10 John Lennon: Killed By A Psycho Who Wanted To Be Famous
The guy who basically started The Beatles, ended them, and then carried on his very successful solo career was shot by a crazed and angered fan who loved Lennon, hated him, and then finally decided to kill him because he too wanted to be famous.
On December 8, 1980, 40-year-old Lennon and his then wife Yoko Ono were returning to their Manhattan apartment after a recording session at 10:50 PM. Just as they reached the archway of The Dakota, Lennon was shot in the back four times by Mark David Chapman. As Lennon lay bleeding and Ono screamed for help, Mark stayed there, reading Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye – which he later claimed to be his statement. The photo shows Lennon signing a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman, and is the last picture of Lennon, taken just hours before his death and ironically with his to-be murderer. Lennon was pronounced DOA at the nearby Roosevelt Hospital at 11:00 PM.
9 Whitney Houston: A Diseased Heart & Too Much Cocaine
Whitney sure had a meteoric rise to fame as a singer many still look up to, but her drug addiction soon led to a meteoric fall as well. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female, with almost 200 million records sold worldwide. That’s quite a legacy to leave, except that she left it too soon. On February 9, 2012, Houston seemed to be in high spirits as she visited her protégées, Brandy and Monica, together with mentor Clive Davis. She also made her last public performance on this day when she sang “Jesus Loves Me” with Kelly Price. Two days later, on February 11, Houston was found unconscious in her room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. She remained unresponsive to CPR and was pronounced dead at 3:35 pm. Formally, Whitney died due to the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.” Toxicology revealed additional drugs in her system as well. The crime scene photos of the bathroom sink show paraphernalia of drugs and the ill-fated bathtub as well.
It was later said that Whitney had taken so many drugs that even if she were drowning, her dazed brain could not have realized it until it was too late. Sadly, her daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown died pretty much the same way when she was found comatose in the bathtub, drugged. She died after being in a coma for six months. A painful legacy indeed.
8 Tupac Shakur: When Gangsta Rap Turns Deadly
Tupac Shakur has been named one of America’s most influential rappers of all time, and while his music was unmistakably good, his untimely death at 25 turned him into a legend forever. While driving from an event to a nightclub, a car pulled alongside Tupac’s car and multiple shots rang out. Tupac was shot four times, twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the leg. When he was rushed to the hospital, his first and last words to the cops were “f*ck you.” Since he kept trying to get out of bed, doctors had to put him in a medically-induced coma but six days after he was shot, Tupac died on September 13, 1996, due to heavy internal bleeding. His death remains unsolved, though many other names in music like The Notorious B.I.G. were thought to have a hand in it.
An article later stated, “Since his death, Tupac has become an international martyr, a symbol on the level of Bob Marley or Che Guevara, whose life has inspired Tupacistas on the streets of Brazil, memorial murals in the Bronx and Spain, and bandanna-wearing youth gangs in South Africa.” The pictures show the bullet-ridden car and Tupac on life support just before his death.
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