I drew another diagram, Figure 5 (below), of the Dakota's entrance and lobby which presents a more likely scenario where Chapman is a patsy and another gunman actually shoots Lennon from behind the door that leads to the service elevator. The following is a description of what likely occurred on December 8, 1980:

• 10:50 PM: A limousine stops at the curb in front of the Dakota entrance. The iron gates at the entrance are open, which is normal. A doorman, Jose Perdomo is guarding the entrance. Perdomo is a Cuban exile with vast connections in US intelligence.

• Yoko Ono gets out first, Lennon follows. She quickly walks about 35 feet ahead of Lennon before he gets out. Yoko (4) is about to walk up the lobby stairs when Lennon (1) emerges from the limousine. He is carrying tapes from the record plant.

• Chapman (2) is standing on the right side of the front entrance directly under the arch. Yoko passed Chapman without noticing him. Lennon passes, looks at him but does not say anything. Chapman swears Lennon recognized him from their earlier encounter because he (Chapman) was wearing a distinctive Russian hat with ear flaps.

• As Lennon passes, a member of the FBI's assassination squad transmits an audible message to Chapman which places him in a semi-hypnotic trance. It is unclear how the message is sent or who sent it. It may have been sent via laser beam, or perhaps Jose Perdomo whispered in his ear. Nevertheless, Chapman claims he heard a voice, although he is clearly not psychotic. The message triggers his mind to think he is about to kill Lennon. The message is simple: "Do it, do it, do it, do it."

• Yoko walks up the lobby stairs and into the lobby (5).

• Lennon follows. When he gets within five feet of the lobby stairs (3), five shots are fired by a gunman (3A) from a doorway that leads to a service elevator. Lennon is hit twice in his left shoulder. As he runs towards the stairs, he is hit two more times in the left side of his back. One shot misses Lennon completely. At least three bullet holes are left in the glass lobby doors.²

• Lennon pulls himself up the six stairs leading to the lobby and pushes the lobby door open. Yoko realizes he is shot because she sees blood. He staggers past the front desk in the main lobby and falls face down by the concierge stand (6). Altogether, Lennon runs about 20 feet, which includes climbing six stairs, before collapsing.

• Yoko screams at Hastings: "John’s been shot! John’s been shot!" He calls the police.

• Doorman Jose Perdomo screams at Chapman: "Leave! Get out of here!"

• Chapman does not leave. A hysterical Yoko cradles Lennon’s head in her arms. Perdomo asks Chapman, "Do you know what you’ve done?" "I just shot John Lennon," he replies. Then he allegedly throws a gun on the ground, takes off his overcoat, folds it up at his feet, and calmly begins reading his paperback, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Perdomo kicks the gun away.

(Note: It is quite possible that Perdomo planted the gun and made up the story that Chapman threw it down.)

• The police arrive within minutes and eventually arrest Chapman. They realize Lennon is dying and don't wait for an ambulance. Instead they lift his bullet-ridden body to a patrol car and rush him to Roosevelt Hospital where he is pronounced dead in the emergency room.

• Patrolman Peter Cullen, one of the officers in the first police car responding to the shooting, believes the shooter was a handyman at the Dakota, not Chapman. Cullen reportedly said that Chapman "looked like a guy who worked in a bank." Perdomo convinces Cullen that Chapman is the assailant.

• Chapman slowly comes out of the hypnotic trance and believes he killed Lennon because he had been fighting the urge for weeks. Months later Chapman pleads guilty. He claims he drew a gun but does not recall aiming at Lennon. Although Chapman says he drew a gun, it is unclear if the gun found at the crime scene was his or if it was planted by Perdomo. Chapman does not have a clear memory of actually shooting Lennon.

Figure 6 shows the inside of the courtyard; Figure 7 shows an aerial view. (Photos in Figures 6 & 7 are from Rosemary’s Bay) The Dakota is designed like a fortress covering an entire city block. It provides highly secure living quarters for wealthy and famous people who wish to live in Manhattan but not be burdened with security risks. The Dakota consists of four fashionable apartment buildings joined together forming a square with a courtyard in the center. To enter or leave the fortress, residents and guests must walk past the security area, a single point of entry or exit on West 72nd Street. (see Figure 1) A narrow asphalt path, the "entryway," leads to the courtyard and is used mainly by pedestrians. Automobiles may also pull into the entryway from time to time, usually to unload luggage and other bulky objects onto the service elevator. The courtyard is not a parking lot. A public parking garage is located next door with an entrance tucked away in the connecting alley.

Crime scene photo labeled Figure 10 shows a service elevator and a door leading to it. The latter is a critical location because it is quite possibly the position where Lennon's true killer stood. An elevator operator was at the crime scene when Lennon was murdered. Patrolman Peter Cullen, one of the officers in the first police car responding to the shooting, believed the shooter was a handyman at the Dakota, not Chapman. The "handyman" was likely another name for the elevator operator whose identity is unknown at this time. Lennon's wounds are consistent with shots fired from an area near the elevator door. All wounds were on the left side of the body. Chapman was reportedly standing behind Lennon and to his right.

When I visited the Dakota to examine the crime scene, the doorman would not allow me do go inside the entrance so I was unable to get a close look at the service elevator. From outside the main entrance, I observed the doorman and someone who appeared to be a maintenance man (concierge, janitor, elevator operator, handyman, whatever we wish to call him) unload luggage from an SUV temporarily parked in the entryway. (see Appendix A, Exhibit H) A door was opened on the left side of the entryway wall (see Figure 4) and the luggage was taken inside, presumably to be loaded on the service elevator.

It is highly probable that a gunman hid behind the door leading to the elevator and shot Lennon while Chapman was in a hypnotic trance. Again, this would explain why Lennon's wounds were on the left side of his body, not the right. The diagram shown in Figure 11 was published in the New York Times on Dec. 10, 1980; two days after the shooting. The following text accompanied the diagram in the NYT:

Getting to Location # 4 from Location # 3 would require Lennon to run about 20 feet, after being fatally shot, then climb six stairs before collapsing. The total distance Lennon would have to travel is about 35 feet, including the stairs. (Note: The distance of the entryway—from the sidewalk entrance to the courtyard gates—is about 47 feet.²⁵) Notice how the diagram shows a service elevator directly across from the lobby, on the opposite side of the entryway. This is misleading because the diagram does not show the doorway which leads to the service elevator. I can accept that the service elevator proper is in fact in the location shown in Figure 11. But Figure 4 reveals that the door leading to the elevator is close to the center of the entryway, a perfect location for an assassin to shoot Lennon while Chapman was in an hypnotic trance.

Internet photos of the Dakota have the entrance blacked out. (Figure 12 is an example.) I have been unable to find a photograph on the Internet that is not blacked out. Plenty of photos of the Dakota are readily available on the Internet, but again, the entrances are blacked out. That is why I traveled to Manhattan to photograph the crime scene personally. Keep in mind, the front entrance is the main entry/exit point for residents and visitors, so blocking it off by shutting doors would be a major inconvenience. I did not see any doors, but for the sake of argument, I am willing to concede the possibility that doors may be attached to the sidewalk entrance or the courtyard entrance. Still, that does not explain why every photograph I found of the Dakota on the Internet showed these doors closed. (assuming they exist) Closed doors is an abnormal situation.

Directly across the street from the Dakota's entrance is a subway station. A photograph of the station, labeled Figure 13, shows a sign marked "72 Street Station." Why didn't Chapman run away? Even more interesting, why did doorman Jose Perdomo tell Chapman to run away immediately after Lennon was shot? Perhaps the old saying is true: "Innocent people don't run." To view all crime scene photographs diagrams, reference Appendix A.

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