Elliot Mintz was a longtime friend to both John Lennon and his partner Yoko Ono. He's written a new memoir about the fallout after Lennon died.
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Mark David Chapman shot and killed the iconic singer on the streets of New York. Mintz heard reports of a shooting and instantly became worried about his friend.
He wrote, "My mother had heard a radio report about a shooting on 72nd Street. The Lennons were not answering their phones. The Dakota operator had hung up on me. Was that enough to send me racing to the airport to catch the last flight to New York? But then I saw a flight attendant exit the cockpit, tears streaming down her cheeks. As she hesitatingly made her way down the aisle, I reached out and touched her arm."
"Are you okay?" Mintz asked.
She told him, "They killed him. They murdered John Lennon."
Fallout After John Lennon Died
Mintz said he struggled to deal with the emotions that followed. He instantly felt a pit in his stomach and panic.
He also wrote, "For a long moment I found it impossible to process what I'd been told. And then, like a flash fire in the brainpan, the horror of what happened exploded in my consciousness. 'John is dead,' I whispered to myself. My best friend was gone. My heart began to race, I found myself gasping for air. I literally doubled over in pain as my whole body absorbed the shock."
Much later, Mintz and Yoko Ono sat together and saw the picture of Chapman on the news for the first time.
Mintz wrote, "Suddenly, a picture of the suspect appeared on the screen. Yoko sat up and stared intently at the mug shot of the assailant; she seemed both mesmerised and repulsed — and deeply confused — by the face of the man who had murdered her husband."
Mintz and Ono later had disagreements over handling the fall out from Lennon's death. She explained that Lennon was a free spirit.
Mintz also said that Yoko said, "You know how John felt about his own safety. We talked about this at our kitchen table when your friend [the actor Sal Mineo] was killed. John said, 'If they're going to get you, they're going to get you.' It didn't matter what my advisers told me. He didn't believe in bodyguards, he wouldn't put up with them. He wanted to be free."
