John Lennon and Death Penalty Activism

[CCADP]

This post starts off topic - but keep reading and u will see where I am going with this.


Hey; I'm 35; so I was 10 in 1980 ten years after the beatles broke up when I got really into them; had all kinds of Lennon / Beatles posters all over my room etc...

Much More Music on TV here in Canada one of the music channels is playing Hard Days Night which came out in 1964 and was re-released in the theatres in 1982 when I was 12...

Gemini on this list (my best friend) will remember that we and another good friend of ours who you won't see here because she hasn't yet come over to our side on this issue - (hey Tonya; she is one of the pro death penalty evangelicals you referred to!!!!..used to go to see it in 82 on rerelease every weekend til we had seen it 12 times in the theatre and could LITERALLY recite the whole movie....

anyway its funny what u remember - before each single line spoken - I still hear it in my head - STILL remember the whole movie!!!

Funny - there's been a lot in my head since 1982....

Hey; while we're on the topic if any one has any old Beatles stuff taking up space; now u know a happy recipient....

Lyrics from a little known 1972 John Lennon song :

"free all prisoners jail the judges
free all prisoners everywhere
all they want is truth and justice
all they need is love and care"

a little further than I'd go; John ! But at least he was on the right track....

Note; for those who didn't know John wrote a song called Attica State after the prison uprising that caused several prisoners to be shot by guards :

The whole lyrics follow :

"What a waste of human power
What a waste of human lives
Shoot the prisoners in the towers
Forty-three poor widowed wives
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Media blames it on the prisoners
But the prisoners did not kill
"Rockefeller pulled the trigger"
That is what the people feel
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Free the prisoners, jail the judges
Free all prisoners everywhere
All they want is truth and justice
All they need is love and care
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
They all live in suffocation
Let's not watch them die in sorrow
Now's the time for revolution
Give them all a chance to grow
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State
Come together join the movement
Take a stand for human rights
Fear and hatred clouds our judgement
Free us all from endless night
Attica State, Attica State, we're all mates with Attica State"

Also in the 70s he and Yoko campaigned for James Hanratty in the UK whom they believed to have been wrongfully convicted of murder.

Its ironic that after John was murdered in 1980; his killer Mark David Chapman was sent to Attica State....

Knowing what John was all about; I don't think that would have changed his opinion!

Now that I think of it - thats a FANTASTIC quote for this whole movement! -

"Come together join the movement
Take a stand for human rights
Fear and hatred clouds our judgement
Free us all from endless night" - John Lennon

[CCADP]

Does everyone like my new tag line?

[CCADP]

This is a fairly recent article on the case of the 1962 executed man Lennon believed to be innocent. Turns out DNA proves him right!

James Hanratty
Nickname: The A6 Killer

Date of Crime: 22nd August 1961

Motive: Unknown

Crimes: Murder of Michael Gregsten and sexual assault and shooting of Gregsten's lover, Valerie Storie

Method: Shot twice in the head with a .38 Enfield gun.

Sentence: Hanratty received the death penalty and was hanged on 4th April 1962

Interesting facts: Gregsten and Storie were sitting in a car in a lonely field near Slough when the killer found them. He spent several hours talking to them, and finally ordered them to drive him where he wanted to go. They eventually drove up the A6 towards Bedford. The journey ended in a layby on the aptly named Deadman's Hill.

The murder weapon was found several days later under the back seat of the 36A bus in London. Spent cartridges from the gun were also found in a guest house room where Hanratty had stayed the night before the murder.

There has always been great controversy over whether Hanratty was, in fact, the A6 Killer. One of the main reasons for this was the description given by Storie to the police. It is alleged that her very first description, given to the man who first contacted the police, was of a man with light fairish hair and staring eyes. Her first description to the police was of a man aged about 30, 5 foot 6, medium build, pale faced, with dark hair and deep-set brown eyes. An Identikit picture was based on this description. Another composite Identikit picture was based on the evidence of three witnesses who saw the killer driving the car after the murder - it also had dark staring eyes and dark brushed back hair. On 31st August Storie gave another description of the man saying that he had "large, icy-blue, saucer-like eyes". This final description matched Hanratty.

The first suspect in the enquiry was Peter Alphon, who matched the Identikit descriptions. He had allegedly been seen near the field on the evening of the murder, and was noted to have been acting strangely in the period after it. After Hanratty's death, he also admitted to the crime several times.

In March 2001, after years of arguing about the identity of the A6 Killer, Hanratty's body was exhumd, and forensic samples from the crime scene received DNA testing. These tests concluded that there was a 2.5 million to one chance that the samples did not come from Hanratty. In May 2002, the Court of Appeal ruled that Hanratty's conviction was not unsound. A posthumous pardon was therefore not granted.

Back to previous page.

[CCADP]

This from Roger Bunn who is on this board but asked me to post this :

"interesting - Maybe someone should rerecord it. - bring it uptodate - you
got musicians to do it?

I dont know the song at all.. Pop music doth not interest me that I look for
it - but seems a great lyric for the prison - end death sentence -
campaigners, tho I would not deem to let e\/eryone out of prison, there are
so many dodgy types around... Some of them not called Bush - ;-)

Chapman went to Attica? Yes Ironic"


To read some of Roger Bunn's amazing stories about his personal days with John Lennon; David Bowie etc; visit the thread "WATCHING OLD BEATLES MOVIE" in fun stuff....

[CCADP]

Some people have no idea of this history - John Lennon was an anti death penalty AND a prison activist.
the same person who keeps emailing me crazy hate emails all day (see the first few in FUNNY THINGS thread;) just emailed me to tell me off for quoting John cause he was a murder victim!
He made his opinions on this topic QUITE clear!

Roger Bunn on this board who is an anti death penalty activist was a PERSONAL friend of John's and is still a friend of John's son Julian.

But I guess this person with the whacky emails knows better than Roger what John was all about!!!

[CCADP]

this authority on John ;D who has been emailing me obsessively all day but blocked any emails so he/she can't be responded to (i posted in FUNNY THINGS the two reasoned responses I sent him/her....)posts :

STOP QUOTING JOHN LENNON --------HE IS A MURDERED MAN
JOHN WOULD BE SICKENED BY YOU----------THE MAN WAS MURDERED AND YOU LIVE TO SUPPORT MURDERERS
AND LEAVE MY PRESIDENT ALONE, YOU CALL HIM A MURDERER WHEN YOU CONSTANTLY RUB ELBOWS WITH CHILD KILLERS AND BRUTAL MURDERERS
WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY

again, this person should educate themselves a little on John...

[CCADP]

this is the story of prisoner and prison activist Angela Davis :

Davis became an advocate for black political prisoners, and spoke out in defense of the inmates known as the Soledad Brothers. After the killing of inmate
George Jackson by guards at Soledad Prison, Jackson's younger brother, Jonathan, attempted to free another prisoner from the Hall of Justice in Marin County, California on August 7, 1970 by taking hostages. Four people were killed in the shoot-out that followed, including the trial judge. The guns Jackson used were registered in the name of Angela Davis. Even although
she was not near the courthouse at the time, a warrant for her arrest went out. When Davis defied the arrest warrant and went into hiding, she was placed on the FBI's ten-most-wanted list. Her capture in a New York motel
room in October 1970 and her subsequent imprisonment inspired "Free Angela" rallies around the world. Davis spent 16 months in jail, before she was released on bail in 1972. She was later acquitted of all charges by an
all-white jury.

On the same album as the Lennon song in the beginning of this thread that i adopted for my tag line is John's song for Angela Davis; read the lyrics where he talks about Angela's writings still reaching the world even tho she is imprisoned. Sounds to me like John woulda supported our work...

Here is the lyrics of
John Lennon's song:

Sister, there's a wind that never dies
Sister, we're breathing together
Sister, our love and hopes forever keep on moving oh so slowly in the world
They gave you sunshine
They gave you sea
They gave you everything but the jailhouse key
They gave you coffee
They gave you tea
They gave you everything but equality
Angela, can you hear the earth is turning?
Angela, the world watches you
Angela, you soon will be returning to your sisters and brothers in the world
Sister, you're still a people teacher
Sister, your word reaches far
Sister, there's a million different races but we all share the same future
in the world
They gave you sunshine
They gave you sea
They gave you everything but the jailhouse key
They gave you coffee
They gave you tea
They gave you everything but equality
Angela, they put you in prison
Angela, they shot down your man
Angela, you're one of the millions of political prisoners in the world

[Mo-DAWG]

CCADP said:

this authority on John ;D who has been emailing me obsessively all day but blocked any emails so he/she can't be responded to (i posted in FUNNY THINGS the two reasoned responses I sent him/her....)posts :

STOP QUOTING JOHN LENNON --------HE IS A MURDERED MAN
JOHN WOULD BE SICKENED BY YOU----------THE MAN WAS MURDERED AND YOU LIVE TO SUPPORT MURDERERS
AND LEAVE MY PRESIDENT ALONE, YOU CALL HIM A MURDERER WHEN YOU CONSTANTLY RUB ELBOWS WITH CHILD KILLERS AND BRUTAL MURDERERS
WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN DAMN COUNTRY

again, this person should educate themselves a little on John...

oh my god now this metally disturbed even knows how John Lennon would feel?call a f*cking loony ban to pick her... leave MY president alone? well i guess Mrs.Bush would not be too happy to hear that hahahahaha and i doubt Mr.Bush would mess with something like this person..lmfao...get urself ur own man
why doesn´t this person post here..oh yes i forgot..might be paranoia or another psychosis..god help you...cuz none else seems to
Mo-DAWG

[Mo-DAWG]

CCADP said:

Some people have no idea of this history - John Lennon was an anti death penalty AND a prison activist.
the same person who keeps emailing me crazy hate emails all day (see the first few in FUNNY THINGS thread;) just emailed me to tell me off for quoting John cause he was a murder victim!
He made his opinions on this topic QUITE clear!

Roger Bunn on this board who is an anti death penalty activist was a PERSONAL friend of John's and is still a friend of John's son Julian.

But I guess this person with the whacky emails knows better than Roger what John was all about!!!

Tracy ask Roger to ask Julian to re-record the song and let us put it on Jimmy´s CD...
Mo-DAWG

[CCADP]

Lennon's songs demanded the liberation of Angela Davis and John Sinclair and other political prisoners, denounced the massacre at Attica prison and the situation in North American prisons.
-From article "john lennon and the 60s"
www.greenleft.org.au/back/2001/432/432p27.htm

[CCADP]

Here's info on a film made in support of a man he believed was wrongly executed :

Hanratty Film
On Side One of John & Yoko's "Live Jam" album, recorded on 15th December 1969, Yoko can be heard to shout "Britain, you killed Hanratty you murderer!" and she goes on to the chant Hanratty's name throughout the opening bars of Don't Worry Kyoko.
Back in 1962, James Hanratty was convicted and sentenced to death for the notorious A6 road murder of Michael Gregsten and the rape of his lover Valerie Storie who was also shot and left for dead (she survived but was paralysed from the neck down). Hanratty was was one of the last British citizens to be executed by the state before the death penalty in Britain was suspended in 1965.
As the decade progressed, the view that Hanratty had in fact been the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice began to gather momentum, another man was even seen to confess to the murder on British Television in 1967.
Together with Hanratty's parents, John and Yoko discussed the idea of making a film to back the campaign for an enquiry and this was announced at an Apple press conference on December 10th 1969.
The one and only public screening of the 40-minute colour result was eventually shown in the crypt of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London on 17th February 1972.
from -
JOHN LENNON AND YOKO ONO FILMS
homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob15.html

[CCADP]

unfortunately roger says Julian AIN'T political; damn, he's seen it all with his dad and i guess he's disillusioned....



but it would be great if someone would re record that?


someone .....!!!!!

[Mo-DAWG]

CCADP said:

unfortunately roger says Julian AIN'T political; damn, he's seen it all with his dad and i guess he's disillusioned....



but it would be great if someone would re record that?


someone .....!!!!!

well we´ll see Tracy..we´ll see
Mo-DAWG

[CCADP]

In 1969, John became active in clearing the name of James Francis Hanratty, a British citizen tried by the British government and subsequently executed (hanged) on April 4, 1962 for the murder of Michael Gregsten (36) and the rape and attempted murder of Valerie Storie (22) on August 22, 1961. Irregularities in the Hanratty case paved the way to ending capital punishment in Britain.
-http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/Intro.htm


. The Hanratty Enquiry Campaign, 1968

The idea Lennon supported the campaign for an enquiry into the conviction of James Hanratty, hanged in 1962 for the notorious A6 murder.
The reality He and Yoko took a banner saying "Britain Murdered Hanratty" to the premiere of the Peter Sellers/Ringo film The Magic Christian. In May 2002, Lord Woolf, the lord chief justice, finds "overwhelming proof of the safety of the conviction".
From UK paper the Guardian

[CCADP]

I know my John Lennon stuff almost as well as I know my death penalty stuff; so.....

any other questions regarding John