Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis. John Lennon was a musical genius
Speaker 1: and one of the most beloved cultural figures of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century. His songs inspired dreamers to imagine, his search
Speaker 1: for the truth gave power to the people. But some
Speaker 1: thought he dreamed too much. Others thought he was too powerful.
Speaker 1: So he was followed, he was threatened, he was declared
Speaker 1: a danger to the United States, and in night he
Speaker 1: was assassinated. This is his story told by his so
Speaker 1: called friends. This is special Agent Jim Steele with the
Speaker 1: Federal Bureau of Investigation work in case number double oh
Speaker 1: nine dash zero eight dash zero four nine one, case
Speaker 1: subject of Lennon, John Winston oh No. This information pertains
Speaker 1: to a period and in December seven interview subject as
Speaker 1: Yoko oh Oh Lennon interview number zero dash zero two
Speaker 1: dash zero six one dash nine eight one. We call
Speaker 1: number one December. If John and I did something that
Speaker 1: the people didn't like, it was my fault. And if
Speaker 1: we did something successful, John about the credit that was
Speaker 1: a learning process. I think that life is a process
Speaker 1: of learning. We're given each of us are guing the
Speaker 1: light we use the light to learn the things we
Speaker 1: have to learn. John and I had to learn those things,
Speaker 1: especially me. I had to learn the experience of humiliation.
Speaker 1: It was probably good that I learned it, otherwise I
Speaker 1: would have stayed at the proud yoga on now And
Speaker 1: in a funny sort of way, I felt the weight
Speaker 1: of the beatles break up because John expected all of
Speaker 1: that to be replaced by me. All of us are
Speaker 1: trying to win some kind of fight. Jaunt. Did I
Speaker 1: do you do? The fight of learning of light? The
Speaker 1: fight and experienced the kind of fight that leads to
Speaker 1: blood on the Transah Yeah. Year one, John Lennon and
Speaker 1: Yogo Werner, they called us subversives. They said we were dangerous,
Speaker 1: a threat to national security, enemies of the state. That
Speaker 1: wasn't just the American people talking. The American government said this.
Speaker 1: As soon as John and I stepped foot in New
Speaker 1: York City in nineteen seventy one. The American government wanted
Speaker 1: us out. They said we were bad for the impressionable youth.
Speaker 1: You know, the impressionable youth as in the eighteen to
Speaker 1: twenty one year old who could buy records. But I've
Speaker 1: never been able to cast a vote in their life
Speaker 1: until now. So they followed us, They tapped our phones,
Speaker 1: they tracked our every movement. Yeah, they even change in
Speaker 1: their own rules to get us, you know, just because
Speaker 1: they had a fire on John. Not just one file,
Speaker 1: lots of files. The files ran up the chain of
Speaker 1: command all the way to Hoover Nixon. But they needed
Speaker 1: a legitimate reason to kick John out, so they leaned
Speaker 1: on the cannabis charge from a few years before. That
Speaker 1: was their excuse, the reason for why John Lennon was
Speaker 1: not fit for a green card. The cannabis charge was
Speaker 1: from back in London, nine October. It was late morning.
Speaker 1: John and I were in bed. We weren't wearing much,
Speaker 1: which was normal for us, you know. Recently John had
Speaker 1: gotten a tip from newspaper friend thought he was going
Speaker 1: to be the next target of London's drug squad. The
Speaker 1: squad wasn't just feared, they were entitled. They were the
Speaker 1: same entitled group that busted down Donovan's drawer at what
Speaker 1: one thirty in the morning for what some hash the
Speaker 1: same squad that found us and coke on making teeth.
Speaker 1: One perhaps doesn't ask for responsibilities, Perhaps one has given responsibilities.
Speaker 1: One One News pushed into the limelight in this particular sphere,
Speaker 1: rather than ask him to be asked to be pushed
Speaker 1: into this in any way, merely asked to be my
Speaker 1: private life, to be left alone, so as it were.
Speaker 1: The drug squad was led by Sergeant Norman Pilcher. Pilcher
Speaker 1: was on his own crusade, his own trip. Everyone knew
Speaker 1: he was going after rock and rollers, and everyone also
Speaker 1: knew that he was dirty. He planted evidence, he wrote
Speaker 1: false rewards. Half of the arrest that he made in
Speaker 1: the late sixties were probably frame ups. It's true. He
Speaker 1: was convicted of perjury years later and they sent him
Speaker 1: to jail. Earlier that morning, John had vacuum to the flat.
Speaker 1: Jimmie Hendricks had once lived there amongst others, and John
Speaker 1: was just being extra careful that there was no evidence
Speaker 1: hanging around that could be used against us in case
Speaker 1: his friend's tip was legitimate. If those walls could talk,
Speaker 1: you know. In fact, at the time, we weren't doing
Speaker 1: any drugs. We were on a microbiotic diet, no drugs,
Speaker 1: no caffeine. Even so, we were in bed. There was
Speaker 1: a knock on the door. Someone on the other side
Speaker 1: of the door yelled something about a warrant. I looked
Speaker 1: at John and panicked, what should we do? We knew
Speaker 1: exactly who it was. We knew it was Piltra, and
Speaker 1: we had nothing to hide, but still feeling a panic
Speaker 1: came over me. John said, don't answer the door, so
Speaker 1: we didn't. They kept knocking, They got louder, more voices.
Speaker 1: They were trying the doriendal, and suddenly there was a
Speaker 1: commotion at the rear of the flat. John left out
Speaker 1: of bed and ran out back, where he found one
Speaker 1: of Pilcher's officers trying to get inside through a rear window.
Speaker 1: John was in his underwear with his hands on top
Speaker 1: of the window, pushing it down while the officer outside
Speaker 1: was trying to pry it open. At this point I
Speaker 1: think John was beginning to panic as well. The officer
Speaker 1: at the window was yelling that he was going to
Speaker 1: break the window if he had to. It didn't matter
Speaker 1: that John was John Lennon or that he was a beatle.
Speaker 1: The police didn't care. Actually it worked against us. The
Speaker 1: beatle thing. Being a beatles what got John in this
Speaker 1: mess in the first place. John knew he wasn't going
Speaker 1: to be able to hold back a team of determined
Speaker 1: police officers, so he relented. He told the man at
Speaker 1: the window to stand down and he would go open
Speaker 1: the front door. There were seven of them, detective sergeants,
Speaker 1: detective constables, all policewomen, dog handlers, and of course, Sergeant Pilcher.
Speaker 1: They barged inside the flat. Once John had unlocked the door.
Speaker 1: Piltre had victory in his eyes. Before he even stepped
Speaker 1: foot in the place. You could just see it written
Speaker 1: on his face that he was about to bust the
Speaker 1: John Lennon, the one who was bigger than Jesus Pulture
Speaker 1: told the dog handlers to let the dogs loose. Their
Speaker 1: names were Yogi and Boo Boo. I'm not kidding what
Speaker 1: you gonna do about a yo game. They sniffed around
Speaker 1: the flat while John argued with Pilcher and the others.
Speaker 1: John was getting angry. He knew there was nothing illegal
Speaker 1: in the place, and he kept telling Pilture there was nothing.
Speaker 1: Over and over. John argued that just because he was
Speaker 1: a rocky musician didn't mean that he was sitting on
Speaker 1: a pilot drugs. Yogi and Boo Boo told a different story. Allegedly,
Speaker 1: they found grass in a binoculars case. Grass and film
Speaker 1: canister and more grass and a cigarette roller, something like
Speaker 1: an ounce total. It was bullshit. It wasn't ours. We
Speaker 1: never proved that it wasn't ours, or that Piltre had
Speaker 1: planted the evidence. Python did a funny sketch about him
Speaker 1: with a pultry character was arresting someone and saying, I'm
Speaker 1: charging you with the illegal possession of whatever we can
Speaker 1: happen to have down there. Pultre did have to face
Speaker 1: questions from the Home Secretary, however, who wanted to know
Speaker 1: why so many officers had been used for such a
Speaker 1: small bust. Pilcher's response was that he thought he'd be
Speaker 1: busting some wild sex party again because John was a beatle.
Speaker 1: That was what he thought of us. He couldn't imagine
Speaker 1: that a rock star could just be enjoying a lazy
Speaker 1: morning in bed with his wife. Well, technically we weren't
Speaker 1: married quite yet. In a few months time we would be.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing. What Piltre couldn't imagine, what he
Speaker 1: couldn't see. It was the same thing that the whole
Speaker 1: world couldn't see. They couldn't see John as anything but
Speaker 1: a beatle. They couldn't see him without his myth As
Speaker 1: John began to extract himself from that myth, his fans
Speaker 1: in England got confused and angry and looked for someone
Speaker 1: to blame for their anger and confusion. Of course, they
Speaker 1: directed it at me at the experience of humiliation, because
Speaker 1: I was the one who took their beetle away from them.
Speaker 1: I was the one who opened his eyes and woke
Speaker 1: him up. I was the one who liberated him. I
Speaker 1: loved John for John, not for being famous, or being
Speaker 1: a beetle or any of that. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: John Lennon the Beatle when I first met him, which
Speaker 1: people find hard to believe because the group was so
Speaker 1: famous at the time. I knew of the phenomenon of
Speaker 1: the Beatles, and I knew Ringo's name, I think subconsciously,
Speaker 1: because Ringo means apple in Japanese. I don't think John
Speaker 1: even knew who John was until we got together. He
Speaker 1: said himself that our relationship brought out the best in him.
Speaker 1: He said something like the king is always killed by
Speaker 1: his courtiers, not his enemies. That the psycho fans surrounding
Speaker 1: the king do whatever they need to do in order
Speaker 1: to keep him on that throne. They overfeed him over
Speaker 1: drug him, over indulge him. But I was able to
Speaker 1: extract him from that fate about It wasn't easy. John
Speaker 1: was difficult, and that should have been his nickname, the
Speaker 1: Difficult Beetle. And then the nineteen seventies were difficult decade
Speaker 1: for us. Our marriage was tested, our trust was tested,
Speaker 1: our love was tested. There are a lot of awful
Speaker 1: things that happened in the seventies to John and me
Speaker 1: that I would really rather not get into al We
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time apart before we reconciled. You know,
Speaker 1: I spent too many nights alone and afraid, my entire
Speaker 1: body just shaking, you know, just completely and utterly alone
Speaker 1: in our apartment near Central Park, where we settled in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. Once it was clear we were going
Speaker 1: to be in town for a while, John was out
Speaker 1: god knows where, in Los Angeles or somewhere else in
Speaker 1: New York City, or maybe even somewhere in between. There
Speaker 1: were moments when I thought we wouldn't pulter. More moments
Speaker 1: when I thought John would wind up dead, shot to
Speaker 1: death by Phil Specter, the crazy pastor, or silenced for
Speaker 1: good by the FBI men who wouldn't leave him alone.
Speaker 1: There were always fans hanging out outside the Dakota. The
Speaker 1: most of the time, they were friendly and respectable, and
Speaker 1: John was friendly back to them. But occasionally things got
Speaker 1: out of hand. Fans would get past the lobby and
Speaker 1: find their way up to our place, apartment seventy two
Speaker 1: up on the seventh floor. They just walk right in
Speaker 1: the door, looking for John to fight. That kind of
Speaker 1: thing terrified me, never mind that I had suspicions about
Speaker 1: the apartment to begin with. It used to belong to
Speaker 1: Robert Ryan, and his wife had died there, which is
Speaker 1: why he left it and we moved him. You know,
Speaker 1: Robert Ryan, right Crossfire, the wild Bunch. Anyways, I used
Speaker 1: to think the place was haunted or at least a
Speaker 1: little unsettled, and that it was because Robert Bryant's wife
Speaker 1: had died there. Maybe she didn't want us there, maybe
Speaker 1: she didn't want anyone there. I know that I didn't
Speaker 1: want those fans in the apartment. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if they knew that. It wasn't okay that they would
Speaker 1: do that, just come in. I hired security to help us,
Speaker 1: but it made John even more uncomfortable. He used to say,
Speaker 1: if they're going to get you, they're gonna get you.
Speaker 1: So just killed the bodyguard first. I'm getting off track.
Speaker 1: As I said earlier, there's a lot I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about. I want to talk about the good things,
Speaker 1: the happy moments, the moments when all our hard work
Speaker 1: paid off. I want to talk about October nine. October nine,
Speaker 1: that was the day Shawn was born, our son. It
Speaker 1: was also John's thirty five birthday the same day. We
Speaker 1: were able to enjoy the indescribable joy of that day
Speaker 1: in the way we hadn't been able to enjoy anything
Speaker 1: for a while. Because October nine was also the day
Speaker 1: after we had heard from our lawyer, Leon Wilds that
Speaker 1: three panel judge had ruled in John's favor in the U.
Speaker 1: S government's case to haven't deported. John would be able
Speaker 1: to stay in the United States. We could go on
Speaker 1: living at the Dakota On that day, at that moment,
Speaker 1: anything was possible for us. We had beat back a
Speaker 1: government that wanted us gone. We had conquered the unknowable
Speaker 1: months in which we put our relationship on indefinite hiatus.
Speaker 1: We were just two people, a man and a woman
Speaker 1: who know had a third, A beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy.
Speaker 1: We just wanted to be us. Whatever that meant, we
Speaker 1: were going to figure it out. We'll be right back
Speaker 1: after this word word word. Well. When we first came
Speaker 1: to New York City in n I was more than
Speaker 1: happy to leave England, not just because it got us
Speaker 1: away from Norman Pilcher. But bothered me were the Beatle fans.
Speaker 1: They were awful. They waited for us outside of Abbey
Speaker 1: Road Studios, and when we would leave after a session,
Speaker 1: they would attack. This is when the Beatles were still together.
Speaker 1: They would yell insults at me, racial insults, hurtful insults.
Speaker 1: They would bring roses simply so they could use the
Speaker 1: thorns to attack me. I just hated England. Plus, John
Speaker 1: loved America. He loved New York City. He loved the people,
Speaker 1: the cultures. He loved being able to walk through the
Speaker 1: streets of New York just as John and not necessarily
Speaker 1: as a Beatle. I wanted to do everything I could
Speaker 1: to ensure that John would be allowed to stay. John
Speaker 1: had taken sole responsibility for the possession charge back in London.
Speaker 1: He did it so that I wouldn't have to face
Speaker 1: the charges. He did it for me. He also did
Speaker 1: it because he thought he could simply pay a fee,
Speaker 1: move on with his life and never have to worry
Speaker 1: about it ever. Again, maybe it was naive. We were
Speaker 1: used to being called naive, some people said, are political
Speaker 1: views where naive? You know? Give piece of chance? War
Speaker 1: is over if you wanted the idea that people could
Speaker 1: have peace, if they really wanted peace. Is that so naive?
Speaker 1: Many people thought so, though I'm not exactly sure why
Speaker 1: we were talked down to by people who had a
Speaker 1: million complicated reasons why something so uncomplicated was impossible. You
Speaker 1: know why, though, I know why, because war is a
Speaker 1: business and peace is not. And just like one of
Speaker 1: those million little reasons preventing world peace, the United States
Speaker 1: decided that the reason John couldn't stay in the country
Speaker 1: was because of this possession charge, which we all saw through. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's say that a few friends of ours
Speaker 1: in the pop business have exactly the same conviction as me,
Speaker 1: and I'll have to come and go as phrase they like.
Speaker 1: There was the thing with John Sinclair. John saw solidarity
Speaker 1: in that fight. John Sinclair was sent to prison for
Speaker 1: ten years for having two joints that's the mentality we
Speaker 1: were up against. The government was waging not just a
Speaker 1: war in Vietnam, but a war at home on how
Speaker 1: to think and how to act. John fought for John
Speaker 1: Sinclair's release, and by aligning himself with that movement, he
Speaker 1: was made a public enemy as well. So did his
Speaker 1: relationships with Jerry Ruben and Abby Hoffman and Bobby Seal.
Speaker 1: One of John's first friends when we came to New
Speaker 1: York City was David Peel over at St. Mark's Place. David,
Speaker 1: it was very vocal anti government, prograss. John even produced
Speaker 1: one of his albums, The Pope Smokes Dope, put it
Speaker 1: on Apple Records. It was widely banned. You know. This
Speaker 1: was the same time Paul was getting banned for his
Speaker 1: song Hi Hi Hi. Let you know. David Peel, Bobby Seal,
Speaker 1: Abby Hoffman, they were all radicals to Hoover Nixon, and
Speaker 1: so John was a radical by association. John and I
Speaker 1: were very much anti war and pro peace. We were
Speaker 1: anti Nixon. Nixon was Cambodia and Kent State an Attica.
Speaker 1: In nine seventy one or nineteen seventy two, John was
Speaker 1: the highest profile rabble rouser in the United States and
Speaker 1: he had built an audience that would hang on his
Speaker 1: every word, not to mention, a media that would follow
Speaker 1: his every move. So the US government bugged our phones.
Speaker 1: This is when we were on Bank Street in the
Speaker 1: West Village before we moved to the Dakota, a two
Speaker 1: room apartment that we were renting from Joe Butler of
Speaker 1: The Loving Spoonful. We've got into some hot water, just
Speaker 1: knowing Joe Butler. I'll tell you about that in a minute. First,
Speaker 1: the bugs. They bugged our phone. They bugged our lawyer's phone.
Speaker 1: Someone told us about a number you could dial to
Speaker 1: tell if they were listening or not. If you've dialed
Speaker 1: the number and you've got a busy signal, then you
Speaker 1: were good. Your line was clean. But if you dialed
Speaker 1: and heard, then they were on the call with you.
Speaker 1: Hoover's men. Our lawyer started to conduct all his phone
Speaker 1: conversations in Yiddish, just to be extra careful. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't just our phone conversations they were paying attention to.
Speaker 1: They were combing through John's lyrics. Agents were in the
Speaker 1: audience that night at the John Sinclair Rally, scribbling these
Speaker 1: brand new song lyrics into little spiral notebooks. Someone at
Speaker 1: m I five thought that John was secretly funding the
Speaker 1: i RA in Ireland, so the Feds poured over songs
Speaker 1: like Sunday, Bloody Sunday and Luck of the Irish. Later
Speaker 1: I'd find out they were even looking into whether or
Speaker 1: not John had earned money in the United States while
Speaker 1: he was in the country on a tourist visa, you know.
Speaker 1: And they followed us everywhere we went, if we took
Speaker 1: a walk through the village or took a cab across
Speaker 1: town or whatever. They tried to dress casual, but to
Speaker 1: quickly learned how to pick them out. They were just
Speaker 1: about the only people who couldn't blend in into a
Speaker 1: crowded Manhattan street. I'm not exactly sure why John opened
Speaker 1: the door to the apartment on this particular night when
Speaker 1: the doorbell rang out of the blue. We were both
Speaker 1: so par annoyed, par annoid about what we said and
Speaker 1: who we were with and what we were doing. It
Speaker 1: seemed common sense not to open the door without first
Speaker 1: figuring out who was calling. But John opened it, and
Speaker 1: these two well, they looked like junkie's there's no better
Speaker 1: way to describe them. These two junkies came marching in.
Speaker 1: They were here to collect, they said, collect what John
Speaker 1: yelled at them. But these guys were dead to the
Speaker 1: world hard fight. They took our color TV, a Salvador
Speaker 1: Dolly lithograph, and a small antique table. I was dumbfounded.
Speaker 1: The worst of it came after the thieves were gone.
Speaker 1: John gasped. Then he went mad. He started to rummage
Speaker 1: through the place himself, frantically looking for something he would
Speaker 1: he was rambling. He wouldn't tell me what he was
Speaker 1: looking for. Once it was clear that he wasn't going
Speaker 1: to find it, he told me I address book, he said.
Speaker 1: The blood had trained from his face. My address book
Speaker 1: was in the drawer of that table. His address book
Speaker 1: contained not just the phone numbers of every anti authority
Speaker 1: radical he knew, but their physical locations as well. Like
Speaker 1: Dana Biel, the Yippie he was the head of the
Speaker 1: legalization fight. He was on the FBI shortlist. And Timothy Learry,
Speaker 1: who was hiding in Switzerland after he walked out of
Speaker 1: prison where he was serving a sentence for possession. He
Speaker 1: literally walked out of jail. I escaped with the help
Speaker 1: of the Weatherman Underground of their crack Underground operators came
Speaker 1: to California six weeks before my escape, and it was
Speaker 1: a very complicated operation. They found Larry's danhim prison uniform
Speaker 1: in one of his socks in the restation bathroom a
Speaker 1: few miles down the one oh one. He was long gone,
Speaker 1: but John knew where Larry was. It was in that book,
Speaker 1: and if that book fell into the wrong hands, it
Speaker 1: could be disastrous to the movement. That's when we began
Speaker 1: to think that maybe the junkies who had bust into
Speaker 1: our apartment weren't actually junkies at all. Maybe they had
Speaker 1: been planted there by the government. Maybe they were two
Speaker 1: guys from the government playing the roles of junkies in
Speaker 1: order to justorient us so that they could take the table.
Speaker 1: Because they knew the address book was in that table,
Speaker 1: and they knew that the address book was in that
Speaker 1: table because they were listening in on all of our conversations.
Speaker 1: We were so paranoid we actually believed that for a while.
Speaker 1: It turns out, however, that Joe Butler, that guy from
Speaker 1: the Loving Spoonful who was renting us the apartment, it
Speaker 1: turns out he had some pretty serious gambling debts, and
Speaker 1: that's who the junkies had come to collect from, not us,
Speaker 1: Joe Butler. The realization didn't mean that we stopped worrying
Speaker 1: right away. We worried a little bit less when John
Speaker 1: had a front track down our table and it is
Speaker 1: address book back. And then we worried even less when
Speaker 1: we dialed the number over and over and never heard
Speaker 1: the static squeel. That meant we were under surveillance. By
Speaker 1: the end of the decade, our guards were down. We
Speaker 1: had put so much behind us. We simply weren't prepared
Speaker 1: for what was coming. And when it hit, it seemed
Speaker 1: to come out of nowhere. New York City, December. It
Speaker 1: was shortly after midnight when the telephone inside Apartment seventy
Speaker 1: two at the Dakota Building rang out. Yoko Ono answered.
Speaker 1: The man on the other end spoke broken English with
Speaker 1: a Puerto Rican accent. He wanted to know if Yoko
Speaker 1: Ono and John Lennon had his money, the money he
Speaker 1: had demanded in the letter he sent back in November.
Speaker 1: John and Yoko got this letter right, of course they did,
Speaker 1: so where was his hundred grand? He wanted to know.
Speaker 1: December nine was the date they were supposed to get
Speaker 1: him the hundred grand and now it was fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: into December. They were late. Where was the money? Yoko stalled,
Speaker 1: Of course she knew about the letter. The letter was
Speaker 1: written by people claiming to be the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.
Speaker 1: They described themselves as Terror US and took responsibility for
Speaker 1: explosions and several major cities in the US. Even though
Speaker 1: they didn't cite specific incidents, they bemoaned money problems within
Speaker 1: the organization, and thus we're hoping to solve set money
Speaker 1: problems by extorting one of New York's most rich and
Speaker 1: famous couples. That letter had set Yoko's anxiety on eleven,
Speaker 1: As if New Yorkers didn't already have enough to fear.
Speaker 1: In seven the city was still recovering from the shocking
Speaker 1: murders that the forty four caliber killer a k a.
Speaker 1: The Son of Sam had committed, putting every borrow on
Speaker 1: high alert during one of the hottest summers on record.
Speaker 1: The letter brought that powerless feeling of fear right back,
Speaker 1: as well as the feeling of paranoia, the same feeling
Speaker 1: that Yoko and John regularly experienced at the start of
Speaker 1: the decade when federal agents were monitoring their every move
Speaker 1: the self described terrorist letter had demanded that John and
Speaker 1: Yoko leave one hundred thousand dollars in a quote unquote
Speaker 1: strong package in the lobby the Dakota. The letter gave
Speaker 1: John and Yoko nine days to get the money together
Speaker 1: December nine, and if John and Yoko didn't do is
Speaker 1: the letter instructed, there would be extortion. Is threatened to
Speaker 1: kidnap or even kill one of them. Would they go
Speaker 1: after John? Yoko sean it was crystal clear that these
Speaker 1: people weren't above kidnapping a two year old. John brought
Speaker 1: the letter to the FBI, which he knew was more
Speaker 1: than a bit ironic given the fact that he and
Speaker 1: the FBI have been mortal enemies just a few years earlier.
Speaker 1: The FEDS agreed to help and tapped John and Yoko's phone,
Speaker 1: again ironic, given that the last time the FEDS tapped
Speaker 1: the couple's phone it was to build a case against them.
Speaker 1: Undercover agents went to work at the Dakota. The FEDS
Speaker 1: posted armed guards. They arranged to get the requested hundred grand,
Speaker 1: rolled it up in a newspaper, and left it into
Speaker 1: the lobby of the Dakota on December nine, As instructed,
Speaker 1: the FEDS had enough agents haunting the place that when
Speaker 1: the so called Puerto rican An independence movement came to collect,
Speaker 1: they would be easily tracked and apprehended, and John and
Speaker 1: Yoko could put this harrowing experience behind them and stopped
Speaker 1: fearing for the life of their taught their son. But
Speaker 1: no one ever came to claim the money. Hours went by.
Speaker 1: Soon the FEDS were concerned that the money might be
Speaker 1: accidentally taken by someone else who wasn't even involved in
Speaker 1: the shakedown, so they took the money back and remained vigilant.
Speaker 1: Later that night is when Yoko received the call. They
Speaker 1: were late, Where was the money? Yoko tried to explain
Speaker 1: that the money had been prepared for them as requested,
Speaker 1: but seeing as nobody ever picked it up, it took
Speaker 1: it back for safe keeping. The caller got impatient. You've
Speaker 1: made a big mistake, he said, right before he hung up.
Speaker 1: Yoko hoped in vain that the whole thing would just
Speaker 1: go away. It didn't. A week later, another letter arrived
Speaker 1: at the Dakota. This particular letter informed John and Yoko
Speaker 1: that back on December nine, the day that the money
Speaker 1: was due, twenty eight members of the Puerto Rican independ
Speaker 1: Pendance movement had surrounded the Dakota Building around eleven in
Speaker 1: the evening. They were all armed to ensure they had
Speaker 1: proper backup while they sent in a man to collect
Speaker 1: the quote unquote strong package from the lobby, and they
Speaker 1: were expecting an ambush from the police. But of course
Speaker 1: there was no ambush, and there was also no strong
Speaker 1: package of money. The Puerto Rican Independence movement were disappointed
Speaker 1: in the wealthy celebrities they were trying to extort, and
Speaker 1: they told John and yokos so and the letters that followed.
Speaker 1: The FBI continued their surveillance. Nothing out of the ordinary happened,
Speaker 1: and they ran latent prints from the envelopes and paper
Speaker 1: in their lab no matches. As weeks turned into months
Speaker 1: and the letters and phone calls stopped, the FBI eventually
Speaker 1: decided that John and Yoko were no longer in any danger.
Speaker 1: The FEDS wondered if there ever was any danger at all.
Speaker 1: John and Yoko weren't sure if they should take the
Speaker 1: American government's reassurances at face value, seeing as how this
Speaker 1: was the same government that spent an incredible amount of
Speaker 1: man hours and taxpayer dollars in the nine seventies trying
Speaker 1: to deport a Beatle for promoting peace. So they're feelings
Speaker 1: of true safety came and went. Because this was New
Speaker 1: York City, it didn't sleep. Anything went. You could let
Speaker 1: your guard down, but you couldn't be too careful. And
Speaker 1: if it wasn't the government or terrorists, or a drug
Speaker 1: squad or table stealing junkies, it would be something else,
Speaker 1: something random, unexpected in a city of seven millions, something
Speaker 1: so random and so disruptive that it would leave destruction
Speaker 1: in its wake. And Blood on the Tracks. All right, everybody,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening to Blood on the Tracks. If you
Speaker 1: like what you hear, be sure to find and follow
Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks on Apple podcast, I Heart Radio, app,
Speaker 1: Amazon Music, or wherever you get with podcasts. On this
Speaker 1: season two of Blood on the Tracks, we'll be releasing
Speaker 1: ten episodes on the Incredible life of John Lennon, with
Speaker 1: a new episode every Thursday. You can also binge all
Speaker 1: ten episodes of season one on the insane story of
Speaker 1: the notorious record producer Phil Spector right now. It's available
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. This episode of Blood on
Speaker 1: the Tracks was written by Zeth Lundie and hosted an
Speaker 1: executive produced by me Jake Brennan, also executive produced by
Speaker 1: Brady sab Story and copy editing by Pat Heally. This
Speaker 1: episode was mixed by Colin Fleming. Additional music and score
Speaker 1: elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode featured Mikayla Whit as
Speaker 1: Yoko Ower. Blood on the Tracks is produced by Double
Speaker 1: Elvis and partnership with I Heart Radio. Sources for this
Speaker 1: episode are available at Double Elvis dot com on the
Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks series page. If you want to
Speaker 1: chat about this show or hear more about the other
Speaker 1: shows we're making it Double Elvis, tap in on Instagram
Speaker 1: at double Elvis, on Twitter at Double Elvis FM, and
Speaker 1: now on Twitch, where we're streaming three days a week.
Speaker 1: At Twitch dot tv slash Double Elvis Podcasts, and finally,
Speaker 1: be sure to check out disgrace Land, the award winning
Speaker 1: music and true crime podcast that I also host. Disgrace
Speaker 1: Land is available only on the free Amazon Music app.
Speaker 1: To hear tons of insane stories about your favorite musicians
Speaker 1: getting away with murder and behaving very badly, go to
Speaker 1: Amazon dot com slash disgrace Land, or if you have
Speaker 1: an Echo device, just say Alexa play the Disgrace LAMB Podcast,
Speaker 1: rock Alo or Dad