https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...nce-reveals-bullets-two-guns-pulled-body.html
Second shooter' behind John Lennon murder: New evidence reveals bullets from two different guns were pulled from Beatles legend's body in autopsy
Two different guns may have been used in the
John Lennon shooting, according to a British writer investigating the case.
Author and TV producer David Whelan has unearthed official records showing for the first time that two different types of bullets were removed from the music legend's body following his fatal shooting on December 8, 1980.
Mr Whelan believes a 'second shooter' could have been involved in the murder of Lennon and has now uncovered dramatic new evidence supporting his case.
Mr Whelan's three-year investigation into the murder has highlighted a series of extraordinary inconsistencies - including the suggestion that detectives may have fundamentally misunderstood how the shooting happened.
Whelan's research has focussed on the bullets recovered from the scene.
Oddly, only two 'slugs' were ever entered into evidence, according to the documents, despite the fact that Chapman was said to have fired all the rounds in his five-chamber '.38 special' revolver, four of them hitting Lennon.
The whereabouts of the missing three bullets is unknown.
But the two bullets which were removed from Lennon's body during the autopsy raise their own intriguing questions, says Mr Whelan, because they are marked as being of different types.
One is marked on a receipt from the New York morgue, where Lennon's body was stored, as an '1 x 38 cal.SWC', which stands for 'Semi-wadcutter' or hollow-point bullet, designed to spread out on impact with a target.
The other is listed as simply '1 x 38cal lead bullet'.
Mr Whelan told MailOnline: 'Though unlikely, it is possible to have different types of ammunition in a single revolver.
'But Chapman always insisted he was using hollow point wadcutter bullets and he was familiar with guns and ammunition from his security guard days.'
He added: 'Different bullet types found in John Lennon's body is explosive information.
'Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Lennon's autopsy has not been leaked to the world by the authorities, and the wishes of Lennon's family to keep John's autopsy private have been respected.'
Mr Whelan believes that the different bullet types bolster his theory that a second shooter was involved in the killing.
As we revealed in April, Mr Whelan, 56, has spoken to key figures involved in the aftermath of the shooting. These include the surgeon who treated Lennon and two nurses who assisted - as well as uncovering other witness testimonies which don't appear to correspond with the official narrative.
The prosecution's version of events, accepted by the courts, was that disturbed loner Chapman lay in wait for Lennon and shot five times, four of the bullets hitting his victim in the back. But this now appears to be riddled with contradictions.
Instead, Whelan's witnesses suggest that the way the shooting was officially recorded may have been completely wrong - with the fatal shots fired into Lennon's chest rather than back.
He added: 'If Mark Chapman was shooting hollow bullets at John Lennon and only one hit him, with four missing, this could account for the one which was found in Lennon. It could also account for three bullets holes low down in the glass vestibule doors which were at a height that didn't match Lennon's upper left chest wounds.
'As for the other normal lead bullet that was found in Lennon, could this have come from the weapon of a second shooter inside the vestibule area, and be the single bullet that a doctor and two nurses all said was left in Lennon's body?'
He added: 'The scenario would be that Chapman fired at Lennon when he was walking into the vestibule doors. Four missed, with three hitting the glass doors. One hollow bullet struck Lennon.
'Lennon, staggered onwards into the vestibule, but a second shooter concealed inside the building finished the job and shot Lennon with four bullets in his upper left chest area in a 'tight professional grouping' (as the medical staff all claimed), with one bullet staying in Lennon and three exiting his back.
'The hollow-point bullets Chapman supposedly used do not usually pass through a victim, as they are designed to spread out on impact, causing maximum damage to the body.'
Yet three bullets did pass through Lennon, leaving holes in the glass panels of a vestibule door attached to the security entrance of the building. Whelan claimed that the slugs' marks in the door were too low to have come from shots to Lennon's shoulder.