Question: Did John Lennon have any signs of his impending death?
Answer: Three weeks before his murder, John Lennon fired his bodyguards. His rationale was that assassins shoot the bodyguards first anyway, but in fact, John and Yoko felt very comfortable -- perhaps too comfortable -- in New York City. The apartment building they had been living in for the past five years, the Dakota, was well-guarded, home to stars like Gilda Radner and Lauren Bacall; New York was not a city where the inhabitants mobbed celebrities everywhere they went; rock stars had never been shot, only political figures; and John had been in a period of seclusion for the last five years anyway, baking bread and taking care of he and Yoko's son, Sean, who was five at the time of the killing.
When John and Yoko began recording their "comeback" album "Double Fantasy," however, they were coming and going with regularity almost every day, and at the same time. It was easy for any fan to know when they would return; in fact, some often asked John to sign copies of albums for them. One such person, on the night of December 8, 1980, was John's killer.
During an interview conducted while he was still a Beatle, John was asked how he expected to die. Lennon jokingly replied: "I'll probably be popped off by some loony." This has been a source of fascination for John fans, as is the fact that the lyrics of the Beatles' "Come Together" contain the words "shoot me" repeated over and over. (The "me" is obscured by music, but close listening reveals it's there.)
