A forthcoming book and documentary by British author and TV producer, David Whelan, casts doubt on whether Mark David Chapman was John Lennon’s assassin.. John Lennon Face Pic .Lennon was shot as he and Yoko Ono returned home to the Dakota Building after a recording on the night of Dec. 8, 1980..Whelan, who investigated circumstances of the evening for three years, points to “a series of extraordinary inconsistencies — including the suggestion that detectives may have fundamentally misunderstood how the shooting happened,” reports The Daily Mail. “And intriguingly Whelan's research into the former Beatle's death has raised a series of troubling questions about exactly how the killing was carried out and why.”.The court-accepted version is when Lennon returned home, Chapman shot him in the back four times, but Whelan says his investigation proved this to be incorrect, saying he spoke to the attending doctor when Lennon was brought to the hospital and the two assisting nurses, Dr David Halleran and nurses, Barbara Kammerer and Dea Sato..All three said Lennon was shot from in front, “with the four bullets grouped closely together, suggesting a high degree of marksmanship and three passing straight through his body and out of his rear shoulder,” reports The Mail..“Between the two of them, nurses Kammerer and Sato saw Lennon’s wounds up close, three times. Twice when he was washed and shrouded. Nobody was better placed to say where and how John Lennon was shot,” Whelan told The Mail..He also interviewed the NYPD lead detective in the case, Ron Hoffman, who claimed Lennon must have been shot in the back, saying, “It's impossible because he (Lennon) was walking up the stairs in front of Yoko.”.Which, says Whelan, is problematic, because eyewitnesses said Chapman was standing at the entrance of the Dakota’s portico and “if Lennon was climbing the steps he would have been out of Chapman's view. The hollow-point bullets Chapman supposedly used do not usually pass through a victim, as they are designed to spread out on impact, causing maximum damage to the body.”.“Although a post-mortem examination was carried out on Lennon's body, the autopsy was performed by the controversial New York City Chief Medical Officer, Elliot Gross, and his report has never been released to the public,” reports The Mail. “Gross had a reputation for running a chaotic office and was later investigated over allegations of misconduct, misleading causes of deaths, and covering up evidence of police brutality. He was dismissed in 1987, though later cleared of 11 charges of negligence, misconduct, and incompetence.”.Whelan says he believes key information was hushed up by the NYPD and the District Attorney's office..Also in question is whether more evidence would have come to light at trial, but there never was a trial, which raises suspicion, according to Whelan..“Chapman's lawyers were aiming for a trial and an insanity plea, but out of the blue, Chapman decided he wanted to forgo a trial and plead guilty, claiming that “a little voice inside his head' told him to do this,” Whelan told The Mail and “that volte-face only came after Chapman was visited in his cell by various psychiatrists employed by his defence lawyers.”.Whelan noted three of the doctors had utilized hypnosis, and one, Dr. Milton Kline, worked with the CIA on its MK Ultra mind control program and once claimed a man could be programmed to murder via hypnosis under the program, on which the movie The Manchurian Candidate was based..Whelan notes Chapman, “could not coherently understand why he felt compelled to shoot John Lennon. He did not remember pulling the hammer or aiming.” .“NYPD Lieutenant Arthur O'Connor stated that Chapman appeared ‘programmed’ on the night he shot Lennon” reports The Mail. “All he could remember was a voice in his head saying, ‘do it do it.’” .If Chapman was a ‘patsy’ or not even the shooter, Whelan speculates several scenarios..He says it could be traced back to Lennon’s 1966 comment that the Beatles “were more popular than Jesus” and the reaction in the US Southern Bible Belt, where albums were burned, and Beatles’ music banned on local radio stations..He also points to President Richard Nixon who instructed US intelligence agencies to secretly monitor Lennon and have never released hundreds of pages of documents on him..Additionally, notes Whelan, newly elected US President Ronald Reagan may have feared Lennon’s powerful voice could influence public opinion against any future foreign military interventions by the US..“John Lennon's murder meant that no celebrity voices with any weight, would be heard against Reagan's ambitions and used as a potential opposition rallying cry,” said Whelan. “Could Lennon's famous criticism of Christianity and Richard Nixon have possibly played a part in his murder, and could Christian groups associated with Chapman have deliberately, or perhaps inadvertently, programmed and groomed him to be an assassin?”.Whelan’s book and documentary are scheduled for release later this year.
