When I went to work on Tuesday December 9, 1980, there was really only one topic of conversation, and it had nothing to do with anything work related. It was the shocking murder of John Lennon the night before.

This just wasn’t supposed to happen to a pop star.

Political figures got shot, yes. Celebrities might overdose on drugs. Or be killed in a plane crash. That’s the way pop stars should go if they’re gonna go.

But shooting an ex-Beatle, that made no sense whatsoever.

And so we talked about Lennon and the Beatles and their music and his music and why would someone, anyone, want to shoot John Lennon of all people. Not that we had any answers.

I’m not sure if I didn’t follow the case very carefully or if it just got removed from my memory banks, because about the only things that I recalled about the aftermath were that some doofus named Mark David Chapman shot Lennon, basically for no reason, and that he’s serving a life sentence and that Yoko keeps opposing his parole.

So the new documentary series that just began streaming on Apple TV+, John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, was a welcome memory aid.

It’s in three short episodes and I streamed all of them yesterday. I’d recommend them to anyone who has the least bit of interest in the case as there’s a lot there that I didn’t know.

The first episode covers Lennon’s last day, where he was very optimistic and just beginning to record music again after a long hiatus. The second covers the investigation, such as it was, given that the perp remained at the scene and freely admitted that he had done it. The final episode is entitled “The Trial” but the point of it is that there was no trial, because Chapman pled guilty at the last minute; it brings the story up to date.

I have a few quibbles.

One of the lawyers for Chapman repeatedly refers to him as “crazy”; one would expect better of someone from the legal profession. Why doesn’t he use a term like “mentally ill” or better still “schizophrenia”?

Then there is the narration, which is done by Kiefer Sutherland (very strange), though he acquits himself well enough, but early on, reading from his script he refers to John Lennon as a “musical genius”. Sorry. I hate the use of that overworked term, but in any case none of the Beatles were musical geniuses, as one can easily tell from the work they did after the split.

During the few brief years when they were together, their collaboration produced some magical work that will outlive them, but it was their teamwork and the addition of the Fifth Beatle (George Martin) that was the collective “genius”.

After the split, John did produce some notable work, but one would hardly call “Give Peace a Chance” a work of genius. The only thing that might reach the level of his work with the Beatles, certainly one of the few things that he is well known for, is “Imagine”.

Those quibbles aside, it’s а well put together documentary, and towards the end it argues persuasively that had Chapman shot and killed anyone but a famous celebrity, he would have been released from prison long ago; it’s only Yoko and Lennon’s fans who are keeping Chapman behind bars these days.

I don’t normally like to project what a long dead person might have thought, but I can’t help thinking about John Lennon’s message of peace and I wonder if he, unlike Yoko, would think enough is enough and be able to forgive his killer after 40 years.

Of course, we’ll never really know, will we?