Who Killed John Lennon? - Hardcover

Bresler, Fenton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312034520 ISBN 13: 9780312034528

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1989

Synopsis

Based on six years of extensive research into the background and motives of assassin Mark Chapman and the circumstances of the murder, Bresler contends that Chapman did not act alone but was part of a political plot

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Bresler, a British lawyer, believes tht Mark Chapman, assassin of John Lennon, was no "lone nut" but was programmed by the CIA, through drugs and hypnosis, to carry out the murder. The N.Y.C. police lieutenant who interrogated Chapman the night of the slaying in 1980 is quoted here as saying: "He looked as if he could have been programmed." Bresler builds an entirely circumstantial case without a shred of hard evidence, but he does raise some interesting questions. Why, for instance, did Chapman, in 1975 a 19-year-old, religious, anti-Communist Southerner, select Russia as his preferred destination in a YMCA exchange program, and end up instead in Beirut? Bresler posits that Chapman was recruited by the CIA as a killer and kept "on hold" until the agency found a target: Lennon, portrayed here as a magnet for leftist causes. He argues that Chapman spent three "missing days" in Chicago before arriving in New York to shoot the rock star. As Bresler ( The Mystery of Georges Simenon ) reports, Lennon was kept under surveillance by both the FBI and CIA, but that in itself proves nothing. Author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In 1980, 25-year-old Mark Chapman shot to death music star John Lennon outside Lennon's New York City residence. Despite the many doubts about his sanity, Chapman pleaded guilty and is serving a long prison term. Bresler, a British lawyer and author, speculates that Chapman may have been hypnotically programmed--possibly by the CIA--to assassinate Lennon to prevent the ex-Beatle from returning to political activism. There is not a jot of evidence to support this outlandish hypothesis. Laying aside the "conspiracy theory," this is a deficient effort which suffers from the author's lack of access to Chapman and others. Not recommended, although sensation-seeking publicity may result in some demand.
- Gregor A. Preston. Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0312034520
• ISBN 13: 9780312034528
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 309