On This Day in 2000, a Man Who Stabbed a Former Beatle Was Given a Not Guilty Sentence in England

In late December 1999, former Beatle and accomplished guitarist George Harrison endured what one can only describe as a nightmare. That night, one Michael Abram scaled the side of Harrison’s home, broke in, and confronted Harrison with a large knife.

The fact that the assailant even made it inside is nothing short of astonishing. After Harrison’s former bandmate, John Lennon, was violently murdered by a former fan in 1980, Harrison took extensive measures to make sure his estate in Liverpool, England, was as safe as possible. Harrison himself had dealt with stalking incidents in the 1990s, leading him to install searchlights, barbed wire, guard dogs, and private security. Somehow, Abram evaded it all, leading to a stand-off between himself and Harrison in the home’s main hall.

Harrison allegedly chanted the “Hare Krishna” mantra to distract the man and attempted to disarm him. Harrison was badly injured in the fight, suffering multiple stab wounds that included a punctured lung. The fight ended when his wife, Olivia, threw a lamp at the assailant and knocked him out. Police arrived shortly after, and Harrison was rushed to the hospital.

Fortunately, Harrison survived. A doctor even told him that he was “lucky to be alive” after recieving a shocking 40 stab wounds. He lost one of his lungs to the attack, but he would live another day.

The Attack That Broke Down George Harrison’s Resistance

Michael Abram, a Liverpool local, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Many of this individual’s delusions were religious in nature and made worse by the consumption of drugs. At one point, Abram believed he was an incarnation of the Archangel Michael from the Bible, sent by God to murder Harrison.

After the attack, Abram was also hospitalized. When his trial began, he requested to send a letter of apology to the Harrison family. He claimed he did not know that he had schizophrenia. He was inevitably charged with attempted murder.

On this day in 2000, Abram was found not guilty by insanity and was ordered “indefinite confinement in a mental hospital.” Though, in 2002, just a few months after George Harrison passed away from cancer, Abram was discharged from the hospital and placed in a hostel. Harrison’s bereaved family found the release “upsetting and insulting.” The whole event was traumatizing for both Harrison and his family. And some believe that the attack “triggered” the resurgence of cancer that would claim his life in 2001. Even Harrison’s contemporary, The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, agreed with that sentiment.

“I think he probably would have beaten the cancer if it wasn’t for the blade,” said Richards in a Rolling Stone interview. “I mean, we know that he didn’t die from [the attack], but I’m sure that it sort of broke down his resistance to what he had to deal with.”

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