Is it possible John Lennon killed the ‘fifth Beatle’?

Evidence that a fight with the band’s frontman led to Stuart Sutcliffe’s death by brain haemorrhage is just as muddled today as it was all those years ago, writes David Lister

Stuart Sutcliffe in 1961, around the time he left the Beatles to pursue his painting (Getty)

The death of Astrid Kirchherr earlier this summer evoked memories and anecdotes of the early days of The Beatles in Hamburg. The German photographer and friend of the group captured their youth in iconic photos, which became key imagery to the band’s story, and which even now are still regularly posted on social media.

In particular, the obituaries of Kirchherr brought back briefly into focus a name that has been rarely mentioned in years: her lover Stuart Sutcliffe, one of many who have been referred to as the “fifth Beatle”, but with more claim than most to that title. Sutcliffe was bass player in the band (Paul McCartney was very much part of the band, but only took over on bass when Sutcliffe left to devote himself to Kirchherr and his painting). With his classic, moody, James Dean good looks, hair piled high, dark glasses, and intellectual persona, it was no surprise that Kirchherr became infatuated with Sutcliffe. He even smoked French cigarettes, Gauloises, cementing the air of mysterious sophistication. “I’d fallen in love with him at first sight,” she told Hunter Davies for the first Beatles biography that he wrote in 1968. “It wasn’t slushy romance and all that. I just had. Stu was the most intelligent one. I think they all agreed on that. John did.”

“They were all a knockout but my little Stuart blew my mind,” Kirchherr said. “It was fantastic to look at him and see all that beauty. Did you ever see eyes as lovely as that?” Arguably, she was not the only one infatuated with him. John Lennon, like Kirchherr, was overwhelmed by Sutcliffe. He had met him at art college in Liverpool and relished their conversations about art. He looked up to him as the better artist, though he verbally bullied him in public, perhaps to disguise his real liking for him.