Mae was kind enough to share some of her thoughts onthe murder of John Lennon last December 8, 1980 in NewYork City. She is just starting her 11th year ofbroadcasting on radio KLRB, Carmel, CA.
Tom Davis—Tom: What would be the motive to kill John Lennon onDecember 8, 1980? Lennon had been in seclusion formany years and had not yet released his new album.
Mae: Both the date of Lennon’s murder, and the carefulselection of this particular victim are veryimportant. Six weeks after Lennon’s death, RonaldReagan would become President. Reagan and hissoon-to-be appointed cabinet were prepared to build upthe Pentagon war machine and increase the potentialfor war against the USSR. The first strike would fallon small countries like El Salvador and Guatemala.Lennon, alone, was the only man (even without hisfellow Beatles) who had the ability to draw out onemillion anti-war protestors in any given city within24 hours, if he opposed those war policies. John Lennon was a spiritual force. He was a giant,like Gandhi, a man who wrote about peace and brotherlylove. He taught an entire generation to think forthemselves and to challenge authority. Lennon and theBeatles’ songs shout out the inequalities life and themessages of change. Change is a threat to the longtimestatus quo that Reagan’s team exemplified. On my weekly radio broadcast of December 7, 1980,I stated that “the old assassination teams are comingback into power.” The very people responsible forcovering up the murders of President John F. Kennedy,Senator Robert Kennedy, Reverend Martin Luther King,for Watergate and Koreagate, and the kidnapping andmurder of Howard Hughes, and for hundreds of otherdeaths, had only six weeks before they would again beremoving or silencing those voices of opposition totheir policies. Lennon was coming out once more. His album wascut. He was preparing to be part of the world, a worldwhich was a worse place since the time he hadwithdrawn with his family. It was a sure bet Lennonwould react and become a social activist again. Thatwas the threat. Lennon realized that there was dangercoming back into public view. He took that dangerouschance, and we all lost!
Tom: The common assumption is that Mark David Chapman,arrested the moment he killed John Lennon, was actingout his personal love-hate relationship with Lennon.Why do you have to look for a larger conspiracy thanthe conflicts in Chapman’s own head?
Mae: Single crimes of passion are easy to explain andeasy to solve. When someone is gunned down who iscontroversial, has political enemies, is hated bywealthy and well-organized religious movements, and isan open opponent of government policies at home andabroad, that kind of murder requires much more inquiryinto the background of the assassin. The conclusionsabout the murder motive may turn out to be simple.Yet, in every political assassination since 1963,there were always more unanswered questions that ledto a broader supposition of intention to kill by agroup of people rather than one single individual.
Tom: What is the first clue you look for if you aresuspicious of a larger conspiracy to assassinate,whether it is John Lennon, President John F. Kennedy,or the recent attempts on President Reagan and PopeJohn Paul II?
Mae: There are necessary connecting links in everyassassination conspiracy. If any link of that chainfalls apart and becomes exposed, the parts of thelarger plot are more visible. When every element ofthat chain holds together and is present in theevidence and testimony regarding any particularmurder, there has to be a larger conspiracy. (Seeaccompanying diagram) The most important link in that chain is theselected decoy or patsy. Whoever is arrested at thescene of the crime, to the exclusion of othersuspicious persons, becomes the “assassin.” Thissingle person must serve a purpose, namely, to divertall attention away from those people who have armedhim and located him at the scene of the crime. Letters and diaries are always present and easilylocated to support the predetermined cover story. Theyprovide a “motive”, and are the glue that cements (weare told) the “loner” to his single purpose. In preparation for his “act”, the decoy or patsyis moved across countries or overseas, traveling andstaying at safe houses. He has no friends, no jobs, nomeans of support while at the same time staying atfancy hotels, spending lots of money, getting phonemessages, and meeting lots of people. Very few peoplehave the money to spend years in transit like thesepatsies, whose chances of being in selected locationsat the precise moment their victim is murdered areminute and impossible without assistance.
Tom: Who was Mark David Chapman? What was there in hisbackground that made you suspicious that he had beenselected for a “decoy” or “patsy” by other persons whowanted Lennon dead?
Mae: Chapman came from a conservative military familywho had moved from Fort Worth, Texas to Florida. Hehad become a “Jesus Freak” at the time Lennon and theBeatles were getting death threats during the anti-warperiod. Joining this movement while supposedly lovingand admiring Lennon was a gross contradiction, for thereligious fundamentalists were furious that Lennonconsidered himself better known and loved than Jesus. DeKalb County, Georgia, just to the east ofAtlanta, figures prominently in Chapman’s life as ithad some years earlier in that of Martin Luther King.In 1977 in a court affidavit, Robert Byron Watson,former employee of Magellon’s Art Gallery, Atlanta,named several citizens as having planned and braggedabout the “future murder of Reverend Martin LutherKing.” King’s death came just one week after the planswere discussed. These same people also talked aboutmurdering Senator Robert Kennedy. Chapman attended DeKalb Junior College in the areawhere these kinds of plans were laid and suchpolitical anger was being vented. From DeKalb County,Chapman was sent to Beirut, Lebanon. He was handed thefunds both ways. Beirut was the center for GeorgeHabash and CIA assassination teams also identified inthe Watson testimony before the House Select Committeeon Assassinations in 1977-78. On March 31, 1981, United Press Internationalexposed the connection of “military training in aguerrilla camp” in Beirut, Lebanon to “worldwide Nazities.” After six months in Lebanon, Chapman went to FortChaffee, Arkansas to work with Vietnam refugeesrecently arrived from Southeast Asia. Members of theCIA were with him at this military base. William Colby’s Vietnam Phoenix program, staffedwith agents who intensely hated the anti-war, socialactivists like John Lennon, had both the intent andthe means to move persons like Chapman to theirtraining camps and then to specific places planned assites for future assassinations. Colby came back tothe U.S. to become Director of the C.I.A. at a time(1973) when “Operation Chaos” was in full swingagainst the hippies, rock musicians, and anti-warprotestors. Many of them were killed or otherwiseneutralized. From Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, Chapman moved toLookout Mountain, Tennessee to attend PresbyterianCollege.
Martin Luther King, a victim of plans made inDeKalb County, Georgia, was murdered in Memphis,Tennessee. Senator Howard Baker from Tennessee and CIADirector William Colby were making deals to cover upWatergate crimes in 1974-75, year before Chapman movedto Tennessee. According to news reports, Chapman “fled”Tennessee to Hawaii in 1976. His earliest arrestrecords indicated he had committed crimes in Florida,but the authorities later blamed these crimes onanother person, excusing the mix-up as a “computermistake.” Many patsies and decoys have earlier arrestrecords that are used to keep them silent and activelycooperative for fear of going to jail. Was there anyconnection between the Florida identification and thereason for Chapman’s flight to Hawaii? Hawaii has been the scene of many clandestineoperations. Many CIA Vietnamese and members of theSpecial Forces, now safely removed from Vietnam, wereassembled in Hawaii. The Nugan Hand Bank, anAustralian conduit for CIA “black money”, actuallyassassination funds, kept a branch in Hawaii. HerbertMullen, convicted of mass murders in California,appeared perfectly normal until he was sent to amilitary hospital in Hawaii. It was in Maui that hewent through his “religious thinking” and evolved as akiller. Ed Sanders, author of The Family, a book aboutthe Manson Family, obtained documents regarding amysterious trip Mullen took to Hawaii before he laterbecame a programmed killer. The years from 1976 to 1978 in Chapman’s biographyare still vague and murky: two years of limitedemployment and “mental treatment.” Allegedly, he wasin the hospital for a mental breakdown. On the otherhand, if there were any evidence of mentalinstability, would not his permit application to buythe murder weapon have been denied? There were many years, months, days when Chapmancould have been mentally programmed to become like the“Manchurian Candidate,” specifically to murder JohnLennon, if and when he re-entered public life. Lennonwas not threat until the U.S. was getting close toanother war. Subsequently, Chapman took a long “vacation”,including a trip around the world. During this voyagehe made a trip to Switzerland to meet a pal fromDeKalb County, Georgia, the same man who earlier hadarranged the original trip to Lebanon. The journeyculminated in London with a rare visit to a liveLennon concert. Chapman’s wife, who worked for a travel agency,“arranged his itinerary”. The source of the money forhis fare, hotels, food, concerts, has never beenidentified, although Pacific Holding Ltd., a “tourism”company formed by the CIA and Special Forces, may beimplicated. Both groups had funds to hireassassination teams. When Chapman left his job in Hawaii, October 23,1980, he flew to Atlanta, GA. From Georgia, he went toNew York City with the intention of killing JohnLennon, but was apparently able to resist the “masterinside himself”, a conflict he describes, and returnedto Hawaii. Before long, however, Hawaii was againbehind him, and Chapman arrived in New York onDecember 5, 1980 with the specific plan to kill JohnLennon, which he did three days later.
Tom: What you are talking about is onlycircumstantial. There is no proof that the CIA or anygovernment agency manipulated Chapman for theirpurposes. When does the proof of a conspiracy everbecome apparent?
Mae: The burden of proof of conspiracy is put upon theprivate investigator. The common denominator in allthese cases are those links in the conspiracy chain(see diagram) which show the relevant questions to beasked: Were there other persons along with Chapmanshooting at Lennon to make sure he died? Who fled thescene in a hurry, never sought again by lawenforcement agencies? Why did the New York policeadamantly refuse to accept pictures of Chapman takenautographing an album earlier in the evening of themurder? Why were they donated to a newspaper after thepolice refused to accept them? When Chapman’s wife wascalled by the New York Police, why did they instructher, “Don’t release any picture of him.”? How couldMiami Police issue an erroneous description of acriminal record having the same last name, date ofbirth, race, and approximate height as the slayingsuspect? Can we ever see the picture of the Floridasuspect? If Chapman was treated for mental illness inHawaii, how did he procure the weapon in Hawaii? Howdid Chapman transport the gun from the Island to theMainland? (This question was dismissed by the FederalBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents, whosaid, “No investigation was in progress.”) Money was never a problem for this wanderer. Heand his wife lived in a $400 a month apartment andwere able to support his hobby of collecting expensiveworks of art. Owning original Norman Rockwelllithographs worth $7,500, and traveling around theworld aren’t impossible, if there is some kind ofoccupation that provides the money for these luxuries. If Chapman wrote “John Lennon” on his job worksheet on October 23, 1980, it would seem impossiblefor someone not to notice this message until the dayafter Lennon was murdered. Employment log sheets areusually added up regularly to determine the hoursworked and amount of pay checks. It is more probablethat Chapman wrote this name at that time so that hiscover story, his defense after the murder, would behis mental identification with John Lennon. Chapman’s intention to find Lennon, as justanother adoring Beatle fan, must be separated from thequestion of who transported him from Hawaii to Georgiato New York, back to Hawaii, and back again to NewYork, with lots of cash, and with the sole purpose ofkilling Lennon. Jimmy Breslin, New York columnist, was impressedthat Mark David Chapman could be such a “good shot”with “no military background at all.” But Chapman hadbeen trained to shoot. He had learned to become asecurity guard in Georgia before his trips to Lebanonand to the many countries where he could have beeninstructed in killing. What about Ft. Chaffee? Why notshooting practice in Tennessee? What about militarybases in Hawaii? What gives Breslin and the New YorkDaily News the right to make such statements withoutan inkling of Chapman’s background? Like all the other “loner” drifters, Chapmanstayed at expensive hotels. His last evening beforekilling Lennon was spent at the Sheraton Centre Hotelin New York. He was carrying more than $2,000 in cashalong with his credit cards. Where did he get thesecards, and on what basis was the money earned andsaved to establish credit to qualify for these cards?
Tom: You apparently believe there was a governmentconspiracy to assassinate and silence John Lennonwhich was conducted by the same people who murderedother political figures and musicians in the pasteighteen years?
Mae: Absolutely! The federal government has maintainedactive programs to eliminate rock musicians anddisrupt rock concerts. Senator Frank Church’sCommittee hearings in 1975 and the FBICointel-Programs clearly document the intent to breakup any gatherings of the “new left”. Nothing broughtanti-war demonstrators together with politicalmessages more effectively than music festivals. There is hard evidence the CIA assigned agents to“investigate the music industry.” After the murders ofTim Buckley, Jim Croce, and Mama Cass Elliot, moreinformation surfaced about earlier mysterious deathsof Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin.Listed below, but not updated this past year, are someof the rock musicians who have died since the HustonPlan and the FBI Cointel-Program were activated. Ifthese people had been taking any kinds of drugs, thereis the distinct possibility that specific poisons wereadded to their drugs, enough to be fatal, to make itappear that they had died from a simple “overdose”.
The murder of John Lennon is the tragic finale toan entire era, the reminder that once an artistbecomes as popular and as political as he was, hisenemies will be waiting to make sure his messagesnever appear again to awaken the slumbering youth.
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