[with info from Contact Music]

John Lennon's cleaning lady Rosaura Lorenzo, who befriended Lennon during her days cleaning the Dakota building apartment he shared with wife Yoko Ono, and was employed by them in the days leading up to his assassination in New York in December 1980, has released info about her days with John and Yoko at the Dakota, and Contact Music has released several of her stories.

Ms. Lorenzo has vehemently blasted rumours the ex-Beatle was addicted to heroin, because he was too "obsessed" with his health to risk damaging himself with the deadly narcotic.

Lorenzo insists she would have noticed if the relatively clean-living singer had suddenly turned into a drug fiend.

She says, "His way of talking and behaving, his healthy diet, his almost obsessive worry over his health, his appearance... were far removed from that of a drug addict. I never once had the slightest suspicions in that respect.

"Therefore, John would have had to have been, among other things, a great actor to deceive not just me but the rest of the employees for so long. Because none of them ever mentioned anything to me."

Lorenzo also says John was furious when he found out his "stupid" former Beatles bandmate Paul Mccartney had been arrested in Japan for possessing marijuana.

She says she was present when John was informed of McCartney's behaviour, and subsequently flew into a rage over his ex-colleague's carelessness.

Lorenzo's account of Lennon's reaction to the 1980 incident contradicts numerous reports he was overjoyed at McCartney's misfortune.

She says, "He shouted, walking to and fro in the kitchen, 'For God's sake. How is it possible? If he really needs weed, surely there's enough people who can carry it for him. Is it necessary to run the risk of being found out by the Japanese authorities and world public opinion? You're a Beatle, boy, a Beatle. Your face is in every damn corner of the planet. Why have you been so stupid?'"

Perhaps her most dramatic revelation, Lorenzo says John Lennon's killer was hanging around the entrance to the Dakota 24 hours before the fatal gunshot was fired.

She says she was dumbfounded when the identity of the singer's murderer was revealed, because she'd exchanged words with Chapman and concluded he was simply an "admiring" fan who possessed absolutely no threat.

While eyewitnesses have commonly placed Chapman outside the Dakota hours before he killed Lennon on 8 December 1980, Lorenzo is the first person to come forward and claim he was actually roaming the vicinity a whole day prior to the tragedy.

She says, "What I can add to this well-known tale is that this big guy with glasses had been hanging around the area at least since the day before. He had got past the outside security control."

On 7 December, upon leaving the Dakota with Lennon's son, Sean, Lorenzo encountered Chapman, "He had got past outside security control. We were all chatting informally for a good while. It was the very place where John would be assassinated the following day. It was unimaginable. How could anyone conceive that such a man would commit such a dreadful atrocity.

"During our conversation, Mark Chapman gave the impression of admiring and appreciating John as much, if not more, than any of us. He didn't seem an unbalanced person, even a strange person, to any of us who were there that day."

Published April 22, 2005