Mark David Chapman admitted his motive for the cold blooded murder of Beatles legend John Lennon outside his Manhattan apartment building in 1980.
The 70-year-old said he killed Lennon for fame after his 14th rejection by a parole board in August. Chapman is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility north of New York City.
Chapman has repeatedly admitted his motive was purely fame-driven.
“I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life,” Chapman explained during his 2022 hearing.
“This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that”, he told the board. The killer acknowledged the widespread damage he caused, stating he understood if people wanted to hate him.
Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back on December 8, 1980, as the musician and his wife Yoko Ono returned to their Dakota apartment building. Earlier that day, Lennon had signed an autograph for Chapman on a copy of his album “Double Fantasy.”
After firing five hollow-point bullets from a .38 special revolver, Chapman remained at the scene reading The Catcher in the Rye until he was arrested by police. He made no attempt to flee or resist arrest.
The killer’s obsession with J.D. Salinger’s novel played a significant role in his mindset. Chapman had become fixated on the book’s protagonist Holden Caulfield, a “phony-killer” who loathes hypocrisy, and came to view Lennon as a “phony”.
Chapman was angered that Lennon would preach love and peace but yet have millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates. He was particularly upset by Lennon’s songs “God” and “Imagine,” and said the lyrics about having no possessions was hypocritical after learning about Lennon’s wealthy lifestyle.
“I assassinated him … because he was very, very, very famous, and that’s the only reason, and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory,” he told the board in 2020. “Very selfish”.
Chapman had other potential targets on his list if the Lennon murder hadn’t worked out. Johnny Carson and Elizabeth Taylor were among the names Chapman considered, telling a parole board that “If it wasn’t Lennon, it could have been someone else”.
Chapman planned the killing over several months and waited for Lennon at the Dakota on the morning of December 8. He had flown from Hawaii to New York specifically to carry out the murder, having purchased the revolver in Honolulu in October 1980.
The parole board has cited the severity and impact of Chapman’s crime in denying his release. In 2022, the board denied him parole citing his “selfish disregard for human life of global consequence,” adding that “the worldwide impact of your crime resonates such as to evoke images, memories and emotions internationally”.
Chapman’s action has left “the world recovering from the void of which you created”. Officials noted that releasing him would be incompatible with the welfare of society.
Chapman has expressed remorse during multiple hearings over the years.
“I hurt a lot of people all over the place and if somebody wants to hate me, that’s OK, I get it,” he said at his August 2022 hearing.