Sean Strub, Entrepreneur and gay rights activist
(recent photo from Pinchot Institute for Conservation's website)
Sean Strub (far right) around midnight, Dec. 9, 1980, describes Lennon's murder to Jeanne Downey (far left), Channel 2, CBS.
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USENET Discussion Group rec.music.beatles
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Sean Strub - Mark David Chapman's primary accuser in John Lennon's murder
by Salvador Astucia, Dec. 22, 2004 (last updated Dec. 23, 2004)
Conflicting versions of crime scene and stellar success of "entrepreneur" and gay rights activist Strub raise unsettling questions about quid pro quo in possible government sponsored hit. |
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Sean Strub, Entrepreneur and gay rights activist (recent photo from Pinchot Institute for Conservation's website)
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Sean Strub (far right) around midnight, Dec. 9, 1980, describes Lennon's murder to Jeanne Downey (far left), Channel 2, CBS. |
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(Dec. 22, 2004) Twenty-four years ago, around midnight on December 9, 1980, a twenty-something young man named Sean Strub stood before live television cameras and described the shocking murder of rock music's beloved John Lennon, founder of the famed Sixties rock group the Beatles, who was shot and killed as he walked through the entrance gate to his apartment at the upscale Dakota complex in Manhattan. Strub was probably the most vocal crime scene witness; he was quoted by Associated Press and several newspapers including the New York Times. Fenton Bresler cited Strub's observations in the renowned book, Who Killed John Lennon? Given Strub's extraordinary gift of gab, it is amazing that he was not actually present at the Dakota when the shooting occurred, something he openly admits. He was a block or so away and claims he heard the shots and followed police cars to the Dakota. Yet it was Strub, more than anyone else, who shaped the public's perception that Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon.
In the 24 years since Lennon's murder, Strub has prospered immensely, which raises the issue of quid pro quo. Quite simply, is it possible that special doors might have been opened for Strub by powerful individuals within the United States government in exchange for giving false testimony about Chapman before live television cameras shortly after Lennon was killed?
Strub, who is openly homosexual and Jewish, has become one of the most prominent and influential people in New York City and Pennsylvania. He is a prominent gay rights activist with vast political and corporate connections. Strub is founder and chairman of POZ Magazine, a journal for gay men with HIV-Positive. POZ Magazine is an offshoot of the Washington, DC-based AIDS organization, People With AIDS (PWA). Strub founded a direct marketing firm, Strubco, Inc., which evolved into Metamorphic Media which Strub sold in 1985, but remains chairman. Strub is also editor-in-chief at Milford Magazine which he operates from, Hotel Fauchere, an inn owned by Strub located in Milford, Pennsylvania. In June of 2003, Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell appointed Strub as a member of the Pennsylvania Travel and Tourism Partnership. Strub is also a board member at The Pinchot Institute for Conservation, a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, dedicated by President Kennedy in 1963.
Besides acquiring vast influence, Strub has had his share of adversity as well. Since Lennon's murder, Strub has developed health problems, having battled HIV-Positive for over twenty years. Nevertheless, he reportedly found a way to profit from his misfortune. In April 1999, the New York Times published an exposé on Strub, accusing him of selling names of POZ subscribers (men with HIV-Positive) to another gay group. The allegation, which is apparently true, was not merely a crude way for Strub to make a fast dollar. It was a breach of trust with the people Mr. Strub claims to embody and represent. Gay men with HIV-Positive normally want to keep their medical conditions secret in order to prevent job discrimination or other inconveniences. Selling a list of names of men with HIV-Positive may not be illegal, but it is one of the highest forms of betrayal imaginable, particularly for someone who claims to be a gay rights advocate. Given Mr. Strub's propensity to deceive, how much weight should we give his observations about John Lennon's murder?
On the night of Lennon's murder, Jeanne Downey, of Channel 2, CBS in New York, interviewed Strub live outside the Roosevelt Hospital, where Lennon had been pronounced dead moments earlier. In his description, Strub identified Dakota doorman, Jose Perdomo, as the individual who first stated that a verbal argument or altercation had occurred between Chapman and Lennon moments before the shooting, a point Chapman later denied at his competency hearing, and the judge accepted his explanation. (See attachment for transcript of hearing.) In addition, Perdomo was a Cuban exile, which further taints his credibility because US intelligence agencies have been notorious for contracting Cuban exiles to perform covert operations. (Bay of Pigs invasion, the Watergate burglary, the ransacking of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office)
The issue of verbal communication between Lennon and Chapman is a critical point because it helps establish the angle in which Lennon was standing, in relation to Chapman, when the shots were fired. By comparing the angle in which Lennon was standing to the entry wounds he suffered, the location of the shooter can be pinpointed. My research indicates that Chapman could not have been the shooter because he was standing in the wrong location to have created the entry wounds. The autopsy report and death certificate indicate there were four entry wounds on the left side of Lennon's body; however, Chapman was reportedly standing to Lennon's right, a few feet behind him.
To get a better understanding of where Chapman and Lennon stood when the shots were fired, click here:
http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/scene/standing.htm
The following is a transcript of Strub’s description to Jeanne Downey of what he saw and heard on the night Lennon was killed:
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STRUB: …I kind of waited for a minute and started to walk on; a police car drove by very fast. And so I followed it on down, I thought it was something in the park, but it was at the Dakota on Seventy-Second Street and Central Park West. As I got there, there were about a half-dozen people there, and very shortly there were that many squad cars.
JD: Did you see Mr. Lennon at that time?
STRUB: Yeah, they were just bringing Lennon out of the, sort of an entryway, the driveway between the sidewalk and the courtyard, and he was limp; there were about six officers carrying him. He had a little bit of blood coming out of his mouth.
JD: And Police tell us they do have a suspect. Did you see anyone?
STRUB: Yeah, they scuffled with a guy and arrested him; he was about thirty-five, he was white, brown hair.
JD: Was he alone?
STRUB: He was the only person I saw. Yoko was there.
JD: She was?
STRUB: And they put him in a squad car and took off.
JD: Was there any kind of an exchange, do you know, between Lennon and the suspect?
STRUB: That’s what the doorman [Jose Perdomo] said that there had been some sort of altercation or argument; I heard the cops say that Lennon was hit twice in the back. I heard someone else say that the guy had apparently been hanging around all evening, and another person said he’d been there all week, and he was just kind of like waiting for him.
JD: Thank-you very much, Sean, who is a witness who at least heard the shots surrounding the shooting and apparent death of John Lennon….
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It's interesting how Sean Strub's explanation was so thorough, so detailed, but virtually all of it was second-hand. In other words, whether it was intentional or accidental, he planted the seeds of what could be an official cover story (as opposed to the actual events) to the media just minutes after the crime had been committed, but with virtually no accountability, since he didn't see anything other than blood on Lennon's mouth. It's quite possible Strub could have been a phony witness. For a crime of this magnitude, witnesses can be bought for a dime a dozen.
An unidentified female witness gave quite a different account of the shooting than Strub's. The woman--whose description of the crime was broadcast on Channel 7 Eyewitness News--was at the Dakota when the shooting started, but apparently did not actually see the identity of the person who shot Lennon, she only heard the shots. Nevertheless, she witnessed events before and after the shooting, and did not mention anything about words being exchanged between Lennon and Chapman. The following is the unidentified woman's description of the shooting:
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WOMAN: I heard Yoko Ono screaming moments later. They stepped out of the limousine, and they went inside of the gate there. Then all of a sudden, I heard five/six shots, and that was it.
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Certainly no crime is without
contradictions. It's what makes police work difficult at times, like solving
a jumbled puzzle. But the NYPD didn't exactly over-exert itself in the
Lennon case. They didn't even file a proper police report. A crime scene
sketch similar to one which appeared in the New York Times on Dec. 10, 1980
should have been included in the police report, but it was not. Why?
Here is the NYPD police report on John Lennon's murder, which provides very little information about the crime scene other than the identies of the victim, the suspect and the two arresting officers:
http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/police_report/page1.htm
Since the NYPD provided no
documented record of the crime scene, critics must rely on newspaper
accounts and television coverage to reconstruct events. For some reason the
initial description of the shooting changed quite a bit from what was
printed in the NYT on the morning of Dec. 9, 1980, less than eight hours
after Lennon was murdered. NYT writer Les Ledbetter wrote the following:
"The police said the suspect stepped from an alcove and emptied several
shots into Mr. Lennon while standing in a combat position." |
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recess opening
off a room or other space enclosed by walls or hedges. In medieval
architecture it was commonly used as a sleeping space off the main body of a
drafty hall. The separation of the alcove from the main space was
accomplished at first by means of curtains and later by timber partitions to
form independent rooms and thus conserve heat. In later centuries bed
alcoves and kitchen alcoves reappeared as means of saving space in small
living quarters, particularly in apartments. |
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Britannica's description of an
alcove seems very similar to the area which led to a service elevator,
across from the lobby at the Dakota. We have conflicting accounts of the shooting between Strub and another witness, a REAL witness. We have a Cuban exile working as the doorman to the Dakota, essentially acting as a security guard. In 1999, Strub demonstrated he had dishonest tendancies when he reportedly sold names of POZ subscribers (men with HIV-Positive) to another gay group. As most people know, people who are diagnosed HIV-Positive generally go through a lot of effort to keep their medical condition secret. In addition, Strub's public statements about Lennon's murder were completely hearsay and should therefore be treated as false and unreliable. If Chapman had gone to trial, Strub's statements would not have been used because he did not witness the crime; he only heard gunfire from a considerable distance away. Therefore, he has no first-hand knowledge of the crime. In short, he does not qualify as a witness at all. Yet he described the shooting to reporters as if he was there. By doing so, he shaped a version of events in the public's minds which is not supported by crime scene evidence or corroborated by REAL witnesses. And over the years he has apparently prospered enormously and gained considerable notoriety and prestige. Of course prosperity isn't a crime in and of itself. But the means by which prosperity is gained is often a sensitive point to influential people. In Sean Strub's case, he has demonstrated that he is fully capable of cutting corners to achieve the desired results. And he has been rewarded.
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SOURCES:
The assertion that Dakota doorman Jose Perdomo was a Cuban exile was made by Jim Gaines in the following article
for People Magazine: Gaines, People, Mar. 2, 1987, "In the
Shadows a Killer Waited," around p 65. POZ Magazine, team page,
indicates of Strub is Founder and Chairman of journal:
Stub's ownership of Hotel Fauchere is shown on the following webpage: http://profiles.hospitalityonline.com/209934/ Cached at http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/strub/fauchere.pdf
Strub's position as editor-in-chief at Milford Magazine is documented on the following webpage: (Note: Milford Magazine is located at the same address as Hotel Fauchere, which Strub owns: 113 Seventh Street, Milford, PA 18337.) http://www.milfordmagazine.com/who.html Cached at http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/strub/milford.pdf
An article critical of Strub for selling a subscription list of POZ magazine (POS subscribers are mostly HIV positive men), a subsidiary of People With AIDS (PWA), to another gay group is on the following webpage: http://www.apla.org/apla/positiveliving/0499/hivwatch.html Cached at http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/strub/poz_scandal.pdf
National Association of People
With AIDS (PWA) is located in Washington, DC, per the following webpage: Cached at http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/strub/napwa.pdf
Recent photo of Sean Strub is shown on Pinchot Institute for Conservation's website: http://www.pinchot.org/profile/bod.htm Cached at http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/strub/pinchot_bod.pdf
Governor Edward G. Rendell names
Strub as member of Pennsylvania Travel & Tourism Partnership (June 30, 2003)
Strub's 20-plus struggle with HIV
positive was mentioned on CNN Newsroom, aired June 5, 2001. Here's the
transcript:
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