Death of John Lennon - Aftermath

Aftermath

Lennon's murder triggered an outpouring of grief around the world on an unprecedented scale. Lennon's remains were cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Westchester; no funeral was held. Ono sent word to the chanting crowd outside the Dakota that their singing had kept her awake; she asked that they re-convene in Central Park the following Sunday for ten minutes of silent prayer. On 14 December 1980, millions of people around the world responded to Ono's request to pause for ten minutes of silence to remember Lennon. Thirty thousand gathered in Liverpool, and the largest group—over 225,000—converged on New York's Central Park, close to the scene of the shooting. For those ten minutes every radio station in New York City went off the air. At least three Beatles fans committed suicide after the murder, leading Ono to make a public appeal asking mourners not to give in to despair. Ono released a solo album, Season of Glass, in 1981. The cover of the album is a photograph of Lennon's blood-spattered glasses. A 1997 re-release of the album included "Walking on Thin Ice", the song the Lennons had mixed at the Record Plant less than an hour before he was murdered. Chapman eventually pleaded guilty to Lennon's murder in 1981, against the advice of his lawyers, who wanted to file an insanity plea. Chapman received a life sentence, but under the terms of his guilty plea, he became eligible for parole after serving 20 years. Chapman has been denied parole at hearings every two years since 2000 and remains imprisoned at the Wende Correctional Facility.