Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, just hours after having the musician sign his copy of the album "Double Fantasy."
But as Lennon signed Chapman’s album, with no reason to suspect the horror that was to come five hours later, photographer and Beatles fan Paul Goresh snapped a photo of the moment. Goresh had formed a previous relationship with Lennon and even took the photo used on his single "Watching the Wheels."
It would be one of the final images ever taken of Lennon alive and the only one to include him with his soon-to-be killer.
Heritage Auctions sold a Type 1 photo — meaning it was developed from the original negative within approximately two years of its creation — of the image, signed on the reverse in 1988 by Goresh, for $14,375 over the weekend.
Last October, Heritage sold another variation of the photograph, lacking the signature of Goresh, for $28,000.
Goresh, who died in 2019, told nj.com in 2015 that he wished he could have done something to stop Chapman, though nobody saw him to be a danger. “If you cracked him in the jaw he would get knocked out. There was nothing to the guy."
When he first heard of the murder, Goresh called the New York Police Department telling them he had a photo that could be used as evidence. The officer who picked up the phone hung up on him.
"'You've called here three times now in the last hour,'" Goresh recalled being told to nj.com. "'If you call here again, I'm going to trace this call, and I'm going to charge you.' And he hung up on me."
By the time he made it to local police, they had already identified the suspect, and the photo was not of critical use.
Instead, Goresh sold the photo to the New York Daily News for $10,000 and entered a syndication deal worth a purported millions. At the time of the 2015 article, Goresh claimed to have kept the original negative — from which the Type 1 would have been developed — in a safety deposit box.
The signed “Double Fantasy” album from that evening, appearing just out of the shot of the picture, has sold at auction multiple times, including more than $600,000 in 2010. It sold again in 2020 for $922,500 at Goldin.
Earlier this year, British auction house Anderson & Garland planned to sell a bullet from the gun used to kill Lennon, but it withdrew the item after drawing controversy.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.