John Lennon's Death - What is the true story?

“At 10:50 p.m. on 8 December 1980, Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in front of the Dakota.

Around 5 p.m., Lennon and Ono left the Dakota to supervise the transfer of some of the Double Fantasy album numbers to singles. David Geffen said that more than 700,000 album copies had already been sold up to that time. As they were leaving the Dakota, they were approached by several people seeking autographs. Among them was Chapman, and Lennon signed an autograph on the Double Fantasy album cover for him. A picture was taken by another fan while he was signing Chapman's album, capturing killer and victim on film only a few hours before his murder.

The Lennons spent several hours at the studio on West 44th Street before returning to the Dakota at about 10:50 p.m. They exited their limousine on 72nd Street, even though the car could have been driven into the courtyard. Jose Perdomo (who was the doorman at the entrance), an elevator operator, and a cab driver all saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. The Lennons walked past, and Ono opened the inner door — leaving Lennon alone inside the entrance. Chapman called out, "Mr. Lennon!", dropped into a "combat stance" and shot Lennon four times with hollow point bullets from a Charter Arms .38 revolver. Two shots struck Lennon in the left side of his back and two in his left shoulder. All four caused serious internal damage and one pierced Lennon's aorta.”

Source – wikipedia

This is believed to be the story of Lennon’s death and was widely circulated in the media and by other means of communication. However there are so many lose ends in this story that its validity is highly questionable and I am surprised that it has not been questioned before my serious Lennon fans who I am sure are huge in number. The following points discuss what I am talking about:

+ Yoko Ono was believed to be seen with Lennon all throughout after 5 p.m., from when they left Dakota till the time when Ono went inside after opening the inner door, following which Lennon was shot and killed. How ever the house keeper, with whom even the murderer had a chat, and who was assigned the duty to take care of Lennon’s son had reported that he was instructed the Lennon’s to strictly not go to the upper level of the house and neither let the child go there, which was quite strange because there was no one in the house, or at least no was supposed to be, after the Lennon’s had left. The housekeeper was sure that he had heard noises coming from the upper level but since was told not to bother he didn’t check it but he swears that he saw Ono’s reflections on one of the windows from the upper level, two hours after she was supposed to have left with Lennon.

+ Fans like Robin Upton, Karl Portman and Jacky Andrews who had been following the Lennon’s all around the globe and were loyal fans all have reported that they noted something strange in Ono’s behavior and more importantly her appearance when they stopped the Lennon’s for autographs. Jacky says, “It was not Ono, it just couldn’t have been her. I mean all of us knew how she looked. That woman looked very similar but definitely she was not Ono”. Some fans even near the studio noted something strange about Ono, or at least who they thought was Ono.

+ As I had mentioned earlier Ono went inside the house when Lennon was still outside, he was then called upon by Chapman and shot. Sources present there, including the housekeeper say that it was only after around ten minutes had past since the last shots were fired at Lennon and only when he had fallen on the ground did Ono emerge from within the house. Ten whole minutes after the shots were fired!

+ The most intriguing factor is the least established one here. A storekeeper near Lennon’s residence had, he said, seen Ono talking to Chapman a few meters away from the Lennon’s residence a day before the incident. The conversation, he had added, was concluded with Ono handing over a packet to Chapman.

These, I do not believe are anywhere near conclusive and pose more questions that they answer. For example, if it is to be believed that Ono actually stayed in house and someone else accompanied Lennon, then there can be no doubt that Lennon would have come to no of this. How come then he kept quite? Was he involved in same way in his own death? A lot of conclusions can be drawn and much of what has been mentioned might be brushed aside and proved wrong. However the point is that there appears to a point of view that is different from the point of view that is generally perpetuated and it is definitely worth investigating. Of course none of this is official.