Lennon's Prints Confiscated By FBI

The FBI is still messing with John Lennon! The late musician's fingerprints (part of his application for citizenship circa 1976) were about to hit the auction block this Saturday, but the feds seized the card yesterday after an hourlong stand-off, according to the NY Times. The owner of the shop holding the auction, Peter Siegel, said for the past week the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the United States attorney in Manhattan had been asking about the card. A spokesman for the FBI would only say that there was an “investigation into how that item came to be up for auction.”

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on October 7, 2010 6:05 PM

Comments [rss]

theboneranger

Look, there is no reason to believe that we won't see John Lennon's ashes reanimated again in the next fifty years or so - with all the daily advances in science and witchcraft and all...

... how would you like to come back from the dead and find out your identity has been stolen?

John L

"for the past week the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the United States attorney in Manhattan had been asking about the card. "

Our tax dollars hard at work.

Spirit of 76

Maybe because it's against the law to possess this material? When someone is fingerprinted for naturalization, those prints are only held for a few years. If the person does not commit any crimes, they are supposed to be properly disposed of. They're not kept on file forever nor are they supposed to be disseminated to the public or put on auction. By law, prospective citizens have an expectation that their most personal facets of privacy will be protected. You can't get any more personally identifiable than fingerprints.