People: May 23, 1969

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It had all the earmarks of a swinging trip for Beatle John Lennon and his bride, Yoko Ono: a cruise to the U.S. on the Queen Elizabeth 2 in the company of such other swinging junketeers as Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. But there was a serious bureaucratic hitch. John had been busted last year for possession of marijuana, a crime which invalidated his U.S. visa. John battled with U.S. embassy officials in London right up to the last minute, but to no avail. Sellers and Starr had to sail without him.

"I think the death penalty is completely uncalled for." With that proclamation, Attorney Melvin Mouron Belli put on his crusader's armor and announced to the world that he planned to take over Sirhan Sirhan's appeal. As it turned out, his plan was all news to Sirhan. Stating that "I, Sirhan Sirhan, have full confidence in my present attorneys, Grant Cooper and Russell Parsons," the convicted assassin of Robert Kennedy indicated that he would engage them "and none other."

Like any family, the Roosevelts have had their squabbles. But few ever reached the pitch of last week's affair when James Roosevelt, 61, was stabbed in the back by his wife Gladys, 52, at their home in Geneva, Switzerland. F.D.R.'s eldest son was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery, but the wound was apparently not serious.

A member of Roosevelt's investment firm would say only that the stabbing was "a personal matter," which turned out to include the divorce proceedings that James had initiated earlier in the week. Swiss police said that the incident "was not likely to have serious judicial consequences." Meanwhile, Gladys, James' wife for 13 years, was taken to a psychiatric clinic.

One thing that Author-Candidate Norman Mailer should not lack in his New York mayoralty campaign is hard cash. The feisty little writer has just been promised $800,000 in advance royalties against a projected book on the Apollo 11 moon landing this summer. Mailer says he plans to combine some flavorful reportage on the Cape Kennedy takeoff with his own ideas on the possible repercussions of lunar landings. The book, which will be published by Little, Brown & Co. and excerpted in LIFE, is also likely to net Mailer another large chunk of money in movie rights—that is, when it finally gets written. "I'm devoting all my time to my candidacy for mayor," said Mailer. "The only writing I'm doing at this time has to do with the campaign."

More than 100 dissidents from Enfield College of Technology staged a sit-down outside the London borough's civic center to protest a town-council decision to evict a band of gypsies from their caravan site. They were joined by Bernadette Devlin, 22, Britain's angry young Member of Parliament from Northern Ireland, who devoured soft ice cream and spouted hard politics. The peppery lass harangued the crowd for about ten minutes, declaring: "If the citizens of England allow the gypsies to be evicted without protest, they cannot go to church and say 'I love my brother, Lord.' They will have to say 'I love my brother, Lord—provided he is not a gypsy.' "