Music news Bullet from gun that murdered John Lennon heading to auction
A bullet, which was used in the same gun that killed John Lennon, is set to head to auction in Newcastle on February 28th.
The item belonged to the late Brian Taylor, who worked as a police officer for Northumbria Police. During a visit to New York, he took a group of young individuals who fostered ambitions to become police officers to see the New York Police Department and unexpectedly got caught up in a shooting while riding in a police patrol car.
As an apology, they allowed him to visit a museum where they store weapons from high-profile cases and permitted him to shoot a bullet from the gun that was used by Mark Chapman to kill Lennon outside his apartment building in 1980.
Taylor kept the bullet as a souvenir, which he kept framed in his home alongside a picture of him with the gun until his death. It’s now set to be auctioned off in Newcastle by Anderson and Garland auctioneers and expected to fetch £2,000.
Fred Wyrley-Birch, director at Anderson & Garland told the BBC: “It’s one of those slightly macabre lots you get now and again that draws everyone’s attention. There is a Beatles fanbase that is fanatical and a market for just about anything Beatles.”
Wryley-Birch continued: “But very seldomly do you get something so unusual and unique, it’s difficult to know what it’s worth and whether there’s a market for it or not. It’s a really interesting piece of Beatles memorabilia that probably can’t be replicated.”
Last year, Lennon’s murder was explored in the Apple TV+ three-part documentary series John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial, narrated by actor Kiefer Sutherland.
The series includes an interview with Jay Hastings, who worked at the Dakota Building in New York, where Lennon lived and was also the scene of his murder. Recalling the event, Hastings revealed the musician’s final words in the documentary: “He runs past me. He goes, ‘I’m shot’. He had blood coming out of his mouth. He just collapsed on the floor.”
Hastings continued: “I half rolled him to his back and took his glasses off, put them on the desk. And Yoko was screaming, ‘Get an ambulance, get an ambulance, get an ambulance.’”
