"When I went to the kitchen to get some coffee, I found Elliot Mintz there. He had just flown in from L.A. and could hardly wait to go into action. He talked excitedly about his experience in "crisis management," boasting that he had been Sal Mineo's friend for thirteen years and that when Mineo had been killed, he had been there to take care of business. At about 7:00 A.M. Yoko came into the kitchen, said hello to Mintz, and made some tea. Then she sat on the couch and put her head in her hands. Mintz went over to her and patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Yoko, it's going to be all right," he said. "We'll take care of you.""
I have always thought of Mintz as a dubious character. He certainly ingratiated himself into the Lennon inner circle by sucking up and flattering Yoko Ono which seemed to be the only way to get close to John.
He seems to keep Ono onside by demonstrating his loyalty to her but at the same time carrying out his main objective of regurgitating the laughable official assassination narative at every opportunity.
He mentioned that a lot of what he wrote was taken out by his editor. It sounds as though his writing method was to think of one memory or subject at a time, then write about that throughout the night, then move onto something unrelated the following night. The editor however said each section needed to lead into the next as a flowing narrative and a lot of stories were lost because they would have taken the reader down a blind alley (or words to that effect). Whilst it probably isn't the case that anything was excised on the grounds of being deemed problematic on the face of it, Mintz did reveal that large sections dealing with the weeks directly after John's assassination were cut - which would obviously have been of the most interest to David Whelan. So that is a great pity to say the least.
I can see that it's possible Mintz might be compromised, which is not to say he's done anything wrong, just that he does risk being smeared should he question the official verdict. I think it's more likely though that he's concerned for Sean's reputation and safety, if it is the case they've discussed what we're all thinking privately. I'm not sure it's helpful to cast the net this wide, Sean and Mintz are still close and we'd want Sean to remain receptive to all possibilities.
Elliot Mintz is a cheesy used car salesman. If you grew up in the Philadelphia area in the late 1980s, you would hear Elliot on 94.1 WYSP, or was it 93.3 WMMR, every Sunday morning narrating the Lennon story. This was the man Yoko picked to tell the story. From moment one, his voice revealed a cheesy liar. He would have you believe he was Lennon's best friend. Anyone who knows about Lennon knows that couldn't be true. Lennon didn't like people like Elliot. He only spent time with him because Yoko thrust him upon John who was no longer his own man. And in every interview with Elliot, you see an excessively groomed man wearing clothes he just purchased with Yoko's -eh John's- money. You can tell he loves his job. You can also tell he's a lousy propaganda artist. Fred Seaman called him out. Elliot is bought and paid for. Do not believe anything Elliot says.
This won't be a popular post because I'm going to mostly defend Mintz, who most fans don't seem to like. There's probably a fair bit of poetic licence in his book..... For example, he probably knew deep down John was dead before the stewardess broke into tears, but that outburst confirmed it was real to him. Unfortunately for us he is writing a book primarily for entertainment value aimed at your average fan, not giving evidence in court.
I think we have to be fair to Mintz in pointing out that he wouldn't be the only person of that vintage in the Beatles story to keep his private life to himself, Bob Wooler (Cavern) is another. They grew up in a different era when many people learned it was necessary to keep that sort of thing to yourself. Not everybody wants to make a big show of their sexuality, even today, and I respect that.
Not certain but I think John had also gone under hypnosis in Denmark January 1970 to try to quit smoking and Janov definitely tried to get him off them, so nothing out of the ordinary for John by 75. It wouldn't be easy for May Pang to feel she'd just been dumped at the drop of a hat, it makes sense to me that she'd try to reassure herself that John still wanted to be with her, which I think he did to some extent, but unfortunately for her Yoko fulfilled his needs for a mother substitute role far more effectively than May did. How would it not have been awkward for John meeting her again after he'd decided to go back to Yoko? I think he probably didn't know what to say and she's interpreted that as him being confused and in a daze for other reasons.
"Fly" is one of my all time favourite albums, it resonated with me more than any other Lennon or solo album so I can believe Mintz was more interested in Ono initially, which is not to say that he 100% was, but I can't think of any other example of a DJ or journalist before 1971 trying to get to John by pretending to be interested in Yoko and I'm sure she would have been smart enough to see through that game. I think they genuinely hit it off and John appreciated that. John got taken in by various people (Magic Alex, Maharishi etc.) but not for long, Elliot lasted the course. As John himself implied in a 1980 interview, It can't be the case that John should only have ever been allowed to be friends with Paul, George and Ringo whilst anybody else must have been putting him under a spell.
Dave,
Mintz's contributions to the Los Angeles Free Press can be accessed via the JSTOR underground press collection:
https://www.jstor.org/site/reveal-digital/independent-voices/losangelesfreepress-27953630/?searchUri=%2Fsite%2Freveal-digital%2Findependent-voices%2Fcampus-underground%2F%3Fso%3Ditem_title_str_asc%26searchkey%3D1731238724918%26pagemark%3DeyJwYWdlIjoyLCJzdGFydCI6MjUsInRvdGFsIjo4MH0%25253D%26doi%3D10.2307%252Fcontainer.27953630&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aaaaa922e8cfe74f3e1e7a428f6686c29&searchkey=1731238724918&so=item_title_str_asc
Might be worth a glance through.
Great review, by the way, for which many thanks.
Thanks for the link.... that is going to be useful.
Anyone can read Fred Seaman's first-hand account of Elliot Mintz when he arrived at the Dakota after John Lennon was shot. (starting on p. 278): https://archive.org/details/lastdaysofjohnle0000seam
From THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN LENNON
p. 232
"When I went to the kitchen to get some coffee, I found Elliot Mintz there. He had just flown in from L.A. and could hardly wait to go into action. He talked excitedly about his experience in "crisis management," boasting that he had been Sal Mineo's friend for thirteen years and that when Mineo had been killed, he had been there to take care of business. At about 7:00 A.M. Yoko came into the kitchen, said hello to Mintz, and made some tea. Then she sat on the couch and put her head in her hands. Mintz went over to her and patted her on the back. "Don't worry, Yoko, it's going to be all right," he said. "We'll take care of you.""
Dennis Ziebart
David the news of John's murder was broadcast on the west coast that same night before 10 pm,
which would have been 1 am in New York. I was in Vancouver watching Monday Night Football, in
those days running on tape delay beginning at 7pm. The game was interrupted to announce John's
murder. Minutes later a friend phoned me asking if I'd heard. If we knew in Canada by 10 'o'clock you
can bet it was also known in California.
By the way I rank your book Mind Games right up there with A Lie Too Big To Fail and Chaos: Charles
Manson and the CIA. Thanks for your remarkable investigation.
Dennis Ziebart
Dennis
I have always thought of Mintz as a dubious character. He certainly ingratiated himself into the Lennon inner circle by sucking up and flattering Yoko Ono which seemed to be the only way to get close to John.
He seems to keep Ono onside by demonstrating his loyalty to her but at the same time carrying out his main objective of regurgitating the laughable official assassination narative at every opportunity.
I listened last night to a two hour chat with Mintz released yesterday at.....
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/things-we-said-today-423-elliot-mintz-and-we-all/id561769983?i=1000677174994
He mentioned that a lot of what he wrote was taken out by his editor. It sounds as though his writing method was to think of one memory or subject at a time, then write about that throughout the night, then move onto something unrelated the following night. The editor however said each section needed to lead into the next as a flowing narrative and a lot of stories were lost because they would have taken the reader down a blind alley (or words to that effect). Whilst it probably isn't the case that anything was excised on the grounds of being deemed problematic on the face of it, Mintz did reveal that large sections dealing with the weeks directly after John's assassination were cut - which would obviously have been of the most interest to David Whelan. So that is a great pity to say the least.
I can see that it's possible Mintz might be compromised, which is not to say he's done anything wrong, just that he does risk being smeared should he question the official verdict. I think it's more likely though that he's concerned for Sean's reputation and safety, if it is the case they've discussed what we're all thinking privately. I'm not sure it's helpful to cast the net this wide, Sean and Mintz are still close and we'd want Sean to remain receptive to all possibilities.
Elliot Mintz is a cheesy used car salesman. If you grew up in the Philadelphia area in the late 1980s, you would hear Elliot on 94.1 WYSP, or was it 93.3 WMMR, every Sunday morning narrating the Lennon story. This was the man Yoko picked to tell the story. From moment one, his voice revealed a cheesy liar. He would have you believe he was Lennon's best friend. Anyone who knows about Lennon knows that couldn't be true. Lennon didn't like people like Elliot. He only spent time with him because Yoko thrust him upon John who was no longer his own man. And in every interview with Elliot, you see an excessively groomed man wearing clothes he just purchased with Yoko's -eh John's- money. You can tell he loves his job. You can also tell he's a lousy propaganda artist. Fred Seaman called him out. Elliot is bought and paid for. Do not believe anything Elliot says.
This won't be a popular post because I'm going to mostly defend Mintz, who most fans don't seem to like. There's probably a fair bit of poetic licence in his book..... For example, he probably knew deep down John was dead before the stewardess broke into tears, but that outburst confirmed it was real to him. Unfortunately for us he is writing a book primarily for entertainment value aimed at your average fan, not giving evidence in court.
I think we have to be fair to Mintz in pointing out that he wouldn't be the only person of that vintage in the Beatles story to keep his private life to himself, Bob Wooler (Cavern) is another. They grew up in a different era when many people learned it was necessary to keep that sort of thing to yourself. Not everybody wants to make a big show of their sexuality, even today, and I respect that.
Not certain but I think John had also gone under hypnosis in Denmark January 1970 to try to quit smoking and Janov definitely tried to get him off them, so nothing out of the ordinary for John by 75. It wouldn't be easy for May Pang to feel she'd just been dumped at the drop of a hat, it makes sense to me that she'd try to reassure herself that John still wanted to be with her, which I think he did to some extent, but unfortunately for her Yoko fulfilled his needs for a mother substitute role far more effectively than May did. How would it not have been awkward for John meeting her again after he'd decided to go back to Yoko? I think he probably didn't know what to say and she's interpreted that as him being confused and in a daze for other reasons.
"Fly" is one of my all time favourite albums, it resonated with me more than any other Lennon or solo album so I can believe Mintz was more interested in Ono initially, which is not to say that he 100% was, but I can't think of any other example of a DJ or journalist before 1971 trying to get to John by pretending to be interested in Yoko and I'm sure she would have been smart enough to see through that game. I think they genuinely hit it off and John appreciated that. John got taken in by various people (Magic Alex, Maharishi etc.) but not for long, Elliot lasted the course. As John himself implied in a 1980 interview, It can't be the case that John should only have ever been allowed to be friends with Paul, George and Ringo whilst anybody else must have been putting him under a spell.
What a load of nonsense. I suspect Elliot himself wrote this post—typical Elliot.