Playboy's Bad Timing

John Lennon signs a record for Mark David Chapman hours before the latter guns him down

The December 1980 issue of Playboy magazine had a little update about what each of the Beatles were up to in its Fast Tracks column. The piece read, "Paul McCartney is helping out on Ringo's new album. George is recording in England and John and Yoko have put down their milk buckets and headed back to the studio. All is well in Beatleland."

The unfortunate part? John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980, when this issue would have been on the stands. Making it even more grisly is the mention of John and Yoko putting down their milk buckets. This is a reference to a recent article about a farm the couple had invested in. Mark David Chapman had read the article and was struck by the singer of Imagine showing such hypocrisy. This has been given as one of the reasons Chapman chose Lennon as his victim.

While this last bit wasn't known yet, one can still imagine the reaction of Beatlemaniacs reading this in the days directly after John's murder.

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