Leon Wildes, immigration lawyer who prevented John Lennon’s deportation, dies aged 90

Leon Wildes, the immigration lawyer who prevented John Lennon from being deported from the US in the 1970s, had died aged 90.

Wildes died last Monday (January 8) at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, his family said. He had fallen ill after suffering a series of strokes.

His name became known in the music world in 1972 when he took on the case of helping Lennon and Yoko Ono to extend their visas.

In a statement, his son Michael Wildes said: “Dad felt he effectively lived the American Dream for a kid from Olyphant, PA and spent his life facilitating the same experience for scores more. He was beloved by his family, was extraordinarily humble, and beloved by our Bar.”

The US government had attempted to remove Lennon from the country and cited his previous arrest for drug possession in London 1968, after the Beatles star plead guilty to possession of “cannabis resin”.

Government files later revealed that then President Richard Nixon also feared the couple’s political beliefs – including their opposition of the Vietnam War and his presidency as a whole – could influence voters in the 1972 election.

Wildes had agreed to meet the couple at Apple Records in Manhattan, the label founded by The Beatles in the late 1960s.

He had admitted to an old classmate that he previously had “no idea who these people are”.

Wildes successfully delayed the case which was ultimately revoked following Nixon’s resignation due to the Watergate scandal. It marked a landmark case in immigration law.

Wildes reportedly stayed closed to Ono after Lennon was shot and killed in New York City in 1980.

He attended and spoke at Beatles conventions, recalling to Penny Black Music in 2017 that “dozens of people came up, shook my hand and thanked me for what I had done for John Lennon”.

“And I learned from these wonderful people that it is really something to marvel about and to enjoy this beautiful music of The Beatles. I learned a lot about that kind of music and now I favour it as well.”