In the documentary about John Lennon, “John Lennon: Murder without Trial,” broadcast on AppleTV+ on Wednesday (December 6, 2023), the Beatle’s last words before his death are to be revealed. The concierge of the Dakota Building in New York City, in front of whose entrance Lennon was fatally injured on December 8, 1980, wants to reveal her in the documentary.
According to the official description, the AppleTV documentary is the “most thorough research to date” in the murder case. Not only would exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses and close friends of the musician be shown, but discussions would also be held with the defense lawyers, psychiatrists, investigators and prosecutors of Mark Chapman, who fired the fatal shots . In addition, previously unpublished crime scene photos will be shown in the series. The producers – including David Glover (“9/11: A Day in America”) and Mark Raphael (“Crime and Punishment”) – obtained all the information from the New York police, the parole board and the prosecutor’s office – by relying on American Freedom of Information Act, which allows the press access to all documents.
John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial is narrated by Kiefer Sutherland and examines the shooting of Chapman and its aftermath. The title refers to the fact that Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on the eve of his trial, after which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The concierge
Jay Hastings was working at the front desk that day at the Dakota Building in New York, where Lennon, 40, lived with his wife Yoko Ono and five-year-old son Sean Ono Lennon.
“He runs past me. He says, ‘I got shot,'” Hastings recalls in the documentary. “Blood came out of his mouth. He just collapsed on the floor.” And then: “I turned him half on his back, took off his glasses and put them on the table. And Yoko was screaming, ‘Get an ambulance, get an ambulance, get an ambulance.'”