Lennon's bloody clothes displayed

Lennon was murdered in New York on 8 December 1980

A new John Lennon exhibition, due to open in New York later, will feature a paper bag containing the bloody clothes from the night he was shot dead.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex display also features the piano from his apartment and handwritten lyrics.

His widow Yoko Ono, who has created the display, said the clothes were "hard to include" and she feared she "might be criticised as well" for including them.

Lennon was murdered outside the Dakota apartment building on 8 December 1980.

Deportation battle

John Lennon: The New York Years, which will run for the rest of the year, includes a sleeveless New York City T-shirt worn in a famous photograph of the former Beatle, as well as other items of his clothing.

Ono received the items from the medical examiner after Lennon's death

It also features letters outlining his battle against deportation in the early 1970s and more than a dozen examples of handwritten lyrics.

Guitars belonging to Lennon, as well as a pair of his trademark wire-rimmed glasses, are also included in the exhibition.

Lennon, who died at the age of 40, lived in New York for much of the 1970s.

"I know it's a kind of a sad and very poignant kind of paradox, I think, that he loved this place so much and this where he was killed," Ono said.

She said she was still coming to terms with Lennon's death.

"If it was a slow a process we could have talked about it or something," she added.