Forty years ago today, according to reports, John Lennon was shot dead in New York. It is known from biographical reports that he was preoccupied with the thought of being murdered as a celebrity long before that.

To this end, I was struck in this film recording at 4:55 min. by the passage in which Lennon is asked about past concert and tour hysterias, which he professedly did not miss, even though he did not rule out future appearances. Regarding clubs, he then speaks (5:58) of guns and “big masks” and, as far as I understand, “frighten-me-to-death-viewers.”

On Deutschlandfunk, Egon Koch investigates the murder in detail, and there is no lack of other current contributions on the subject – here and (on the occasion of the recent jubilee) here.