NEW YORK – “I was lying on the gurney, and behind me a door opens and a man appears shouting ‘we have a gunshot wound! A gunshot wound to the chest!”
This is how Alan Weiss begins to tell how he became the first journalist to report the death of John Lennon after an accident took him to the same hospital where the musician was transferred when he was shot dead.
On December 8, four decades after the murder of one of the most famous musicians in history, Weiss, who in 1980 worked in New York in the production department of a local news channel, was once again assaulted by the memories of that fateful night when Lennon was hit by four bullets outside the Manhattan apartment building where he lived.
“It was a very cold night in December, I had a motorcycle and was driving through Central Park, when a taxi hit me and I flew over the handlebars,” he says in an interview with Efe about the incident that led him to witness the death of the most popular member of The Beatles.
The reporter ended up that night at Roosevelt Hospital, in the Upper West of the Big Apple, waiting in the corridor for doctors to assess whether he had a serious injury after hitting his hip and head badly in the fall. It was then that two policemen shouted into the emergency room, transporting a badly wounded man.
Seconds later he heard the astonishment of two other agents, who were standing next to him: “Can you believe it? John Lennon”, they affirmed.
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Still stunned by the fall and surprised by the fact that it could be that famous character, who was also one of the people he most admired, Weiss wanted to confirm that they had spoken Lennon’s name.
Maybe they said something like Jack Lemmon and I got it wrong, he thought, but the cops refused to answer his questions.
Confined to his stretcher, he then tried to get one of the guards to call the newsroom of the news channel for which he worked, ABC7, to alert of the possible shooting of the artist, but was intercepted by a security guard, who assured him a and again that it was not Lennon.
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The lie, however, was exposed when Weiss saw a devastated Asian lady in a mink coat enter the hospital doors.
“I was crying hysterically on the arm of a police officer. I have been a fan of The Beatles all my life, and of course I knew who Yoko Ono was. I was pretty sure it was her, but not completely,” says the journalist about Lennon’s famous wife, whom some accuse of having been the cause of the band’s breakup.
Again, more attempts to access a phone line by Weiss to contact the newsroom, which eventually bear fruit.
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When talking to his colleagues, they confirm that they have heard information of a shooting in front of the Dakota, the luxury apartments in which John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived, so with all that information, they corroborate the news of the attack.
Having accomplished his initial mission, the journalist returns to his stretcher, from where he can now see perfectly how the doctors try to save the life of the illustrious patient.
“Although 40 years have passed, it is a scene I will never forget. Lennon was lying down, all his clothes had been removed. He was lying on his back, his feet facing the door, and all the medical personnel who treated him surrounded him in a semicircle. , and his chest completely open, “he relates slowly.
“There was blood everywhere, and one of the doctors had his hands inside Lennon’s chest, and he could see, by the way his hands were moving, that he was pumping his heart. … He was trying to maintain circulation. on your body, “he adds.
Minutes later, Weiss was transferred through some doors, out of the emergency department and into the general area of the hospital, where, by chance, the melody of The Beatles’ “All My Loving” (1963) was playing in the background.
“The song ends, and about a minute later, a woman screams, ‘oh no! Oh no!’, And the doors of a room open and I see Yoko Ono come out, crying uncontrollably , hugging the music producer David Geffen, “says the reporter, who says that shortly after, the doctor who treated him confirmed with hints that Lennon had not overcome the shooting.
After convincing the doctor with the argument that he was only trying to be a good journalist, Weiss was able to use another of the hospital telephones to confirm the death, and thus became the first reporter to report the fatal outcome.
“This story affected me in ways that practically no other story did. First, because I was rarely on the scene when a tragedy happened. Usually as a journalist you arrive when it has already happened,” he reflects.
“Also, I was a fan of The Beatles, I loved The Beatles, I grew up with The Beatles, The Beatles were the most important musical group in my life, and I think most people agree that it was the most important musical group. important story, “exclaims Weiss.
The reporter says Lennon used his status to do good, demanding an end to the Vietnam War, or buying bulletproof vests for the NYPD when they weren’t required yet.
However, he considers that the reporters who covered the story made a major mistake: publishing the name of the murderer, Mark Chapman, who killed the singer in order to be known around the world.
“I think that was when we as journalists disappointed the country and the whole world. We must have greater discipline to not allow people to manipulate us,” he says. “(Chapman) He did not compose songs or music or create a plan for peace or save someone’s life. He ended someone’s life, and for a selfish reason, to appear in the newspapers and television networks and radios all over the world”.
For this reason, he refuses to mention his name in the interviews he gives to the media: “I don’t know if you have noticed it, but I have not used his name in the conversation. I am not very consistent in it sometimes, (…) but I am trying more and more to learn from my mistakes, “explains Weiss, who states that the murderer should” rot in jail until the end of his days. “
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