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UPDATE (Salvador Astucia, June 22, 2004) --
While writing
Rethinking John Lennon's Assassination
, I attempted to
obtain John Lennon's autopsy report from the New York City Medical
Examiner's Office, but was denied access. But even without seeing the
autopsy report first-hand, we still knew the nature of the wounds because on
December 10, 1980, the
New York Times
published a summary the autopsy
report in an article written by Paul Montgomery. In the stated
article, Montgomery described John Lennon's wounds as follows, per the
autopsy report:
"According to the autopsy, four shots struck Mr. Lennon, two in the left
side of his back and two in his left shoulder. All four caused internal
damage and bleeding."
Recently I obtained a copy of the John Lennon's
death certificate (see below), which matches Paul Montgomery's summary
of the autopsy report. The death certificate gives the following description
of the wounds and cause of death:
"...Multiple
gunshot wounds of left shoulder and chest....Left lung and left subclavian
artery; External and internal hemorrhage. Shock."
The death certificate does not specify whether
the chest wound was an entry or exit wound; however, Paul Montgomery
indicated it was an exit wound because he claimed two bullets struck "the
left side of his back", per the autopsy report.
This means the shooter was standing to John's left; however, a crime
scene sketch
published in the
New York Times
on Dec. 10,
1980--two days after the shooting--showed Chapman standing behind John,
to John's right
(see
Figure A
). The sketch also shows a service elevator in front of
John, to John's left. That is probably where the real shooter fired the
fatal shots. With this information, a different version of the crime
emerges: As John walks from the entrance to the lobby, the shooter (someone
other than Chapman) fires from the vicinity of the service elevator, hitting
John twice in the left shoulder. After being hit twice, John runs to the
lobby stairs, and the shooter fires three more shots, hitting him twice in
left side of the back; one shot misses completely. The last three shots
leave three bullet holes in the glass lobby doors (per Fenton Bresler's
description of the crime). Apparently the two bullets that hit John in the
left side of the back exited the left side of his chest, leaving bullet
holes in the glass lobby door.
♠
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