Joseph Niezgoda - The Lennon Prophecy: A New Examination of the Death Clues of the Beatles

The Lennon Prophecy is published by New Chapter Press (www.newchapterpressmedia.com ) and is distributed by the Independent Publishers Group (www.ipgbook.com ).

ISBN-978-0942257458

Joseph Niezgoda, 2008

Cover photo is courtesy of Getty Images. Back cover photo is courtesy of Getty Images.

All song album titles herein and lyrics contained herein are Copyright Northern Songs, Music Sales Group, Ltd. The song titles and lyrics contained herein are for the sole use of educational reference for the readers. This use for educational reference fall under the fair use sections of U.S. copyright law. The same such references apply to images and photographs of album covers and artwork used herein. Internal photo credits are as follows; Page 11 Pope Sylvester, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Page 13 Dr. Johann Faust and the Devil, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 20 John Lennon as a boy, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 37 The Beatles performing at The Cavern Club, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 39 Brian Epstein, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 47 The Beatles, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 58 Rubber Soul (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 63 Yesterday and Today, courtesy of Getty Images (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 67 Revolver, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Revolver that killed Lennon Courtesy of NYPD, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 70 Beatles Record Burning, courtesy of Corbis, Page 83 A Collection of Beatles Oldies, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Sgt. Pepper, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 85 Lose Their Soul Sgt. Pepper, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 86 Sgt. Pepper, Drum cover, courtesy of Mick Niezgoda (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 89 Magical Mystery Tour, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 90 Magical Mystery Tour album photos, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 92 The Best Way To Go Is By MDC from Magical Mystery Tour, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 101Abbey Road photos, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 106 Imagine album sleeve, Photo taken by Joseph Niezgoda (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 107 Ram photo and Imagine pig photo (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 108 Yellow Submarine Photos, top publicity photo courtesy of Corbis, bottom photo courtesy of Getty Images, Page 126 Mark David Chapman, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 129 Chapman childhood house, courtesy of Michael Niezgoda, Page 138 One Day at a Time book cover (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 139 Sgt. Pepper inside album cover, (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 148 Catcher in the Rye photo, courtesy of Michael Niezgoda (Public Domain/Fair Use), Page 154 The Dakota, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Page 160 Lennon fans, courtesy of Getty Images, Page 164James Joyce, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Design by Visible Logic, Inc.

Printed in Canada

For more information on this storyand for further cluesgo to
www.TheLennonProphecy.com

What have I done to deserve such a fate?
I realize I have left it too late
And so its true, pride comes before a fall
Im telling you so that you wont lose all
John Lennon, Im a Loser, 1964

Ive sold my soul to the devil .

John Lennon

T he Beatles first landed in the United States on February 7, 1964. It was a Friday. It was also my eighth birthday.

On the school-bus ride home, some older girls were sitting ahead of me and one of them said, Oh, The Beatles are on Ed Sullivan this weekend. I didnt know what that meant. I didnt know what The Beatles were. But I did know I was going to watch Ed Sullivan .

I remember sitting that Sunday night in front of the family television with my parents and my brother Mick. The show opened with the traditional shot of the empty lit set, and I remember the announcer bellowing, And now, here he is Ed Sullivan! In my mind I can still see the iconic host walking from the wings to his spot on stage, dressed in a suit and diagonal-striped tie, a white handkerchief peeking from his breast pocket, his hair slicked back, nodding a head-bow to the cheering studio crowd. I remember him explaining the excitement that had been stirring around the production all week, how hundreds of news writers and photographers had descended upon his theater. And he wasted no time introducing his most special British guests; just a half minute into the show he called out, Ladies and gentlemen The Beatles! And the young crowd, barely obeying the laws of gravity as they bounced in their seats, yelled and screamed in ways never before witnessed on national television, all in reverence for a band that had never previously performed on American soil. The camera cut to the boys from Liverpool standing center in a circle of large prop arrows, each pointing toward the focus of 73 million American television viewers. I remember Paul McCartney turning toward his mates, nodding a count, singing the words close your eyes, and the band simultaneously starting in together on the music for the song All My Loving.

I was instantly a fan.

Like so many others across the country and around the world, I became fascinated with the Fab Four. They were absolutely my idols. And John Lennon, in particular, I idolized the most. In fact, hes the only person I have ever felt that way about. Ive been a lifelong music fan, and a lifelong sports fan, but no other individual has stirred such adulation in me. That admiration was shared by my brother and my mother, both of whom were also avid music fans. My mom still has a Mothers Day card from 1967 thats signed, With love, your boys, Joe, Mick and John Lennon.

I had all The Beatles albums. My cousins gave some to me as I was growing up, and in 1967 I bought my own for the first time, spending $3.18 of hard-earned snow-shoveling money on a copy of the brand-new Magical Mystery Tour record. Between my older sister Linda and me, we owned all The Beatles singles. We listened to the songs so much that I came to memorize the lyrics sheerly from auditory repetition. We used to play a game wherein someone would recite three consecutive words from a Beatles composition, and I could name the song. I also avidly read about the band, and to this day I can recall all that informationit just stuck in my consciousness. When I began playing guitar, the first song I learned on my uncles hollowbody Gibson electric was Ballad of John and Yoko.

Years later, on the evening of December 8, 1980, I was in my dorm room at Kings College in Pennsylvania, watching Monday Night Football with my study partner Mike. Thats when my life changed. Commentator Howard Cosell announced that John had been shot and killed in New York City.

I was in absolute disbelief. I said to Mike, They made a mistake. It cant be.

Later that evening, the reality of Johns death set in. I still remember the feeling inside me. I couldnt sleep. I was sick. I had lived a charmed life to that pointaside from my grandmother, no one who had any real value or meaning to me had passed away. It really hurt deep. I made a black arm band to wear for a week. I also listened to the radio all nightevery station seemed to be playing Beatles and Lennon songs. The next morning, I read about the assassination in every newspaper I could find.

Then something else happenedsomething that changed my life even more, though I didnt know it at the time. Id been recording the nights radio tributes on cassette tapes, for no particular reason; I didnt know why Id been doing it, and still dont. One of the tapes already contained some music: songs by Badfinger, a group that had recorded in The Beatles Apple Studios, a group that had purportedly gotten its name from Bad Finger Boogie, the original title of Johns composition With a Little Help From My Friends. Tuesday morning I was playing back one of the radio broadcasts, and it ended with the disc jockey saying, John Lennon, dead, at 40 years old. I pressed the stop button and pondered the reality for about the thousandth time. Then, just to humor an inexplicable curiosity, I flipped the tape over to hear what was recorded in the same spot on the other side. I pressed play, and it was perfectly cued to Badfingers song Sweet Tuesday Morning. That really freaked me outnot so much because it happened to be Tuesday morning in Pennsylvania, but because I realized that at the moment John had been shot, it had been Tuesday morning in his hometown of Liverpool, England. Moreover, I knew that Badfingers Joey Molland wrote and recorded that song at the same time he was working with John Lennon on the