German police recover John Lennon’s stolen items
BERLIN: Diaries, prescription glasses and a cigarette case are among some 100 items belonging to John Lennon that have been recovered in Berlin after they were allegedly stolen by Yoko Ono’s driver in 2006, German officials said Tuesday.
The suspect, Koral Karsan, lives in Turkey and is currently out of reach of German law enforcement, police said as they presented Lennon’s rediscovered personal effects at a press conference.
The former chauffeur worked for Ono from 1995 to 2006. He already spent 60 days in jail in 2007 in the United States for trying to blackmail Lennon’s widow Ono.
“We believe (he) is guilty and the suspected thief of the objects,” Carsten Pfohl of Berlin’s criminal police office told reporters.
The possessions were stolen from Ono’s New York home in 2006. A total of 86 items -- including letters, handwritten music scores and two pairs of Lennon’s trademark round glasses -were discovered at a Berlin auction house in July.
More items were found hidden in the car of another suspect, a German national who was arrested on Monday on suspicion of fraud and handling stolen goods.
One of the three diaries from the haul contains an entry penned by Lennon on December 8, 1980 -- the day he was shot dead by a disturbed fan outside his Manhattan apartment building.
“We were amazed by what we found,” said Berlin prosecutor Michael von Hagen, calling the trove part of “music history”.