Mark David Chapman - John Lennons Killer
Mark David Chapman tells his version of John Lennon slay
BY KENNETH LOVETT
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF
Tuesday, August 19th 2008
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Mark David Chapman
Fenn for News
ALBANY - The man who killed John Lennon says he's sorry he shot the legendary rocker - but disputed media reports on how the murder went down.
"I shot him in the back," Mark David Chapman told a two-person Parole Board panel last week during a hearing before being denied release for a fifth time.
He denied longstanding media accounts that he called out to Lennon as he and his wife, Yoko Ono, returned to their Dakota building apartment after a late-night recording session.
"I don't recall saying, 'Mr. Lennon,'" Chapman said. "I think that was something the press elaborated on. That didn't happen. He didn't turn. I shot him in the back."
Chapman, who is serving a 20-year-to-life sentence at the upstate Attica Correctional Facility for the Dec. 8, 1980, murder, said he's not the same man today.
"I am ashamed," Chapman said. "I am sorry for what I did. That 25-year-old man, I don't think he appreciated the life he was taking, that this was a human being.
"I feel now at 53 that I have grown into a deeper understanding of what a human life is. I have changed a lot."
Chapman said while he might have had a beer that day, he was not on drugs and was of "clear mind" when he succumbed to his "compulsion" to kill Lennon.
He said he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder "for my conscience's sake. I felt the Lord had told me to plead guilty at that time, and I did."
Chapman retold how he traveled to New York City twice to kill Lennon.
"I had been going through some problems and was very confused ... and was feeling like a big nothing and a nobody," he said.
He had taken out some books on Lennon from the library and felt he was a "phony" for singing of love while living in a ritzy building.
"It was more about me and not him, I was probably mad at myself for my failures," he said.
The last straw was when he saw Lennon's face on the Sgt. Pepper's album cover.
"I just saw his face and it seemed like it all came together, the solution to my problem of being confused and feeling like a nobody," he said. "And I said, 'Wouldn't it be something if I killed this individual? I would become famous, I would be something other than a nobody.' And that was my reasoning at the time."
He recalled how he bought a gun with hollow-point bullets from a friend in Georgia, telling him it was simply for protection in New York City.
After returning to Hawaii following an aborted first attempt, "The urges built again about doing this, and then I flew back on Dec. 6, and on the 8th I shot Mr. Lennon."
Ono asked the board to deny Chapman parole.
The board agreed, saying his release would "not be compatible with the welfare of society at large."
nydailynews.com
John Lennnon Shot on Dec. 8, 1980 Dead
John Lennnon Shot on Dec. 8, 1980 Dead
By 1980, former Beatle John Lennon had become an icon for the anti-war movements of the 1970s. His music embodied the struggle for peace and love amidst the horrors of war and destruction.
On December 8, 1980, Lennon emerged from his Manhattan apartment after five years of living in seclusion with his family. A fanatical fan, Mark David Chapman, obtained Lennon's autograph outside his apartment and then shot him dead.
Then this morning I went to the bookstore and bought The Catcher in the Rye. I'm sure the large part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil.
I went to the building. It's called the Dakota. I stayed there until he came out and asked him to sign my album. At that point my big part won and I wanted to go back to my hotel, but I couldn't. I waited until he came back. He came in a car. Yoko walked past first and I said hello, I didn't want to hurt her.
Then John came and looked at me and printed me. I took the gun from my coat pocket and fired at him. I can't believe I could do that. I just stood there clutching the book. I didn't want to run away. I don't know what happened to the gun. I remember Jose kicking it away. Jose was crying and telling me to please leave. I felt so sorry for Jose. Then the police came and told me to put my hands on the wall and cuffed me. -Mark David Chapman (guy who killed John Lennon)
Original ABC News Report
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Give Peace a Chance - John Lennon
Give Peace a Chance - John Lennon
During the Vietnam War, in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held 2, week-long Bed-Ins for Peace, in Amsterdam and Montreal, which were their non-violent ways of protesting wars and promoting peace.
Knowing their March 20, 1969 marriage would be a huge press event, John and Yoko decided to use the publicity to promote world peace. They spent their honeymoon in Room 702 at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel for a week between March 25 and 31, inviting the world's press into their hotel room every day between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. After their other stunts, such as the nude cover of the Two Virgins album, the press were expecting them to be having sex, but instead the couple were sitting in bed—in John's words "like Angels"—talking about peace with signs over their bed reading "Hair Peace" and "Bed Peace". After seven days, they flew to Vienna, Austria, where they held a Bagism press conference.
During April 1969, John and Yoko sent acorns to the heads of state in various countries around the world in hopes that they would plant them as a symbol of peace. For eight months, the couple was not granted a single visit with any world leader. Their marriage, the first Bed-In, the Vienna press conference, and the acorns were all mentioned in the song The Ballad of John and Yoko.
Their second Bed-In was planned to take place in New York, but John was not allowed into the country because of his 1968 cannabis conviction. Instead they held the event in the Bahamas at the Sheraton Oceanus Hotel, flying there on May 24, 1969, but after spending one night in the heat, they decided to move to Toronto, Canada.
Recording Give Peace A Chance By Roy Kerwood [1]Eventually, they flew to Montreal on May 26 where they stayed in Room 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel. During their seven day stay, they invited Timothy Leary, Tommy Smothers, Dick Gregory, and Al Capp and all but Capp sang on the peace anthem Give Peace a Chance, recorded in the hotel room on June 1. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation conducted interviews from the hotel room.
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Go Petition To Keep Mark David Chapman Imprisoned for Life
