John Lennon's killer recalls inner 'tug of war' before the murder

By Peter Szekely

 

Mark David Chapman, who murdered John Lennon in 1980 is seen in this January 2018 picture released by New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in Albany, New York, U.S., July 26, 2018. Courtesy New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision/Handout via REUTERS

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Before he pulled the trigger that ended the life of rock icon John Lennon nearly 38 years ago, his killer remembers being in a "tug of war" with himself over what he was about to do, and even praying for a way out of carrying out his plan.

 

In the end, the compulsion to gain notoriety by killing one of the most famous people in the world proved too powerful, a remorseful Mark David Chapman told parole officials at an Aug. 22 hearing that ended in a decision not to release him.

 

"I was too far in," Chapman, 63, said in a transcript of the hearing released on Thursday by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

 

On the afternoon of Dec. 8, 1980, the former member of the Beatles left his New York apartment building on his way to a recording session when he stopped to autograph an album that Chapman, then a pudgy, bespectacled 25-year-old, was holding. It is a moment captured in a now-eerie photograph.

 

"I do remember having the thought of, hey, you have got the album now, look at this, he signed it, just go home, but there was no way I was going to go home," Chapman, now leaner and grayer, told the parole board.

 

But when Lennon returned to his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side later that evening, Chapman was waiting for him, and fired a five-shot .38 calibre Charter Arms revolver at him, hitting him four times in front of his wife Yoko Ono.

 

The assassination-style murder stunned the music world, a generation that had grown up with "Beatlemania" and the city the British-born musician had adopted as his home.

 

From his confinement at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, just east of Buffalo, Chapman told the two parole board members at his hearing his sense of shame grows constantly over the murder, the impact of which he realizes will outlive him.

 

"A hundred years from now they're going to remember him and they're going to remember him as someone that's been murdered and it's going to be negative," he said.

 

Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 1981. He has been denied parole 10 times since 2000 and will not have another opportunity for release until August 2020.

 

At the hearing, Chapman said he was a changed man who would welcome being released but said he didn't deserve it.

 

He denied a suggestion by a parole board member that he had channelled his obsession with fame into a ministry he runs with his wife that supplies Christian pamphlets to churches in Africa.

 

"I honestly have to disagree with that," he said. "We're sustaining Jesus."

 

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-16

There's no guarantee that if he were to be released he would not do it again . 

45 minutes ago, webfact said:

At the hearing, Chapman said he was a changed man who would welcome being released but said he didn't deserve it.

I've strongly believe that he will never be released simply for his on protection. Lets face it, he isn't going to last very long in the outside world. Too many people want retribution for his callous act.

I get very nervous when there are people around with a gun who are having an 'inner tug' with themselves.   

54 minutes ago, keith101 said:

There's no guarantee that if he were to be released he would not do it again . 

 

That post is 100% correct Keith.

 

My post of "there is no guarantee that you, Keith, will not become a mass murderer" is also correct.

 

What's your point?

If he wanted to be famous, why didn't the worthless scum choose someone notorious who deserved shooting, not someone who meant so much to many of my generation?

 

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

He denied a suggestion by a parole board member that he had channelled his obsession with fame into a ministry he runs with his wife that supplies Christian pamphlets to churches in Africa.

 

"I honestly have to disagree with that," he said. "We're sustaining Jesus."

We're sustaining Jesus.

 

Clearly still suffering from delusional thinking. 

..said to be a modern-day mind control victim...???

 

...and why was Lennon a target...???

He should not be released. The world be a different place now if Lennon had been alive for the last 38 years as I'm sure he would have gone onto many great things and changed a lot...and not just peoples' thinking on numerous issues.

Edited November 16, 20187 yr by Brigand

It would not be wise to ever release him.  He killed Lennon over something that Lennon said fourteen years earlier, that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.  Religious zealots have to be closely monitored, and, for the most part, confined for their entire lives.

Leave the bloke where he is, no ploblem, to anyone there..After all, JL has to stay where he is..

In the American gun worshipping culture, he would probably be issued a pistol along with his parole

well quite a few negative Nancy's commenting.  guns have been banned and soon knives will be banned as well. as everyone knows these are the only weapons used by murders so he wont be able to re offend. problem solved.

What? So Chapman is concerned his act of killing John Lennon may be viewed negatively by future scholars and the general public?  The inmates should of handled this a long time ago.

3 hours ago, SOTIRIOS said:

..said to be a modern-day mind control victim...???

 

...and why was Lennon a target...???

Yes, a mad man to be influenced easily. Specially picked and mind controlled by the deep state most probably. Standard MO.

Lennon wasn't all that 'clean' during the (later) Beatles period. Later on he turned himself openly against the elitist. Unthankful creatures need to die. Same M Jackson, Freddy M???

The only "inner tug of war" this scum deserves is being disemboweled. Sure, he's schizophrenic as hell but that shouldn't shield him from the death penalty he deserves.

6 hours ago, bannork said:

If he wanted to be famous, why didn't the worthless scum choose someone notorious who deserved shooting, not someone who meant so much to many of my generation?

 

 

 

 

I doubt that a person of such a mind as to commit a murder analyzes carefully his choice of victims as you present it.

 

10 hours ago, keith101 said:

There's no guarantee that if he were to be released he would not do it again . 

he'd have to dig him up first.. ???? (sorry!) 

If knew it could be gotten away with...I'd have no internal "tug of war" doing to this delusional, idiotic scum exactly what he did to Lennon. None. ☠️

if he gets out somebody will plug him full of holes in days ..he wont last long

There's no guarantee that if he were to be released he would not do it again . 

What shoot Lennon,? Doubt it he is dead.lol

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I cannot decide. Should I kill a beloved icon and a man of peace, who means so much to contemporary culture and the world? Or should I be a decent person and try to do something productive with my day and my life? I am so confused. 

 

What can one say?

15 hours ago, webfact said:

five-shot .38 calibre Charter Arms revolver

Who gives a rat's ass what kind of gun it was? Is this an American article? Jesus!

Ill never forget the morning 9 dec waking up to the news.

Let the miserable god-botherer rot, I hope he lives past 100, death is too easy an escape from jail.

7 hours ago, hugocnx said:

Yes, a mad man to be influenced easily. Specially picked and mind controlled by the deep state most probably. Standard MO.

Lennon wasn't all that 'clean' during the (later) Beatles period. Later on he turned himself openly against the elitist. Unthankful creatures need to die. Same M Jackson, Freddy M???

Chapman? Is that you?

16 hours ago, webfact said:

He denied a suggestion by a parole board member that he had channelled his obsession with fame into a ministry he runs with his wife that supplies Christian pamphlets to churches in Africa. 

 

"I honestly have to disagree with that," he said. "We're sustaining Jesus."

So he is in prison but still allowed to use his notoriety to help peddle his religious nonsense to uneducated Africans.

 

That is just completely disgusting.

He looks like he wants to be hanged. So hang him high

19 hours ago, Small Joke said:

Chapman? Is that you?

On the contrary. Maybe you needed " and " in my text to be able to understand the meaning of it.

 

Lennon would be against the death sentence himself.  Let him rot in jail .