Lennon was rushed to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after 11:00 p.m.

Gunman Mark David Chapman, a security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii was immediately arrested and charged with 1st degree murder. At the time, it was reported that Chapman had first called out Lennon's name and dropped into a combat stance before shooting, but that was later denied by Chapman who is serving a lifetime sentence at the Attica Corrections facility in New York.

When news hit the streets late in the evening of December  8, 1980 that the infamous former Beatle John Lennon was dead, crowds immediately started to gather outside the Dakota Building to mourn his death.

Across the nation and round the globe people awoke to the sad tragic news that the former Beatle from Liverpool, England, known for writing songs of peace and love was now dead. Disc jockey's on many local radio stations played non-stop Beatles music. Hundreds of grieving fans started to gather for candlelight vigils singing Lennon songs "Give Peace A Chance"  and "Imagine" outside the Dakota building. As crowds continued to grow, a distraught Yoko Ono suggested that the mourners reconvene at Central Park the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer. In response to Ono's request, more than 225,000 fans from all over the world gathered in Central Park on Sunday, December 14, 1980 to light candles, sing, pray and pay their respects to one of the best singer song-writers of our time.

Every December 8th, for thirty years, hundreds of fans have continued to congregate both outside the Dakota building on West 72nd Street, Manhattan and also across the road at Central Park at "Strawberry Fields," a memorial made to John Lennon. Many still shed tears as they chant his songs and remember him.

Today, the man that killed John Lennon, Mark David Chapman, now 55, is still serving his lifetime sentence at Attica Corrections Facility after being denied parole six times. 

In transcripts of a parole hearing released to the public in 2008, Chapman confessed he had planned to shoot Lennon three months earlier, after seeing his photo on the cover of  the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

"I just saw his face and it seemed like it all came together, the solution to my problem of being confused and feeling like a nobody. And I thought, wouldn't it be something if I killed this individual? I would become famous, I would be something other than a nobody. And that was my reasoning at the time."  Chapman said of Lennon that he had wrongly perceived him at that time and misjudged him to be a phony. "Here he is at this ritzy building and he had been singing of love and other things at that time; it angered me," he said. Chapman also revealed in the 2008 transcript that since the murder in 1980 he now has a greater understanding of the value of human life and now realizes the gravity of what he had done. " I recognized that that 25-year old man, I don't think he really appreciated the life that he was taking, that this was a human being, he said. "I feel now at 53 I have grown into a deeper understanding of what a human life is. I have changed a lot." Parole was denied by the 2008 parole board "due to concern for the public safety and welfare."

Chapman's last parole hearing was on September 7, 2010 where signed petitions and 75 letters against his release, including one from Yoko Ono were presented to the parole board. After consideration the parole panel denied the appeal saying, " Chapman's 'premeditated senseless and selfish act of tragic consequence' makes his release inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the welfare of the community."

Thirty years on, John Lennon, one of the best singer song-writers of our time, though sometimes quite controversial, left behind a great musical legacy which is still enjoyed by both young and old. Lennon's many songs of love and peace will be sung forever. Most important though is the message he left to the world: "Love is the answer...love is real...love is like a flower you have to let it grow."

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