Deranged killer Mark David Chapman gunned down John Lennon over a pathetic want to “be a someone,” he not too long ago informed a parole board, forward of the surprising crime’s 45-year anniversary.
“This was for me and me alone, sadly, and it had every little thing to do along with his reputation,” Chapman, 70, mentioned from the Inexperienced Haven Correctional Facility in late August, in response to an interview transcript obtained by The Submit on Friday.
“My crime was fully egocentric.”
Chapman, who assassinated the beloved 40-year-old Beatle exterior the Dakota condominium constructing on Dec. 8, 1980, made his 14th unsuccessful try at getting sprung from jail. He apologized for inflicting “devastation” to followers and mates of the rock legend — however the board in the end didn’t purchase his sorrow, the data confirmed.
Requested by a commissioner why he needed to homicide Lennon, he mentioned, “to be well-known, to be one thing I wasn’t.”
“After which I simply realized, hey, there’s a aim right here,” Chapman continued. “I don’t must die and I generally is a someone. I had sunk that low.”
Throughout earlier parole hearings, Chapman made related statements about glory, saying he was searching for fame “and had evil in my coronary heart.”
He recounted the grisly slaying on the Aug. 27 listening to, telling the board he flew to the Large Apple from Hawaii months earlier, intent on killing the icon after Chapman recognized with Holden Caulfield from “The Catcher within the Rye” and believed Lennon was a “phony.”
Chapman, then 25, lurked exterior the constructing in October and waited for Lennon, however he by no means confirmed.
Two months later, he returned “after the compulsion began constructing once more.”
“That morning of the eighth, I simply knew. I don’t know the way I knew however I simply knew that was going to be the day that I used to be going to satisfy and kill him,” Chapman mentioned.
When Lennon stepped out of a limo with spouse Yoko Ono, Chapman blasted him 4 occasions within the again, hours after the guitarist signed an album for him.
He was slapped with a 20-years-to-life sentence.
In newer years, Chapman spends his time at nightly Bible research, enjoying volleyball with different inmates and catching up along with his spouse, Gloria, whom he’s been married to for 46 years.
Chapman has expressed regret for the homicide in a number of parole hearings, together with the most recent one.
“This was a human being,” he mentioned, referring to Lennon.
“Right here I’m dwelling a lot longer, and never simply household however his mates and the followers, I apologize for the devastation that I induced you, the agony that they will need to have gone by way of. I had no considered that in any respect on the time of the crime, I didn’t care.”
Regardless of his apology, the board discovered him to lack “real regret or significant empathy” for the victims. He’s subsequent eligible for parole in 2027.
Chapman now says he’d quite keep away from the highlight.
“I don’t have any curiosity in any respect in being well-known,” he mentioned.
“Put me below the rug someplace. I don’t wish to be well-known anymore, interval.”
