John Lennon’s bloodied clothing goes on display

The bloodied clothes that John Lennon was wearing on the day he was shot dead by Mark Chapman - December 8, 1980 - are to go on display in New York. An exhibition called 'John Lennon: the New York City Years', which opens at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Manhattan today, also includes Lennon's famous New York City T-shirt, an upright piano from his apartment in the Dakota building, and various handwritten lyrics.
 
The display has been put together by Lennon's widow, the artist Yoko Ono. At a press conference yesterday to promote the exhibit she spoke about her decision to include the clothes, which will be exhibited in the paper bag given to Ono by the medical examiner.
 
Ono said the clothes were "hard to include", adding that she feared she "might be criticised as well" for including them. "It just broke me down. Because it was the coroner's office, and I just got this brown paper bag on my lap."
 
Almost 30 years since his killing, Ono is still haunted by Lennon's death. "I still get affected by it,” she said. "If his death was a slow process we could have talked about it or something."
 
Also on display are letters documenting Lennon's long-fought battle against deportation in the early 1970s, both from the government and supporters. Lennon was 40 when he died in 1980 and had spent most of the previous decade in New York.  Said Ono: "I know it's a kind of a sad and very poignant kind of paradox, I think, that he loved this place so much and this is where he was killed." ·