The man who gunned down John Lennon outside his New York City apartment building in 1980 told a parole board that he knew it was wrong to kill the beloved former Beatle, but that he was seeking fame and had “evil in my heart”.
The board refused Mark David Chapman parole for the 12th time in August, citing his “selfish disregard for human life of global consequence.”
In a transcript made available through a freedom of information request, Chapman stated that the choice to murder Lennon was “my grand answer to everything. I was no longer going to be a nobody.
Chapman told the board, “I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for getting me there.
“I understood what I was doing, and I knew it was immoral and horrible, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to do everything to get it.
On the evening of December 8, 1980, Chapman assassinated Lennon as he and Yoko Ono were making their way back to their Upper West Side apartment. Lennon had given Chapman an autographed copy of his just released album Double Fantasy earlier that day.
The board was told by Chapman, 67, that “this was wicked in my heart.” Nothing would stop me from becoming someone I wanted to be.
Chapman is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Throughout the years, he has expressed regret during his parole hearings numerous times.
At the August 31 hearing, he said, “I harmed a lot of people all over the place and if somebody wants to hate me, that’s OK, I get it.
The board stated in denying his parole that Chapman’s action has caused “the world to recuperate from the void of which you created.” Chapman’s next parole board appearance is scheduled for February 2024.
After being under court supervision for decades, John Hinckley Jr., who shot and seriously injured President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was finally released from custody in June. Because of his insanity, Hinckley had been declared not guilty.
The assassin of John Lennon said that he had “hate in my heart.”
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