On what would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday on October 9,RadarOnline.com can reveal stunning claims about how vengeful former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover laid the groundwork for The Beatles singer’s assassination years before killer Mark David Chapman was “brainwashed” into carrying out the depraved act.
Two journalists alleged Hoover and the CIA were terrified of Lennon’s views and massive popularity – and “nerdy loser” Chapman, 70, was a “mind-controlled patsy” convinced to kill the icon.
Chapman Acted Like a ‘Zombie’ Gunning Down Lennon
An NYPD officer who interrogated Chapman said the shooter ‘looked as if he could have been programmed.’
Across two separate books, authors Fenton Bresler and Phil Strongman each argued the CIA recruited Chapman as a “sleeper assassin” to silence the former Beatle.
Chapman was said to have acted like a “zombie” when he shot and killed Lennon outside of his apartment building, The Dakota, in New York City on December 8, 1980, and then calmly waited for police to arrest him, according to Bresler’s Who Killed John Lennon?
Former New York Police Department Detective Author O’Connor, who interrogated Chapman, noted: “He looked as if he could have been programmed.”
CIA and FBI Tap Lennon’s Phone Lines
Sources claimed Hoover, the CIA, and FBI feared Lennon’s political views and ability to rally millions.
In a shocking coincidence, the first person to speak to Chapman after the shooting was doorman Jose Perdomo, a Cuban exile who reportedly participated in the CIA’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion and was an alleged former agency operative, according to Strongman’s John Lennon: Life, Times and Assassination.
Hoover is said to have first drawn a bullseye on Lennon’s back after the peacenik’s 1971 benefit concert in Michigan led to the humiliating release of a jailed counter-culture leader who was serving 10 years for marijuana possession.
From then on, both the FBI and CIA hounded the Imagine singer, placing him under surveillance, tapping his phone lines, and vowing to deport him, Bresler claimed.
Lennon’s Assassination Fears
Years before his murder, Lennon warned a pal if anything happened to himself or Yoko Ono, ‘it was not an accident.’
By 1972, Lennon felt so intimidated he told Paul Krassner, “If anything happens to Yoko (Ono) and me, it was not an accident.”
Bresler claimed it was the singer’s ability to rally millions about political subjects that terrified Hoover, adding: “He was viewed as a dangerous radical who needed to be stopped.”
Insiders claim even after Hoover died in 1972, his FBI cronies continued to follow his orders – and Lennon was still viewed as a threat to America’s conservative values.
Lennon was killed in a plot based, in part, on Hoover’s successful blueprint to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963, insiders alleged.
Lennon died in 1980.
Hoover and the CIA have long been accused of using JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald as a patsy for the murder.
Chapman’s defense attorneys were shocked to learn their client pleaded guilty to the crime against their advice in closed court, which further fueled conspiracies about Hoover’s assassination blueprint being used in the musician’s death.
Lennon’s killer was sentenced to 20 years to life behind bars and has been regarded as a crazy, obsessed fan who acted alone, though Bresler insisted, “It was a conspiracy.”
