Today (December 8th) marks the 42nd anniversary of John Lennon's death. As is the custom every year, fans are expected to stand vigil for Lennon across the street from the Dakota building in Central Park's Strawberry Fields. The triangular patch of land was designated by the city of New York in 1984 to celebrate the former Beatle's life and work. In the fall of 1980, the 40-year-old Lennon had re-entered public life after a self-imposed five-year hiatus to spend time with his young son Sean, travel, and recharge his creative batteries. On November 17th, 1980, Lennon and wife Yoko Ono had released their "comeback" album Double Fantasy, which included such future Lennon standards as "Woman," "Beautiful Boy," "Watching The Wheels," and the album's lead track and single "(Just Like) Starting Over." On the night of December 8th, 1980 -- with "(Just Like) Starting Over" sitting at Number Six on the singles charts -- Lennon and Yoko returned home to their apartment building, the Dakota on Manhattan's Central Park West. They had spent the evening at the Record Plant East recording studio mixing a tune of Yoko's called "Walking On Thin Ice." Mark David Chapman, who had been stalking Lennon for several days and had received an autograph from Lennon earlier that evening, lay in wait for his return. Chapman, who was living in Honolulu at the time, had made an unsuccessful trip to New York the previous October with the intent of killing Lennon, but couldn't find him. Lennon and Yoko returned from the studio at around 10:50 p.m., with their limousine dropping them off in front of the building on 72nd Street, rather than pulling into the building's courtyard as usual. As the couple walked in, they passed Chapman who called out "Mr. Lennon?" and fired five shots from a .38 caliber handgun, with four bullets entering Lennon's neck and back. Officers were quick on the scene, arresting Chapman and rushing Lennon in a squad car to nearby Roosevelt Hospital, where doctors worked on reviving the musician, who died from the severity of his wounds. Dr. Stephan Lynn, the director of Roosevelt Hospital's emergency room, recalled Lennon's injures to The New York Post, saying that, "We made an incision in the left chest and separated the ribs and found a very large amount of blood. We looked for an injury to the heart or to the blood vessels. But what we discovered was that all of the major blood vessels leaving the heart were simply destroyed. There was no way that we could repair them." The news of Lennon's death was broken by a reporter for New York's WABC-TV, who by coincidence was in the same emergency room after a motorcycle accident. The news was first reported by Howard Cosell during the Monday Night Football telecast. Yoko returned home and called "the three people John would have wanted to know" -- his aunt Mimi Smith, who raised him; his 17-year-old son Julian, from his first marriage; and Paul McCartney. Within hours of the news, thousands of fans had flocked to the Dakota to stand vigil for Lennon. Radio executive Andy Denemark recalled getting the news of Lennon being shot: "On the night of the 8th of December, I was at home, I was in bed, I wasn't interested in the Monday Night Football game that night, and my phone rang -- it feels like it was 11 o'clock, 11:30 at night, something like that. And it was a friend of mine who was a huge Beatle fan, and I could hear her shaking over the phone, that the news story had just broke that John Lennon had been shot. And it felt so surreal when she uttered those words to me that I kind of calmed her down and said, 'Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine,' and 'don't sweat it,' and 'I'm sure it's just a crazy rumor.' It just didn't feel real at all." Denemark recalls how limited fans' options were in getting accurate news about Lennon's condition: "Radio was the only immediate medium. I did what I think everybody else did at that time, was you turn to the radio. Because any news source -- CBS, NBC, all the big networks at the time -- and don't forget, 1980 was pre-MTV, pre-the expansion of a lot of cable, so you would turn to the radio because that's where you would get news about rock bands." Julian Lennon and Ringo Starr made immediate plans to head to New York, with George Harrison issuing a statement saying, "After all we went through, I had and still have great love and respect for him. I am shocked and stunned. To rob life is the ultimate robbery." McCartney also issued a statement, saying, "I can't take it at the moment. John was a great man who'll be remembered for his great contributions to art, music and peace. He is going to be missed by the whole world." Paul McCartney -- like George Harrison -- decided to go in to the recording studio the day after Lennon's murder as a way to get his mid off the tragedy. It was while leaving George Martin's AIR Studios in London that an obviously distraught and devastated McCartney gave his first public comments regarding the previous night's murder of his longtime partner: (McCartney): "It's terrible news." (Reporter): "When did you find out about it?" (McCartney): "I got a phone call this morning." (Reporter): "From who?" (McCartney): "Uh, from a friend of mine." (Reporter): "Are you planning to go abroad for the funeral?" (McCartney): "I don't know yet." (Reporter): "Do you know. . . have you discussed the death with any of the other Beatles?" (McCartney): "No." (Reporter): "Do you plan to?" (McCartney): "Probably, yeah." (Reporter): "What were you recording today?" (McCartney): "I was just listening to some stuff. I just didn't want to sit at home." (Reporter): "Why?" (McCartney): "Well, ‘cause I didn't feel like it." (Reporter): "What time did you hear the news?" (McCartney): "This morning some time." (Reporter): "Very early?" (McCartney): "Yeah. . . It's a drag , isn't it -- okay, cheers." In 1997 Paul McCartney spoke with the late David Frost and recalled the events of the morning he found out Lennon had been shot dead: "No, I remember it very well, yeah. I got a call from my office that morning and they gave me the news and I was just, sort of, totally stunned and just went blank and went pale. And Linda had actually taken the kids to school, so when she got back, she was quite happy: ‘Hey, how ya doin'?' -- just saw me and she said, ‘God, what's happened?!' Y'know, ‘What's going on?' So, I had to tell her and we just had a terrible day, really -- like I think most people did. Y'know, it was on the radio everywhere. It was a terrible day. I was kind of in shock and somebody stuck a microphone in they car door and sort of said, ‘What do you think?' And all I could blurt out was, ‘It's a drag.' Of course, when that got translated to print, it looked horrible: ‘He said, ‘It's a drag.' It looked very, sort of, wrong. I was just stunned. It was a terrible day. Those kind of things are horrible, ‘cause it alerts everyone to their own fragility and your own lack of security. It's not just stars, as you see, if you look at the news, it's everyone. Y'know, there's always that kind of thing happening: (Adapts newscaster's voice) '. . . and today, in McDonalds, so and so, somebody ran in with a gun and sprayed everyone.' It's our world, I'm afraid." (1:06 OC: . . . world I'm afraid) George Harrison, who later on his life would also be attacked at the hands of a madman, felt it was unfathomable that his childhood friend and se