaman told the "horror story" of John's cremation: little Sean was not told of his father's death until the morning of December 10.

When he asked to be able to see John one last time, they phoned the mortuary and asked them to hold off the cremation, but it was too late. In addition, Douglas MacDougal, one of John's bodyguards who was present at the cremation, reported that John's face had been calm and peaceful until just before his body entered the oven.

At that time, his face allegedly twisted into a "pained, macabre grin". John's ashes were given to Yoko Ono.

Answer: 20 years to life in prison

Mark David Chapman was charged with second degree murder, despite clear evidence of pre-meditation, because he cooperated with the authorities. His lawyer entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, and after extensive psychiatric evaluations, Chapman was declared to be delusional but competent.

He changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, a little less than the maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Since 1981, he has been a resident of Attica State Prison in New York, and was denied parole in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.