The Men Who Killed Lennon

Compelling evidence points to Dakota doorman, Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo, as Lennon's killer. Records reveal a "Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo" (aliases: "Joaquin Sanjenis" and "Sam Jenis") was an anti-Castro Cuban exile and member of Brigade 2506 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, a failed CIA operation to overthrow Fidel Castro. Perdomo was a professional hit man who worked closely with convicted Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis (deceased) for about ten years on the CIA's payroll.

• Jose Perdomo was the doorman at the Dakota on Dec. 8, 1980, the night Lennon was killed.

• Jose Perdomo was at the crime scene when the murder occurred.

• Jose Perdomo asked accused assassin Mark David Chapman, immediately after the shooting, if he knew what he had just done. Chapman replied that he had just shot John Lennon.

• Jose Perdomo told police Chapman was Lennon's assailant. One of the arresting officers, Peter Cullen, did not believe Chapman shot Lennon. Cullen believed the shooter was a handyman at the Dakota, but Perdomo convinced Cullen it was Chapman. Cullen thought Chapman "looked like a guy who worked in a bank."

• Jose Perdomo was an anti-Castro Cuban exile. Perdomo and Chapman discussed the Bay of Pigs Invasion and JFK's assassination a few hours before Lennon was killed. This suggests Perdomo was a member of Brigade 2506 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, a failed CIA operation to overthrow Fidel Castro.

• Cuban Information Archives reveal a "Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo" (aliases: Joaquin Sanjenis, Sam Jenis) was a member of Brigade 2506 during the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961.

• Joaquin Sanjenis worked closely with convicted Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis (deceased) for about ten years on the CIA's payroll.

• Frank Sturgis claimed Joaquin Sanjenis died of natural causes in 1974; however, this was never confirmed. This assertion was made in 1981 by Warren Hinckle and William Turner in a book entitled, The Fish is Red: The Story of the Secret War Against Castro. Here is an excerpt:

On a June morning in 1972, the week after the Watergate break-in, Joaquin Sanjenis left his modest import-export office in Miami's Cuban barrio and drove down SW Eighth Street to the Anthony Abrams Chevrolet Agency. Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo was a plain man of undifferentiated features, which was in his profession, an asset: He was a professional spy. His personality suited his work in that neither encouraged close personal relationships. His was a lonely life, sweetened by habitual cups of Cuban coffee; he looked forward to his forthcoming retirement, although he would not live long enough to enjoy it. It is testimony to the importance his employers gave to his carefully nurtured anonymity that when he died, of natural causes, in 1974, his family was not notified until after the funeral. Joaquin Sanjenis was, for over ten years, the head of the CIA's supersecret Operation 40 in Miami.

The wear of a decade of living in the shadows showed on the spy's face that morning as he drove into the automobile agency's service entrance. Sanjenis had launched scores of ships and planes on clandestine raids against Cuba and had sent hundreds of men on missions from which there had been no return. He was able to offer only the most mute of patriotic explanations to the bereaved families. There were no official missing-in-action reports in the Secret War against Cuba. It was Joaquin Sanjenis's job to keep his troops, as himself, faceless.

(Warren Hinckle & William Turner, The Fish is Red: The Story of the Secret War Against Castro, 1981, Martin & Row Publishers, ISBN 0-06-038003-9, pp. 307-308)

Whether Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo actually died in 1974, as Hinckle and Turner wrote, is a point worth challenging. What evidence did they present to support this claim? On page 354 of their book, under "Notes and Sources," they gave the following source for their claim that Sanjenis died in 1974: "Authors' interview with Frank Sturgis." How much faith should we place in Frank Sturgis' word, particularly on this critical point? Set aside that Sturgis is a convicted felon (Watergate burglary), as an employee of the CIA, Sturgis had plenty of reason to lie, particularly if Jose Joaquin Sanjenis Perdomo is/was the same person who worked as a doorman at the Dakota on the night John Lennon was murdered on December 8, 1980. Hinckle's and Turner's book, The Fish is Red, was published in 1981, in the year after Lennon's murder. Consequently, it makes sense that Sturgis would want to muddy the water a bit. In addition, Hinckle and Turner revealed the importance the CIA placed on Sanjenis's anonymity when they described his alleged death. They wrote: "It is testimony to the importance his employers [the CIA] gave to his carefully nurtured anonymity that when he died, of natural causes, in 1974, his family was not notified until after the funeral." Did Sanjenis really die of natural causes in 1974? There is plenty of reason to believe this claim was disinformation generated by Sturgis at the behest of the CIA. The CIA had every reason to lie in order to continue nurturing Sanjenis's anonymity, particularly after the murder of John Lennon.