McCartney Times

The iconic New York newspaper columnist died this weekend.
(Originally published by the Daily News on Dec. 9, 1980. This is the column written by Jimmy Breslin on deadline after he got the call at home that John Lennon had been shot.)That summer in Breezy Point, when he was 18 and out of Madison High in Brooklyn, there was the Beatles on the radio at the beach through the hot days and on the jukebox through the nights in the Sugar Bowl and Kennedys. He was young and he let his hair grow and there were girls and it was the important part of life.Last year, Tony Palma even went to see Beatlemania.And now, last night, a 34-year-old man, he sat in a patrol car at 82nd St. and Columbus Ave. and the call came over the radio: “Man shot, 1 West 72 St..”Palma and his partner, Herb Frauenberger, rushed through the Manhattan streets to an address they knew as one of the most famous living places in the country, the Dakota apartments. As Jimmy Breslin tells, New York Police Officer Tony Palma was sitting in a patrol car at 82nd and Colombus Ave. when the call came over the radio: ‘Man shot, 1 West. 72nd St.’As Jimmy Breslin tells, New York Police Officer Tony Palma was sitting in a patrol car at 82nd and Colombus Ave. when the call came over the radio: ‘Man shot, 1 West. 72nd St.’ (New York Daily News)Another patrol car was there ahead of them, and as Palma got out he saw the officers had a man up against the building and were handcuffing him.“Where’s the guy shot?” Palma said.“In the back,” one of the cops said.Palma went through the gates into the Dakota courtyard and up into the office, where a guy in a red shirt and jeans was on his face on the floor. Palma rolled the guy over. Blood was coming out of the mouth and covering the face. The chest was wet with blood.Police found Lennon outside the Dakota building (pictured).Police found Lennon outside the Dakota building (pictured). (Getty Images)Palma took the arms and Frauenberger took the legs. They carried the guy out to the street. Somebody told them to put the body in another patrol car.Jim Moran’s patrol car was waiting. Moran is from the South Bronx, from Williams Ave., and he was brought up on Tony Bennett records in the jukeboxes. When he became a cop in 1964, he was put on patrol guarding the Beatles at their hotel. Girls screamed and pushed and Moran laughed. Once, it was all fun.Now responding to the call, “Man shot, 1 West 72,” Jim Moran, a 45-year-old policeman, pulled up in front of the Dakota and Tony Palma and Herb Frauenberger put this guy with blood all over him in the backseat.As Moran started driving away, he heard people in the street shouting, “That’s John Lennon!”

Source: Jimmy Breslin tells of cops who aided John Lennon in 1980 – NY Daily News