The man behind the murder of John Lennon has finally explained what drove him to kill The Beatles legend in 1980.
The murder was over four decades ago
Mark David Chapman, who is now 70 years old, gunned down John Lennon, the much-loved frontman of The Beatles in December 1980.
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Lennon, who was 40 years old when he died, was returning home from a studio session with his wife, Yoko Ono.
He died outside his apartment
Lennon bled out on the steps outside his apartment in New York. His death was a shock to culture enthusiasts around the globe as he’s still considered one of the world’s greatest songwriters.
Chapman has now told a parole board what made him murder Lennon.
He said he was ‘selfish’
Chapman revealed his incentive for killing The Beatles star as he spoke from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in August in an interview transcript obtained by the New York Post.
He said, “This was for me and me alone, unfortunately, and it had everything to do with his popularity. My crime was completely selfish.”
Chapman had a certain goal
As we approach the 45th anniversary of Lennon’s murder, the commissioner went on to ask Chapman why he wanted to do it.
Chapman replied, “To be famous, to be something I wasn’t. And then I just realized, hey, there is a goal here,” adding, “I don’t have to die and I can be a somebody. I had sunk that low.”
He planned to do it two months earlier
In previous parole hearings, Chapman had also revealed how he had planned to assassinate Lennon two months earlier in October of 1980.
He lurked outside the Dakota department building and waited for Lennon at the time, but the singer never showed.
Lennon was shot four times
When Chapman’s plan in October fell through, he returned on December 8, shooting Lennon four times in the back.
The killer previously said he read JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye shortly after taking Lennon’s life and felt he related to the main character, Holden Caulfield.
Chapman expressed remorse
Chapman has expressed remorse over the murder over the years. He said of Lennon, “This was a human being.”
“Here I am living so much longer, and not just family but his friends and the fans, I apologize for the devastation that I caused you, the agony that they must have gone through.”
He didn’t think about this at the time
Chapman went on, “I had no thought about that at all at the time of the crime, I didn’t care. I don’t have any interest at all in being famous.”
“Put me under the rug somewhere. I don’t want to be famous anymore, period.”
