I happened to be watching Monday Night Football with some friends when John Lennon was shot, so I learned of it from Howard Cosell of all people. Unlike Frank and Don who were like "Oh well, so sad, let's get on with the game, Howard was very upset. He wanted them to stop the game. I gained a new respect for Mr. Cosell after that. Lennon's death just devastated me. I was s child at the time of the Kennedys and King assassinations so I didn't really feel the pain so much. But when John Lennon was assassinated I was 23 and he was my biggest hero. A "Working Class Hero" was my anthem. This was an especially dark time for progressives, coming just one month after Reagan being elected.
   I agree with Katlaughing about the unseemliness of speaking ill of the dead in a place where people are memorializing him. It's boorish. And for the record NYC is not the murder capital of the Western World, not even of the Eastern seaboard. The asshole that murdered our beloved John was no New Yorker. He came from half way around the world to perform this cowardly, despicable act.