Man who tried to sell John Lennon’s diaries, stolen from Yoko Ono, is charged in Germany
- One of the diaries includes Lennon’s final entry on December 8, 1980, the day he was shot dead
- Other stolen items that have turned up in Berlin include letters, a recording of a Beatles concert and a pair of Lennon’s glasses
A 59-year-old man was charged in Germany on Monday on suspicion of trying to sell stolen diaries and other items that had belonged to the late Beatle John Lennon.
The suspect, identified by the Berlin prosecutors’ office only as Erhan G., in 2014 commissioned an auction house in Berlin to sell the items, receiving an upfront payment of €785,000 (US$884,000), the office said in a statement.
The items, which were stolen from Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono in 2006 and ended up in Berlin, also included letters, a recording of a Beatles concert and a pair of Lennon’s glasses.
Among them was Lennon’s last diary which ended on December 8, 1980, the day he was shot and killed in New York.
It contained the entry that on that morning Lennon and Ono had an appointment with photographer Annie Leibovitz. The resulting portrait of a naked Lennon curled up around Ono on their bed ran on the January, 1981 cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
