On December 8, 1960, John Lennon was unwell. After the Beatles’ first German residence came to an abrupt end, he made his way back from Hamburg to England alone by ship and train. He and his bandmates had initially left Liverpool with dreams of fame and fortune, and now Lennon didn’t even have the taxi money to take him from the train station to his Aunt Mimi’s house, where he lived.
I often think about this young man and this night and of course what this date would later mean for all Lennon fans. It is the repeat of December 8th that comes to mind most often when it comes to Lennon, because it is the second one – the famous one, exactly 20 years later – that I prefer to keep out of my mind.
But a new Apple TV+ documentary, John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, focuses almost entirely on the fateful night of December 8, 1980, when Lennon was fatally shot outside his New York home, the Dakota. Director Nick Holt’s three-part series mercifully foregoes cheap theatrics and crazy theories and instead places us in the middle of a real-life horror story. Narrator Kiefer Sutherland strikes the right tone of composure, and while there are aspects of police proceduralism, the series doesn’t play out like the true crime documentaries we’ve all become so accustomed and desensitized to.
Mark David Chapman’s murder of Lennon is one of the most sensational crimes of modern times, both because of the victim himself and because of the deep wound his barbaric act left on the world. If you’re going to tackle this topic, it’s important to do it right: don’t be redundant, be thorough, and let it serve a larger purpose than just providing the definitive cinematic treatment of events more than four decades ago serve.
Holt definitely succeeds in his thoroughness; Yeoman’s research and dedication have clearly gone into this production. There are numerous interviews with people who played both major and minor roles in the events of that day, including taxi drivers – one who witnessed the murder, another who had previously transported Chapman – emergency room nurses and staff the reception of the Dakota. where Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono lived. We even hear from defense attorneys and prosecutors, patrol officers, detectives, doctors and psychiatrists, as well as friends from Chapman’s childhood, his youth pastor and his girlfriend from when he was 16.
Of course everyone knows about Lennon’s murder, but it’s another matter to look at all the contemporary footage. To read faces. To hear the trembling voices. The Dakota’s porter and doorman’s descriptions of the scene immediately after the shooting – with Lennon muttering that he had been shot and then falling to the ground; Ono cradles his head in her hands; and the police officers loading Lennon into their car and speeding into Roosevelt Hospital—are enough to make one feel uneasy about the futility of evil and the pain it causes.
For the first time in Holt’s series, excerpts from recorded interviews between Chapman and his attorneys are featured. As we remember, this was not a crime thriller. Everyone knew exactly who committed the crime, starting with the taxi driver, who watched in horror as 25-year-old Chapman fired the five shots that left seven holes in Lennon’s body.
Several police officers say Chapman could have left the scene as easily as he wanted; He could have taken the subway to the airport and flown back to his home in Honolulu, which he shared with his wife (who sounds strangely calm in the recorded phone conversation we hear between her and Chapman shortly after the murder). Instead, Chapman took off his coat, pulled out a copy of JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, and began reading casually while he waited for the police to come and arrest him.
In one of these newly revealed tapes he says: “I firmly believe that I killed John Lennon to get as many people as possible to read The Catcher in the Rye. All my efforts will now be devoted to this goal.” In other cases, Chapman noted that by killing the musician he believed he had become himself or Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of the Salinger novel. Suffice it to say that there will probably never be clarity about the motive. If it were, it would be here, and it isn’t, through no fault of the filmmakers.
As we hear Chapman – who was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison – speak at various ages throughout the documentary, we find someone who sounds articulate, calm, sometimes logical and sometimes just plain crazy. However, he doesn’t feel multidimensional; almost as if he wasn’t real, unlike Lennon. The documentary features audio from an interview Lennon gave on the day of his death, and you’ve never heard anyone sound more alive. This is where an additional touch of sadness comes into play: through the nothingness. “Murder Without a Trial” is sad, but it is sad and has an overarching benefit that its subject matter – Lennon’s death – finally makes real for a wide range of viewers.
Much like Yoko Ono’s decision to place a photo of Lennon’s blood-stained glasses on the cover of her album Season of Glass, which promoted compassion and forced fans to confront the horrors of gun violence, Murder Without a Trial makes the experience of Lennon’s murder even more real. It never deviates from the facts and truths of the murder case, even in the days from December 1980 until the middle of the next year, when Chapman decided to reverse course – saying that God had told him to kill Lennon , although he disagreed – and changed course from “not guilty” to “guilty” first plea, eliminating the need for a trial. But for all its ruminations on loss – physical, familial and cultural – the series is also about preserving the preciousness of life.
Less than five minutes after the series ended, I started A Hard Day’s Night to listen to the John Lennon who will always be alive in a way that goes beyond the idea of breathing now and not tomorrow breathe. This record contains some of the most joyful art – the most joyful demonstration of humanity – that I have ever experienced. The life that cannot be taken. And I remembered again the young man on board that train on December 8, 1960. He had so much to give, and he was given the chance to give it until he didn’t.
As a Beatles and Lennon fan, I don’t think I can watch “Murder Without a Trial” again. What I will come back to, however, are Sean Lennon’s final words after being asked what his father meant most to the world and what he meant most to him.
“His music touched everyone. Almost everyone around the world. I mean, it’s amazing the effect music can have on people. For me he was my father.
Listen to these words—not just what they are, but how he says them. And then think of all that we lose that we don’t have to lose. Imagine. As his father once said: It’s easy if you try.