Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon in New York in 1980, was denied parole for the 12th time this August.
A transcript of his remarks to the New York parole boarId was recently released, and at one point he discussed that he killed the musician for fame and also said he had “evil in my heart.”
“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. He has been serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at a prison in New York’s Hudson Valley and is 67 years old.
“I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that,” Chapman reportedly added. “I hurt a lot of people all over the place and if someone wants to hate me, that’s ok, I get it.” He was not granted parole and his next parole board appearance will be in February 2024.
Chapman shot Lennon four times while he and Yoko Ono were returning to their apartment building from a recording session, after getting an autograph from Lennon that morning. He was arrested and has admitted in parole meetings and initial interviews that the murder was premeditated. Chapman went against his lawyer’s instructions to plead not guilty by way of insanity and submitted a guilty plea in June 1981, and was sentenced later that year.
In his 2020 parole board interview, Chapman admitted that he had a list of other public figures he may have planned to kill “in case I couldn’t get to him. I came up with whatever famous people I could.”
He also discussed his fascination with The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, saying “I indentified with the character’s isolation, loneliness and I got very wrapped up in that book.”
In one of his final statements in 2020, he also stated “I have no excuse. This was for self-glory … He was actually kind to me that day.”
