John Lennon’s killer sits in his tiny cell, sweating and clutching his book.

Palma still cannot comprehend what has happened. Can’t get the image out of his head from back at the hospital—Yoko, after learning her husband was dead, collapsing and then banging her head repeatedly on the floor.

“Do you realize what you just did?” he asks, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Chapman replies with a vacant stare. “I just killed myself. I am John Lennon.”

I am John Lennon. The chilling words hit Palma right in the gut.

*  *  *

Lead homicide detective Ron Hoffman heads back to the Twentieth, where the alleged assassin will be charged with violation of New York penal law 125.10—criminally negligent homicide.

Hoffman looks into the interrogation room where Chapman is seated, wearing a white thermal undershirt. The suspect is refusing a formal interview.

The detective is working from the premise that “Chapman shot John Lennon because he wanted his moment of glory in the sun.”

In a city filled with grief-stricken fans, Hoffman has to deal with the reality that his prisoner may himself become a target, “another Jack Ruby.”

*  *  *

Assistant district attorney Kim Hogrefe is assigned the case, which is being treated as a “premeditated execution.” Hogrefe must immediately contend with the press. “We felt he was criminally responsible,” he says, explaining that Chapman “borrowed a substantial sum of money—of which $2,000 was found on him—for the purpose of coming to New York City to do what he has done.”

*  *  *

At 6:00 a.m., a caller from California gets through to Yoko’s office in the Dakota, saying, “I am flying to New York to finish the job Chapman started. I’m going to get Yoko Ono.”

Chapter 67

Chapter 67

The love you take

Is equal to the love you make.

—“The End”

At his country estate in the small village of Peasmarsh, East Sussex, Paul receives a phone call. The words he’s hearing make no sense. How can his lifelong friend be gone?

A few minutes later, Linda finds him standing in their driveway. Paul breaks down in her arms.

“I can’t take it in,” he says.

The lifelong peacemaker takes on the pain the world is feeling. “That was like a really big shock in most people’s lives, a bit like Kennedy…For me, it was just so sad that I wasn’t going to see him again.”

*  *  *

George gives a brief statement saying that he’s “shattered and stunned” and that “to rob life is the ultimate robbery.” He retreats into his grief.

*  *  *