Blood and Fire: The Murders of Peter Tosh and John Lennon

Visit our website https://psycho-killer.co for exclusive videos, photos, articles, and transcripts.Two musicians; two murders, separated by hundreds of miles. On the face of it, ex-Beatle John Lennon and Reggae star Peter Tosh were gunned down in very different circumstances. Lennon was shot by an obsessed fan; Tosh a victim of 1980s Jamaican gun culture. On closer examination, however, their deaths have more in common than first meets the eye, not least because they were both peace-loving men who wanted mankind to live in harmony. Jacques Morrell and Simon Ford unpack the archives and their vinyl collections in this investigation.Featuring the voices of C.C. Anderson, Tim Bryn Smith and Denroy Shakespeare.The Six O’clock Knock is a Psycho Killer production.Transcript[Music] This podcast contains descriptions of death and violence that some listeners may find upsetting. Hello and welcome to the Six O’clock Knock the true crime podcast that takes a fresh look at murder I’m Simon Ford a journalist and broadcaster with 20 odd years in the business and I’m Jacques Morrell 30 years of British police officer and detective I spent many an hour on the press benches of various courts reporting on the kind of crimes that Jacques spent his career detecting now the English legal system has influenced many others around the world our system of common law or case law originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings following the Norman conquest in 1066 and to be clear Scotland wasn't conquered by the Normans which is why the Scottish legal system is different from the one in England and wales absolutely and comparisons as the saying goes are odious now the British empire imposed that English legal system on its far-flung colonies many of which retained the common law system today these systems give great weight to judicial precedent today of course there's no British empire but one third of the world's population lives in common law jurisdictions including Jamaica and that other former colony the united states of America [Music] Jamaica declared its independence from Britain in 1962 but remained a member of the commonwealth and it's to Jamaica that we are heading today then we'll look at a second case also from over the Atlantic both cases are very different but both involve the murder of prominent musical artists and both involve firearms our main focus is that of the murder of Winston Hubert McIntosh better known as Peter Tosh Jamaican reggae artist [Music] Peter Tosh was the baritone who left Bob Marley and the Wailers went solo and worked with the Rolling Stones among others the one who learned how to ride a unicycle and rode onto the stage on it that's him his other claim to fame he was shot and killed in 1987. We’ll compare his murder to the fatal shooting of John Winston Lennon British musician founder member of the Beatles shot and killed seven years earlier in 1980. I suppose everyone remembers where they were when a celebrity gets murdered I’ll be honest though Peter Tosh was less well known in our household but John Lennon now his murder took place on the evening of Monday the 8th of December 1980 in New York five hours behind London time so I woke up to the news on Tuesday the ninth now my dad had bought a colour tv in time for Christmas and John Lennon’s murder was one of the first stories I saw in colour on the tv news John Lennon is dead shot several times by a young American as he was going into his home in New York the former Beatle who was 40 was returning home from a recording studio with his wife Yoko Ono when he was murdered it took a few days for the enormity of what had happened to sink in the significance of the talent that had been lost but there was a school assembly I remember where John Lennon’s music was played in tribute and even some of the teachers were moved to tears it was one of...