When the actor who replaced Paul McCartney after his death in 1966 announced there would be a new Beatles song in 2023 fans were understandably ecstatic. They were the most popular band in the world when they broke up in 1970, and a reunion seemed long overdue. The enthusiasm was short-lived, however, as the reveal that John Lennon’s vocals would be pulled from a previously discarded recording with AI led to a resurgence of a popular and sinister conspiracy theory.
In 1980, rumors that the real John Lennon had been killed by an assassin’s bullet spread like wildfire. Through a massive PR campaign this “conspiracy” was eventually dismissed as the sort of fringe radical nonsense only someone who has seen VH1 before would ever believe, but the exclusion of a live-and-well John on The Beatles’ latest release gave new life to the theory, and a massive 2nd investigation, fuelled by the internet for the first time, began.
An annual memorial has been held in memory of John at Strawberry Fields since 1985
A curious ritual in honor of someone alive and well, don’t you think? The very word “memorial” implies that you are remembering someone because they are no longer around. It’s circumstantial, but where there’s smoke there’s fire.
Inconsistent physical appearance
Here we see The Beatles on their 2015 Norweigan cruise line tour. Fans and theorists have pointed out that Lennon’s appearance in the photo is somewhat off. The chin isn’t quite right, and given that Lennon would have been 75 in 2015, he should appear to be much older.
The Album Cover to “A Hard Day’s Night”
Once again, The Beatles use their album artwork to air their dirty laundry, this time around so blatantly it’s a wonder more people have not picked up on it. The five photos of John Lennon speak louder than words. From left to right he is clearly saying “Hey, it’s me, John Lennon,” “I would like to speak to you about a serious matter, my impending death,” “Here I am making an ‘8’ with my hands because that’s the decade I will be shot in,” “You will miss me, John Lennon, very much after I am shot in 1980” and “Maybe I’ll come back as a zombie, who knows, but first, I have to die.”
He never released a darkwave album
It seems unlikely that John Lennon would have lived to hear acts such as Cocteau Twins, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Depeche Mode without wanting to make that sound his own.
His widely publicized assassination at the hands of Mark David Chapman on December 8th, 1980
If you type “John Lennon death” into Google a plethora of physical evidence will appear including coverage by noted anchors and newspaper front pages from 1980 all claiming John Lennon had been killed. In all of our research, we did not find a single printed retraction.
He never weighed in on Barbenheimer
Everyone had a take on this thing and yet Lennon’s socials remained curiously silent. Why? Because he’s tweeting “Greta was snubbed” in heaven now, that’s why!
George Harrison won’t work with him anymore
As we saw in Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back” documentary, the Fab Four’s working dynamic was often fraught with tension. Still, it’s suspicious that in all the time since the band’s official 1970 breakup, George Harrison and John Lennon never collaborated. Harrison has in fact taken absurd lengths to distance himself from Lennon, going so far as to fake his own death in 2001. Why? Maybe because he knows the truth, and it tears him up inside.
Yoko Ono inherited John Lennon’s estate as per his will
We consulted with legal experts, and they all confirmed that the only way a will is actionable is upon the death of its author, even if all involved parties go to town hall together in person and ask really nicely.
Hidden messages
If you play the serendipitously titled song “Happiness is a Warm Gun” backward, and at just the right speed, the line “She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane, The man in the crowd with his multicolored mirrors on his hobnail boots, lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working over time, a soap impression of his wife that he ate and donated to the national trust” sounds an awful lot like “I, Jonathan Lennon of the famous rock band The Beatles have every intention of dying at the hands of Mark David Chapman, a crazy person who reads ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’”