Yoko – A Biography by David Sheff – Book Review

A new Lennon estate sanctioned Ono book has landed. A few interesting insights emerge out of the rampant misinformation regarding John’s assassination

Playboy journalist David Sheff got access to Yoko Ono and John Lennon in the weeks leading up to John’s assassination and most usefully for my work, the weeks thereafter. Alongside his wife at the time, Vicki, David Sheff under the provocative title “The betrayal of John Lennon”, laid out a historically useful story of rampant paranoia and deception inside the Ono Dakota apartments after 8^th December 1980.

Now, 45 years later, Sheff has declared that he is going to write a “warts and all” telling of Ono’s life. This book is not that. Warts are strictly not included. Sheff has crafted a disappointingly basic book, diary-like in its simple linear format, with deliberate (and telling) omissions. It has an overall slavish tone, with zero criticism of Ono or her work. But, this hagiography is Lennon estate sanctioned and it contains some new insights from Sean Lennon. In the acknowledgments, Sheff admits that his book could not have been written without the help of Sean Lennon, who granted Sheff hours of interviews. Sean also apparently encouraged others to talk to Sheff. Sean’s half-sister Kyoko also spoke to Sheff. When you consider the fascinating and frankly weird life Kyoko had with Ono’s second husband Tony Cox, the basic details Sheff lays out regarding her and her father’s lives are deeply frustrating. But then, what hagiography isn’t frustrating to those who know more than the expected sanitised account?

I’m not going to waste any time covering what Sheff writes about Ono’s early life and blossoming modern art career. There’s nothing particular new here. It’s the kind of fluff you would expect from a man who thanks Ono for continuing to inspire him through her friendship and support. Ono’s second marriage to Tony Cox and her first encounters with John Lennon are glossed over and painted in glowing Romeo and Juliet terms. The fascinating tale of Cox traveling to Japan to break Ono out of a mental facility is given just a couple of lines. Beatles insiders from the time implying that Ono stalked John for cash and influence, are quickly dismissed via a single quote from Indica gallery owner John Dunbar. Other counter opinions from the time are pointedly not featured. If they were, you can imagine Sheff would probably describe them as misogynistic and racist. Balance was not invited to this party.

So, lets head straight to the night of 8^th December 1980.

Sheff starts off by declaring that after Ono and Lennon had finished their recording studio mixing on an Ono track at 10.30pm, Ono suggested that they go out to dinner and John wanted to head to the Dakota to see Sean. The reports from Jack Douglas and studio personnel from the time and for many years thereafter, stated the opposite. John wanted to go to dinner and Ono wanted to go home.

A new and interesting detail is Sheff declaring that record executive David Geffen jumped in the Lennon’s car at the studio, and Yoko and John dropped Geffen off at his apartment before they headed home to the Dakota. This almost certainly didn’t happen. Jack Douglas has never mentioned Geffen being there when the Lennon’s left the studio. I extensively interviewed Rabiah Seminole, the Record Plant studio receptionist. She never mentioned Geffen being there that night.

Apparently, John and Yoko did not speak much to each other in their limo on the way back to the Dakota. According to Sheff, as they both exited the limo and were walking towards the Dakota portico, ‘someone called John’s name’. The man was clutching an autographed copy of ‘’Double Fantasy’ that John had signed earlier that day. The man drew a revolver and fired.

Point number one, Chapman did not call out to Lennon. Chapman has never said he did this. It’s an important detail for the official narrative peddlers because all the police officers and medical staff who saw John’s wounds that awful night said he was shot in the chest. If Chapman might have called out to John, John might have turned and John might have been shot in the chest. Problem is, Yoko Ono stated to an NYPD detective hours after the murder that they never turned around and she did not see the shooter.

As for Chapman holding a record in his hand as he expertly shot John four times in a “tight professional grouping” around his heart (as described by the surgeon and two nurses who tried to save him), Chapman must have been one of the most skilled marksmen in history. Problem is, Chapman had only ever had rudimentary security guard training in firearms. No one who saw Chapman before or after gunfire was heard, said that he had a record in his hand. The autographed album in question was found by a member of the public in a high positioned plant pot outside the Dakota, after John’s body was taken from the crime scene.

Sheff then tells us that ‘the assassin’ fired five shots, with four striking John in the back and shoulder. John then ‘staggered into the reception area and fell’. Sheff fails to mention the vestibule/stairway/lobby/concierge office areas, that John had to journey through with four large holes in his body, before he ‘fell’. Sheff also forgets to tell us that John’s body was found in a back office away from the reception area – face down.

Sheff then briefly mentions official narrative staples such as Chapman placing his gun on the ground (though most reports say Chapman either dropped a gun or it was shaken from his hand) and Chapman reading ‘Catcher’. Then Sheff finally says something interesting:

“John lay on the ground in a pool of blood’.

The official narrative says John went up some stairs and into a back office before he fell face-down on an office floor. It has to say this, because this is what Dakota workers and the NYPD said happened. Ono also inferred this happened in two of her statements, stating that John went through doors and up some stairs, after being shot. Ono then followed her husband. For this all to happen, there would be no opportunity for a ‘pool’ of blood to form on the ‘ground’ in the driveway. But this is what Sheff infers.

Sheff correctly asserted that two officers lifted John and placed him into a police car with no assistance from a particular Dakota concierge with a bloody shirt.

After her husband was pronounced dead and Ono had returned to the Dakota, Sheff revealed that Richie De Palma was told by Ono that ‘he and the others shouldn’t go easy on her; she wanted to know and hear everything that happened’. Ono had De Palma switch on the television for her and from her bed, she began to watch TV coverage of the murder. Other Dakota insiders have told me this is exactly what happened.

Predictably for a man of his impeccable mainstream credentials, Sheff elected to deride the ‘conspiracy theorists’ apparently who ‘abounded’ after John’s death. Sheff uses a pre-amble about the photo taken of John while he was at the morgue being allegedly sold to the National Enquirer, as a way of leading us into some ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ bashing. Sheff recalled an interesting anecdote about a man calling the Dakota from England to say in a trembling voice, that he had absolute proof that John’s murder was a conspiracy. Sheff then deliberatively used a common modern-day tactic to bolster official narratives by immediately comparing an interesting fact with a ridiculous one, to help tar all ‘outer fringes’ as crazy conspiracy theorists. After the interesting story about the man from England, Sheff quickly recalled a man who claimed to be from a distant planet with a message to Yoko from John. Sheff then claimed that ‘decades of efforts to reconstruct the shooting ‘millisecond by millisecond’ followed (If only that were true). Details varied from account to account Sheff claimed - understandable for a case with so many anomalies I would counter. According to Sheff, mainstream writers Bill O’Reilly and James Patterson were among the writers who allegedly investigated and chronicled the murder. Both of those writers certainly chronicled the official John Lennon murder narrative in their books, but neither bothered with any of that awkward investigating stuff. If they did, they might be called a conspiracy theorist and there is nothing a mainstream writer dreads more than being called a conspiracy theorist. According to Sheff, ‘conspiracy theorists’ abounded with allegations that ‘the gunman’ (note Sheff’s consistent childish trope of regularly not using Chapman’s name – how wonderfully virtuous of him), hadn’t acted alone, or was an FBI operative (no-one has ever claimed this), or was a CIA operative, or was a hired assassin. Not to worry though folks, Sheff boldly reassured his readers that ‘in fact’, Chapman acted alone. Unfortunately for Sheff, the ‘facts’ regarding John’s assassination, facts of which I’m certain Sheff is wholly unaware of, point conclusively to the fact that Chapman did not act alone and the official narrative is frankly not credible with the facts we now have to hand.

Missing in Action

Sheff decides to omit Chapman’s brainwashing programs that he went through in Hawaii. He also decides to overlook the fact that Milton Kline, the CIA’s main Manchurian Candidate hypnotist, visited Mark Chapman just days after the murder and had him all to himself for many months, leading up to Chapman eventually pleading guilty and foregoing a trial. A trial where the ‘facts’ of the case would have almost certainly had Chapman released as an innocent patsy who had been brainwashed into imagining he was doing something he could not feasibly have done. Sheff also doesn’t go into all of Chapman’s friends and associates who had links to intelligence agencies and the incoming Reagan administration.

Does Sheff reference the unidentified drugs found in Chapman hotel room? No he does not. Like the NYPD and DA’s office at the time, Sheff doesn’t mention it. But, Sheff boldly declares that Chapman acted alone. If you say so David.

Also pointedly missing from this book is the Sean Lennon quote from 1998 that the American government murdered his father. It’s a book about Ono to be fair, so we can somewhat forgive Sheff for omitting that impassioned and insightful Sean Lennon outburst.

Two of the most glaring omissions in the book are a couple of characters listed in John’s November 1979 drafted Will. Art dealer Sam Green, a rumoured lover of Ono, was listed as the man who was nominated to care for Sean if John and Yoko both died. As for the architect of John’s Will, lawyer David Warmflash, a man who was by Ono’s side at the Dakota just two hours after the murder and was also an executor of the Will’s trust, Sheff also fails to mention him.

By far the most telling omission though is that of EX-FBI bodyguard, Doug MacDougal. MacDougall was hired by Ono in the spring of 1980. He was then given a leave of absence by Ono in the weeks leading up John’s assassination. The recently deceased British music journalist and DJ Andy Peebles, told me he was highly suspicious of Ono for doing this. On the night of the murder, just hours after John’s death, MacDougall was back working at the Dakota for Ono. 36 hours after John’s assassination, MacDougall alone was given the job of overseeing and attending John’s hasty cremation. Ono didn’t bother to attend the secret ceremony. Sheff pointedly never mentioned Doug MacDougall’s name or his major part in the story of John’s death and cremation.

Blood on the Cement

The official narrative is clear. After John was shot in the Dakota driveway, he staggered into the vestibule porch, he then walked up six steps and collapsed somewhere in the lobby area. He actually ended up face down in a back office away from the lobby, but let’s just forget that awkward little detail for a moment. Blood wise, a pool of blood was mentioned by all of the cops who found John in the back office. An image emerged of this pool of blood in the back office. No other images of blood at the crime scene have ever been released. This is deliberate and let me explain why. The vestibule glass doors with two clear bullet holes in them appear to have no blood around them. But, I have been told by people that got to look inside the gates before the police cordoned off the area, that there was a large pool of blood near the vestibule doors. The official narrative can’t easily explain how this pool of blood got there. John we are told, ran into the vestibule and up the stairs to the lobby after being shot. There was no time for a any of his blood to form outside the vestibule. Yoko has confirmed in two of her five statements that John went into the vestibule door and up the stairs after being shot, with her following him. Concierge Jay Hastings has always said John ran past him into the back office.

Two police officers carried John’s body from the back office into a police car parked outside at the foot of the driveway. They both told me that John was bleeding heavily from the chest in the back office and they carried him very quickly to the police car. They told me that drips of John’s blood may have spilt on their route, but neither remembered a lot of blood dripping en route while carrying John out, so how did a pool of blood form outside in the driveway?

John clearly dropped down instantly when shot in the driveway. ALL of the medical professionals who saw his wounds, said death would have happened almost instantly for poor John. Going by the multiple accounts of people seeing Concierge Jay Hastings bloody white shirt, and the fact that Hastings lied about how he got his shirt “covered” in blood, Hastings is the prime candidate for moving John from the driveway to the back office. But why has Hastings, Ono and Dakota lift operator Joseph Many given a different and frankly implausible account of what John did after being shot? Why the cover-up? Why no mention of moving John?

We can safely put David Sheff’s new effort into the same safe mainstream box as Elliot Mintz’s recent book. Mintz though did reveal that he stepped over some blood when he got to the Dakota the next morning after John’s murder. Sheff, inadvertently through a new Sean Lennon account of his memories of the day after the murder, gives one important clue that he of course does not elaborate on.

It was widely reported after the murder that five-year-old Sean Lennon was taken by his mother to the spot where his father was murdered. Unfortunately, the reports never mentioned where exactly this might be. Speaking to Sheff about this moment through the lens of a five-year old’s memory, Sean recalled walking through the Dakota courtyard with his nanny to a waiting limousine. Sean remembered a janitor (probably Joe Grezik), cleaning and scrubbing the floor with soapy water. Sean recalled his babysitter saying ‘don’t let him see that’, because that was the blood of his father being cleaned off the ground. ‘The blood was ‘leading up to the staircase’. Sean remembered seeing:

‘My Dad’s brownish-coloured blood staining the cement’

Sean remembered still thinking about the blood on the cement every time he walked into the Dakota past that spot.

For me this is further confirmation that John fell instantly in the Dakota driveway after being shot. He then lay dying and bleeding out for probably 30 to 45 seconds, leaving a descendible pool of blood in the driveway, before he was then carried inside the Dakota by someone and left to bleed out and die face-down in a back office. All evidence points to this scenario. This is almost certainly what happened. There is simply no other way blood could have formed in the Dakota driveway for Sean to see the next day.

Thankfully the ‘outer fringes’ as Sheff calls anyone questioning the official Lennon assassination narrative are becoming louder and harder to ignore. I hope this is the last of the official narrative peddlers getting books away with this kind of discredited nonsense regarding John’s death.