Today mark unfortunately the thirtieth anniversary of the death of former Beatle and immortal Rock legend John Lennon at the age of 40 at the hands of a crazed and deranged fan,Mark David Chapman who shot Lennon four times in front of his residence,the Dakota Apartments near New York City's famous Central Park.Since then,Lennon's tragic death has left a void in popular music and also marked the loss of innocence regarding the relationship between celebrities and their fans since ever since Lennon's death,every celebrity has upped up on security and bodyguards to protect them against rabid insane fans and stalkers as well as tons of invading paparazzi, stalkerazzi and annoying reporters. It's so ironic that John Lennon came to New York City back in 1970 to escape the madness of Beatlemania to find his identity as a solo musician together with his wife Yoko Ono and his son, Sean and to become another ordinary New Yorker which Lennon succeeded in doing so until his untimely death.It's also ironic that at the time Lennon was murdered by Chapman on December 8,1980,Lennon had just finished his latest LP DOUBLE FANTASY which would later in 1981 be a number one record posthumously.
But there was a unfortunate legacy that resulted after Lennon's death at the hands of a fan.Previously before this incident,there was virtually no known case of a celebrity harmed or killed by a fan or admirer,because in those times,fans knew how to keep distance from their beloved celebrites.Since Lennon's death,there has been an alarming and ever growing number of cases of celebrities stalked,harmed and even killed by crazed,insane fans such like in the case of Jodie Foster in which a crazed fan attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan; or the case of actress Theresa Saldana who was scarred in a brutal attack by an insane fan;or TV actress Rebecca Shaeffer(MY SISTER SAM) killed at her front door by a schizophrenic fan.Other famous cases of stalkers and the celebrities being stalked are Uma Thurman,Michael J.Fox,David Letterman,Sheryl Crow, Anna Kournikova,Pamela Anderson,Jerry Lewis,Catherine Zeta Jones & Michael Douglas,former Beatle George Harrison,Conan O'Brian,TV reporter Kathryn Dettman, It also doesn't help that celebrity stalkers are somehow helped by the barrage of celebrity invasive and intrusive reporting started by Entertainment Tonight which ironically started in 1980 the year Lennon died at the hands of a stalker and continued today by Access Hollywood,Extra!,Inside Edition,Hard Copy and the most infamous of TV stalkerazzie shows,Harvey Levin's TMZ.But tonight let us remember the great John Lennon not for his death but for his great music,his wit and wisdom and his great talent as a musician/composer.If you are living in the New York City area,then please pass by the Strawberry Fields park section of Western Central Park in Manhattan, NYC to place flowers in honor of the great and never forgotten John Lennon,who at the time of his death,was a fellow New Yorker just like the rest of us!
