Lennon's Phone Wiretapped

In October 1973 John Lennon sued the U.S. government for wiretapping his phone. John Lennon was on every news network promoting peace and love from the late 60’s and I to the 70’s, he openly discussed his opinions on everything that took his fancy. For most his views on music, Paul and of course The Beatles break up was what they were most interested in, but for others it was his open views on politics. 

(John and Yoko, photo found on google image search) 

The government felt he was perhaps to influential on young minds, they started to suspect him of being a radical threat, causing them to soon put a thorough surveillance program on him. The whole things started when John and Yoko made their very public bed in for peace, the threat of a Beatles laying in bed seemed to scare the government. 

(photo from google image search)

The FBI  began keeping records on him, quite elaborate records as well. They took notes on his appearances on tv, radio and in print, they even started wiretapping his home phone. Their main aim was to have Lennon deported to from America. Over the years that they followed him, the FBI gathered nearly 300 pages of information on Lennon. Friendships he made sometimes didn’t help Lennon in his goal of staying in the states, friendships with radicals like Jerry Rubin and Bobby Seale. In December 1971, Lennon (with Yoko) sang at a rally for John Sinclair of the White Panthers, (who was currently serving a sentence of 10 years for selling two joints) at the concert the FBI was in the audience taking notes. 

(photo from google image search)

John at the time however did not know. This was the start of the government’s heavy involvement into Johns new life in America. It’s no secret that Lennon was no Nixon fan. He quiet quickly became more and more vocal rallying young voters against Nixon on the eve of the 72 election. It is believed that President Richard Nixon was worried that Lennon could have a negative effect on his chances at being re-elected as president. It was decided the best way to stop Lennon would be to have his visa terminated, the Immigration and Naturalization Service delivered a letter Lennon and Yoko requesting that they leave the country within two weeks or they would face deportation hearings. They had used John’s 1968 conviction for marijuana possession as a reason for them to want him deported. 

In August 1972 the FBI ended its surveillance of Lennon because they believe he had fallen out of favor of the activists he had recently been seen with. 

(photo from google image search) 

Lennon decided to sue the FBI for the illegal wiretapping or his phone. However the FBI did denied the charge, officials told how there were no wiretapping logs in their surveillance file on him. After this Lennon to scale back his activity in the anti-Nixon movement to avoid being deported. It is said that when he wanted to phone his lawyer, he would disguise his voice as a woman’s, because he knew that his phone conversation were being monitored. He first started to believe this when he and Yoko would hear mysterious clicks on the phone line when they used it. Since then in recent years books have been published with the FBI files in them, however most of the types information has been blacked out.