{"id":10002,"date":"2025-10-20T21:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/10002\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:54:15","slug":"mark-david-chapman-reveals-why-he-killed-john-lennon-docs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/10002\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark David Chapman reveals why he killed John Lennon: docs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deranged killer Mark David Chapman gunned down John Lennon over a pathetic desire to \u201cbe a somebody,\u201d he recently told a parole board, ahead of the shocking crime\u2019s 45th anniversary<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was for me and me alone, unfortunately, and it had everything to do with his popularity,\u201d Chapman, 70, said from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County in late August, according to an interview transcript obtained by The Post on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy crime was completely selfish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark David Chapman was denied parole for the 14th time. AP<\/p>\n

The front page of the New York Post on December 9, 1980.<\/p>\n

Singer John Lennon, seen here in 1968, was murdered in 1980. AP<\/p>\n

Chapman, who assassinated the beloved 40-year-old Beatle outside the Dakota apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, made his 14th unsuccessful attempt\u00a0at getting sprung from prison. He apologized for causing \u201cdevastation\u201d to fans and friends of the rock legend \u2014 but the board ultimately didn\u2019t buy his sorrow, the records showed.<\/p>\n

The Dakota apartment building in NYC. John Lennon was shot outside the building. EPA<\/p>\n

Asked by a commissioner why he wanted to murder Lennon, he said, \u201cto be famous, to be something I wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I just realized, hey, there is a goal here,\u201d Chapman continued. \u201cI don\u2019t have to die and I can be a somebody. I had sunk that low.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Yorkers crowd outside the Dakota apartment building after John Lennon was assassinated on December 8, 1980. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n

During previous parole hearings, Chapman made similar statements about glory, saying\u00a0he was seeking fame \u201cand had evil in my heart.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

John Lennon arrives at the Times Square recording studio in August 1980 \u2013 just a few months before he was killed. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He recounted the grisly slaying at the Aug. 27 hearing, telling the board he flew to the Big Apple from Hawaii months earlier, intent on killing the icon after Chapman identified with Holden Caulfield from \u201cThe Catcher in the Rye\u201d and believed Lennon was a \u201cphony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapman, then 25, lurked outside the building in October and waited for Lennon, but he never showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark David Chapman stalked John Lennnon and shot him outside the Dakota on Dec. 8, 1980. AP<\/p>\n

Two months later, he returned \u201cafter the compulsion started building again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat morning of the 8th, I just knew. I don\u2019t know how I knew but I just knew that was going to be the day that I was going to meet and kill him,\u201d Chapman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Lennon was walking into his Upper West Side building when he was shot and killed. Getty Images<\/p>\n

When Lennon stepped out of a limo with wife Yoko Ono, Chapman blasted him four times in the back, hours after the guitarist signed an album for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was slapped with a 20-years-to-life sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark David Chapman with a guitar in an undated photo.<\/p>\n

In more recent years, Chapman spends his time at nightly Bible study, playing volleyball with other inmates and catching up with his wife, Gloria, to whom he\u2019s been married for 46 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chapman has expressed remorse for the murder in several parole hearings<\/a>, including the latest one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark David Chapman apologized to widow Yoko Ono. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a human being,\u201d he said, referring to Lennon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I am living so much longer, and not just family but his friends\u00a0and the fans, I apologize for the devastation that I caused you, the agony that they must have gone through. I had no thought about that at all at the time of the crime, I didn\u2019t care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite his apology, the board found him to lack \u201cgenuine remorse or meaningful empathy\u201d for the victims. He is next eligible for parole in 2027.<\/p>\n

Mugshot dated from December 9, 1980 of Mark David Chapman. EPA<\/p>\n

Chapman now says he\u2019d rather avoid the spotlight. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any interest at all in being famous,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPut me under the rug somewhere. I don\u2019t want to be famous anymore, period.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deranged killer Mark David Chapman gunned down John Lennon over a pathetic desire to \u201cbe a somebody,\u201d he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8307,303,2298,8308,57,9,11,10,63,8309,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-10002","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-assassinations","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-john-lennon","11":"tag-mark-david-chapman","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-the-beatles","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}