Frederic Seaman

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Frederic ("Fred") Seaman, (born October 10, 1953) is the former personal assistant to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, during the former Beatle's final years, when Lennon and Ono lived in The Dakota Apartments in New York City.

Seaman is author of The Last Days of John Lennon: A Personal Memoir, a book detailing his time as Lennon's private aide (initially published as John Lennon, Living on Borrowed Time: A Personal Memoir.) The book is considered controversial by many Lennon fans and observers due to its contrasting view of John and Yoko's idealized marriage, and for the glimpses he offered into the secluded and often unhappy life Lennon lived inside the Dakota apartments. A review in the June 1991 edition of Library Journal states: "Seaman reveals the day-to-day minutiae of the Lennon lifestyle, and what emerges is a sad portrait of a tormented man. Recommended." In publishing his story, however, Seaman failed to abide by the terms of the non-disclosure agreement he signed when commencing his time in the Lennon's employ. The book is now out-of-print.

According to his book, Seaman was first introduced to the Lennons through his aunt, Helen Seaman in 1978. John was in need of a personal assistant at the time, and there were several factors in Seaman's favor which helped him land the job. First, Seaman was primarily a jazz fan and knew little about John's Beatle past. Yoko is said to have performed a numerology reading on Seaman and found him to be promising in that respect. And John was struck by the way the name "Fred Seaman" related so directly to John's own father, Freddy, who was a life-long sailor in the merchant marine; literally a "sea man." During the approximately 24 months that he worked at the Dakota, Seaman was publicly credited by Lennon for introducing him to the music of The B-52's, a band whose offerings Lennon felt certain had been inspired by Yoko Ono's music. Frederic Seaman was mentioned by name in Lennon's last interviews for BBC Radio and RKO Radio and was given a credit in the liner notes to Double Fantasy.

After Lennon's assassination on December 8, 1980, Seaman, by his own admission, took several items from the Dakota apartments, including stereo equipment and John Lennon's personal diaries. After his arrest, Seaman insisted that John had specifically instructed him to give the diaries - handwritten and assumed to be intensely private - to his eldest son Julian Lennon in the event of his death. In 1983, Frederic Seaman was convicted of stealing the diaries, which had by then been returned to Yoko Ono, and sentenced to five years' probation. In 2002, Seaman also lost a long and contentious court battle against Yoko Ono for copyright control of more than 300 unique photos he took with a camera the Lennon's owned during his employ.

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Fred Seaman was born on 10/10/52 (NOT '53 as erroneously stated in the current entry. He first met the Lennons in Oct. '75 at the Russian Tea Room. He was hired, among other reasons, because his birthdayy is Oct.10 (JL's was Oct.9) & he was born in the year of the Dragon. His book, The Last Days of John Lennon/ A Personal Memoir' was originally published by Birch Lane Press in Sept.91. A British edition titled, John Lennon: Living On Borrowed Time was published in Spring 1993. Seaman's book was also published in Germany ('John Lennon: Leben Auf Geborgte Zeit', vgs Verlag, 1992; paperback publ. by HEYNE Verlag, 1993), France ('Les Derniers Jours de John Lennon'), the Czech Republic, and Japan.