John Lennon
As one of the Beatles, John Lennon enjoyed worldwide fame and success. The group were adored by millions and, while seen as being a bit racy by the parents of many of their teen fans, were generally regarded as harmless. When Lennon left the band and embarked on career as a solo musician and artist, however, he became increasingly political. It’s no surprise that his anti-war and anti-capitalist sentiments would arouse the suspicions of the FBI. By the time of Lennon’s murder, the Agency had complied a file some 281 pages on the superstar, even if much of it was unsubstantiated gossip and innuendo.
The surveillance began in December of 1971, just a few weeks after Lennon had moved to New York with his wife Yoko Ono. Lennon sang a couple of songs at a rally organised in support of John Sinclair, an anti-war activist who had been sentenced to 10 years in jail for possession of just a small amount of marijuana. FBI agents were in the audience that night, and they were taking notes. From that day on, they kept a close eye on the Liverpudlian. Rather than the usual concerns of communist leanings, the G-Men were worried about Lennon’s anti-war rhetoric. After all, this was a man who argued that Americans needed to ‘Give Peace a Chance’. What’s more, there were also genuine concerns that the singer could undermine President Nixon, including his chances of re-election.
As well as putting him under surveillance, the FBI also referred his file to the Immigration and Naturalization service. However, despite the best efforts of the FBI to have Lennon deported from the US, he succeeded in getting his Green Card in 1976. Even that, however, didn’t deter the Agency and they kept tabs on Lennon and his wife right up until the singer was murdered in December 1980. The historian Jon Wiener spent 14 years to force the FBI to release all the files they had kept on Lennon. He even had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to have the documents made available, only succeeded almost 20 years after Lennon’s tragic death.