Strawberry Fields Forever.

lennon, lastThirty-five years ago today, John Lennon was shot dead by an unbalanced man named Mark David Chapman, who shot him four times in the back outside his New York apartment, then sat and waited for the police to arrive, and read The Catcher in the Rye, which he said was his statement.

The photo, right, is the very last one ever taken of Lennon, and the man to the right is Chapman, asking for an autograph.

He had been a big Beatles fan, idolizing Lennon, and played guitar himself, but turned against him after claiming to become a Christian; he was angered at Lennon’s comment that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus.”

Chapman is still in prison, serving twenty years to life, and has been denied parole multiple times.

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