On the evening of 8 December 1980, the English musician John Lennon, formerly of the Beatles, was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City.

[3] A worldwide outpouring of grief ensued; crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of the Dakota, and at least two Beatles fans died by suicide.

[5] J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951) had taken on great personal significance for Chapman, to the extent that he wished to model his life after the novel's protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

He left New York on 12 or 13 November,[9] then flew back on 6 December[10] and checked into the Upper West Side YMCA for a night before moving to a Sheraton hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

[8] Chapman waited for Lennon outside the Dakota in the early morning and spent most of the day near the entrance to the building, talking to fans and the doorman.

[14][15] Although Ono did not want to be naked, Lennon insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover, and after taking the pictures, Leibovitz left their apartment at 3:30 p.m.[13] After the photo shoot, Lennon gave what would be his last interview, to San Francisco disc jockey Dave Sholin, writer Laurie Kaye and recorder/producer Ron Hummel for a music show to be broadcast on the RKO Radio Network.

[11] Seconds later, Chapman drew his revolver, which was concealed in his coat pocket, aimed at the center of Lennon's back, and rapidly fired five hollow-point bullets from a distance of about nine to ten feet (2.7–3.0 m).

[25] Based on statements made that night by New York City Police Department (NYPD) Chief of Detectives James Sullivan, numerous reports at the time claimed that Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a combat stance before firing.

[13] Chapman removed his coat and hat to show that he was not carrying any concealed weapons and remained standing on 72nd Street, waiting for police to arrive.

"[31] Officers Steven Spiro and Peter Cullen were the first policemen to arrive at the scene; they were at 72nd Street and Broadway when they heard a report of shots fired at the Dakota.

The officers arrived around two minutes after the shooting and found Chapman standing very calmly on 72nd Street reading a paperback copy of The Catcher in the Rye.

They found Lennon lying face down on the floor of the lobby, blood pouring from his mouth and his clothing already soaked with it, with Hastings attending to him.

[40] If [Lennon] had been shot this way in the middle of the operating room with a whole team of surgeons ready to work on him ... he still wouldn't have survived his injuries.

Lennon was shot four times at close range with hollow-point bullets and his affected organs—particularly his left lung and major blood vessels above his heart—were virtually destroyed upon impact.

[42] Richard Marks, an emergency room surgeon at Roosevelt Hospital, stated in 1990 that he operated on Lennon, administered a "massive" blood transfusion, and provided heart massage to no avail.

[49] According to the report, even with prompt medical treatment, no person could have lived for more than a few minutes with multiple bullet wounds affecting all of the major arteries and veins around the heart.

[49] Ono asked Roosevelt Hospital not to report to the media that her husband was dead until she had informed their five-year-old son Sean, who was still at home at the Dakota.

However, news producer Alan J. Weiss of WABC-TV happened to be waiting for treatment in the emergency room after being injured in a motorcycle crash earlier in the evening.

North was doing a special comment on the recent murder of gun control advocate Michael J. Halberstam, when an intern ran in with the news about Lennon.

North then read the AP wire bulletin and spoke several times with a police contact, who was finally able to confirm Lennon had died.

[61] Ono herself refuted Lynn's version of events in a 2015 interview, stating that her priority was to remain calm and take care of her son, Sean.

"[65] Later that day, McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio when reporters asked him for his reaction; he ended his response, "Drag, isn't it?

McCartney later said that he had intended no disrespect and simply was unable to articulate his feelings, given the shock and sadness he felt over Lennon's murder.

[68] In a 1995 interview with New Musical Express magazine, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards claimed that he was just a few miles south of the Dakota (on Fifth Avenue) when he found out about Lennon's murder, whereupon he obtained a firearm of his own and went searching the streets for the alleged killer.

[69] The outpouring of grief, wonder and shared devastation that followed Lennon's death had the same breadth and intensity as the reaction to the killing of a world figure: some bold and popular politician, like John or Robert Kennedy, or a spiritual leader, like Martin Luther King Jr.

But Lennon was a creature of poetic political metaphor, and his spiritual consciousness was directed inward, as a way of nurturing and widening his creative force.

That was what made the impact, and the difference – the shock of his imagination, the penetrating and pervasive traces of his genius—and it was the loss of all that, in so abrupt and awful a way, that was mourned last week, all over the world.

[71] At least three Beatles fans committed suicide after the murder,[72] leading Ono to make a public appeal asking mourners not to give in to despair.

That same year, she also released "Walking on Thin Ice", the song the Lennons had mixed at the Record Plant less than an hour before he was murdered, as a single.

[80] The day after the murder, Lennon's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, and his ashes were scattered in Central Park, in sight of the Dakota.