Mark David Chapman

Mark David Chapman
File:Markchapmanmugshot.jpg NYPD mugshot of Chapman on December 9, 1980
Status	Attica State Prison
Spouse	Gloria Abe (1979 -
Parent(s)	David Curtis Chapman, Diane Elizabeth Pease
Criminal charge	second degree murder
Penalty	20 years to life in prison

Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) is the American man who shot and killed musician John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He remained at the scene until arrested and claimed the book The Catcher in the Rye would explain his perspective and motivation. Chapman was allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder before his trial began and, despite being assessed as delusional and possibly psychotic, was sentenced to 20 years to life. He has been denied parole four times amid campaigns against his release, and remains incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility.

Early life

Chapman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, the oldest child of David Curtis Chapman, a staff sergeant in the Air Force, and Diane Elizabeth Pease, a nurse. Shortly after his birth, they moved to Atlanta. His sister, Susan, was born when he was seven. He reported that he lived in dread of his father, who would beat his mother, and that "I'd wake up hearing my mother screaming my name, and it just scared the fire out of me, and I'd run in there and make him go away. Sometimes I think I actually pushed him away." He reports having fantasized about getting a gun and killing his father. He was considered a normal boy, and his IQ was assessed as above average. He later told journalist Jack Jones "I used to fantasize that I was a king, and I had all these Little People around me and that they lived in the walls. And that I was their hero and was in the paper every day and I was on TV every day, their TV, and that I was important. They all kind of worshiped me, you know. It was like I could do no wrong." and "sometimes when I'd get mad I'd blow some of them up. I'd have this push-button thing, part of the [sofa], and I'd like get mad and blow out part of the wall and a lot of them would die. But the people would still forgive me for that, and, you know, everything got back to normal. That's a fantasy I had for many years."

In his first two years of high school, Chapman was a drug user who would sometimes skip school and once ran away to live on the streets for two weeks. Chapman reported that he was bullied and that he was not a good athlete. His favorite band was The Beatles. He began work as a YMCA summer camp counselor, where he was very popular among the children, who nicknamed him 'Nemo'. He won an award for Outstanding Counselor and was made assistant director. The executive director of his branch said, "If there ever was a person who had the potential for doing good, it was Mark." Chapman played guitar and, with his friend Michael McFarland, performed a comedy act in churches and Christian nightspots. Chapman made two brief attempts at college, including Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, but dropped out. He was fired from several jobs. Later he worked successfully with the YMCA with Vietnamese refugees at a resettlement camp at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas (after a brief visit to Lebanon on the same work). He was named an area coordinator and a key aide to David Moore, the program director. In 1980, Moore told reporters "He was really caring with the refugees and he worked his tail off to do everything exactly right. He was a super kid." It is reported that Chapman accompanied Moore to meetings with government officials, and that President Gerald Ford shook his hand.

Chapman later joined his girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship, as a student at Covenant College, a strict Presbyterian university. However, Chapman fell behind in his studies and career, became obsessed with guilt over having an affair, and sank in to a deep depression. He returned to work at the resettlement camp but left after an argument. He took a job as a security guard, at first unarmed but then he took a week-long course that qualified him as an armed guard. He left home after arguing with his parents and lived at the YMCA or on the streets, spending money on short trips to Hawaii.

In 1977 he attempted suicide by gassing himself inside his car, but the vacuum cleaner hose melted in the exhaust pipe and he was discovered. He was hospitalized for mental illness. On his release, the hospital hired him part-time. His supervisor reported: "All the patients, especially the older ones that nobody else would talk to, just loved that boy, and I can't say enough good about him."

Chapman's friend Michael McFarland recommended The Catcher in the Rye to Chapman, and the story took on great personal significance for him, to the extent that he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

Chapman went on a trip around Far Eastern countries. He began a relationship with a travel agent, a Japanese-American woman named Gloria Abe. They married on 2 June 1979. He started work as a solitary printer, but left after arguing with his hospital employers. He developed obsessions, and got into debt. He later said that he started to hear the voices of the 'Little People' again around this time. In September 1980 he wrote a letter to a friend, Lynda Irish, saying "I'm going nuts", signed "The Catcher in the Rye".

Murder of John Lennon

Chapman went to New York in October 1980 planning to kill Lennon but left to obtain ammunition from his unwitting friend Dana Reeves in Atlanta. He returned to New York in November but reports that, after going to the cinema and being inspired by the film Ordinary People, he returned to Hawaii, telling his wife he had been obsessed with killing Lennon but had snapped out of it. On December 6, he flew back to New York. He reports having reenacted some fictional events from Holden Caulfield's stay in New York in The Catcher in the Rye.

On the morning of December 8, 1980, having left personal items in his hotel room for police to find, Chapman bought a copy of The Catcher in the Rye from a New York bookstore, in which he wrote "This is my statement", and signed "The Catcher in the Rye". He then spent most of the day near the entrance to The Dakota apartment building where Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono lived, talking to other fans and the doorman. At one point, a distracted Chapman missed seeing John Lennon step out of a cab and enter the Dakota building on the morning of December 8. Late in the morning, Chapman met the Lennons' housekeeper, who had just taken their five-year-old son Sean for a walk. Chapman conversed with the housekeeper and patted Sean on the head as they departed.

Around 5:00 p.m., John and Yoko left The Dakota for a recording session at Record Plant Studios. As they walked towards their limousine on the curb, Chapman shook hands with Lennon and held out a copy of Lennon's new album, Double Fantasy, for him to sign. Photographer Paul Goresh was present when Lennon signed Chapman's album and took a photo of the event. Chapman reported that "At that point my big part won and I wanted to go back to my hotel, but I couldn't. I waited until he came back. He knew where the ducks went in winter, and I needed to know this."

Around 10:50 p.m., the Lennons' limousine returned to the Dakota. Lennon and Ono passed by Chapman and walked towards the archway entrance of the building's courtyard. From the street, Chapman turned and fired five hollow point bullets from a Charter Arms .38 revolver that he had purchased in Hawaii, four of which hit Lennon's back and shoulder. One of the bullets pierced Lennon's aorta, causing severe blood loss by aortic dissection. It has been suggested that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon!" and dropped into a "combat stance", but this is not stated in court hearings or interviews.

Chapman remained at the scene, taking out his copy of The Catcher in the Rye and trying to read it, until the police arrived. The New York Police Department officers who first responded to the shooting recognized that Lennon's wounds were severe, and so they decided to transport him in their police car to Roosevelt Hospital. Chapman was arrested without incident. In his statement to police three hours later, Chapman stated "I’m sure the large part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil."

Lennon was declared dead at 11:20 p.m. after losing more than 80% of his blood.

Testimony and sentencing

Chapman was charged with second degree murder. At an initial hearing, in January 1981, Chapman's lawyer Jonathan Marks entered a plea of "not guilty, by reason of insanity". His defense team sought to establish his mental state at the time, and Chapman was interviewed for hundreds of hours by psychiatrists. Nine were prepared to testify at his trial – six of the clinical opinion that he was psychotic and three of the clinical opinion that he fell short of the necessary criteria for psychosis. It is reported that his defense team was confident he would be found not guilty by reason of insanity, in which case he would have been committed to a state mental hospital and received treatment. However, in June, Chapman told Marks he wanted to drop the insanity defense and plead guilty. Marks strenuously objected with "serious questions" over Chapman's sanity, and legally challenged his competence to make this decision. During a further assessment, psychiatrists concluded that Chapman was delusional but competent. In the pursuant hearing, Chapman said God had told him to plead guilty, and that he wouldn't change his plea regardless of his sentence. Judge Dennis Edwards declared him fit to plead. In August, Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, slightly less than the maximum possible of 25 years to life.

Life in Attica

Chapman has been imprisoned since 1981 in Attica State Prison, which is near Buffalo, in Western New York. Chapman is reported to be an evangelical Christian. He has been separated from other prisoners because of concerns for his safety. To this end, Chapman is confined within a Secure Housing Unit for violent and at-risk prisoners. There are 105 other prisoners in the building "who are not considered to pose a threat to him", according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services. He has his own prison cell, but "spends most of his day outside his cell working on housekeeping and in the library".

It is also reported that Chapman works in the prison as a legal clerk and kitchen helper, but otherwise his activities are severely curtailed. Chapman was denied from participating in the Cephas Attica workshops, a charitable organization which helps inmates to adjust to life outside prison. Chapman is also prohibited from attending the prison's violence and anger management classes due to concern for his safety.

Chapman reportedly likes to read and write short stories, and he told his parole board hearing in 2004 that, if released, he would like to minister on Jesus and God. He also said that he thought that there was a possibility he could find work as a farmhand or return to his previous trade as a printer.

Chapman is on the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed two visits a year with his wife. The program allows him to spend up to 42 hours alone with his wife in a specially built prison home. He gets occasional visits from his sister, a few friends, and clerics. His mother, his only other regular visitor, died in February 2004.

James Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services, said in 2004 that Chapman had been involved in three "minor incidents" between 1989 and 1994 for delaying an inmate count and refusing to follow an order, but nothing else since 1994.

Parole applications and campaigns

Chapman has been denied parole four times, by a three-member board, in closed hearings lasting less than an hour, in October 2000, October 2002, October 2004 and October 2006.

Prior to the 2000 hearing, Yoko Ono sent a letter to the board opposing the release of Chapman, whom she refers to as "the subject". Ono's letter, released to the media afterwards by her press spokesman Eliot Mintz, stated that Lennon "brought light and hope to the whole world" and "would have gladly changed his position with 'the subject' and live the life of protection that 'the subject' enjoys now". She stated that if Chapman were granted parole, "...myself and John's two sons would not feel safe for the rest of our lives – people who are in positions of high visibility and outspokenness such as John would also feel unsafe", and that "many will feel betrayed. Anger and fear would rise again [such that] people in the outside world who are strongly distressed about what he has done... would feel that it is unfair that 'the subject' is rewarded with a normal life while John lost his. Violence begets violence."

In addition, State Senator Michael F. Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, wrote to Parole Board Chairman Brion Travis saying that "It is the responsibility of the New York State Parole Board to ensure that public safety is protected from the release of dangerous criminals like Mark David Chapman."

Also, an online petition to the parole board never to release Chapman was started by Sarajane Sein. As of April 18, 2007 it has reportedly collected 9,118 signatures supporting statements such as: "Chapman committed a heinous crime, unprovoked and without remorse", "He deserves to pay for this with life in prison" and "It is also a matter of public safety that he not be released."

At a 50-minute hearing in 2000, Chapman stated that he was not a danger to society and had overcome the psychological problems that he had at the time of the murder. He also stated that, as a conservative, he believed he did not deserve to be free and that "I believe once you take a person's life, there's no way you can make up for that. Period." He also spoke about regret for the effect on Yoko Ono. The Board's page of explanation stated that while Chapman had an "exemplary disciplinary record" while in prison, partly because he has served his time in special protective housing, "you have been unable to avail yourself of anti-violence and/or anti-aggression programming." The board stated that "Your most vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged... During your parole hearing, this panel noted your continued interest in maintaining your notoriety." The board concluded that releasing Chapman at that time would "deprecate the seriousness of the crime and serve to undermine respect for the law."

Robert Gangi, a lawyer for the Correctional Association of New York, said he thought it unlikely Chapman would ever be freed: "The fact that it was John Lennon... eliminates any hope for even a slim chance for Chapman being released... The parole board is not going to risk the political heat by releasing Chapman."

An additional online petition was started in 2001 by Roland Porter of the John Lennon Society, stating "This Petition is designed to keep the convicted Killer of John Winston (Ono) Lennon (Mark David Chapman) in prison without Parole!"

In 2002, the parole board stated that releasing Chapman after 22 years in prison would "deprecate the seriousness" of the crime and that while "your behavioral record continues to be very positive, your current positive adjustment...cannot predict your community behavior"

The parole board held a third hearing in 2004. The board reported that their decision was based on the interview, a review of records and deliberation. The board said its decision "was based on the extreme malicious intent you exhibited during the instant offense where you fired a handgun multiple times striking your target". One of the reasons given by the Board was having subjected Yoko Ono to "monumental suffering by her witnessing the crime". They stated: "During the interview, your statements for motivation acknowledges the attention you felt this murder would generate," and "To release you on parole at this time would significantly undermine respect for the law." Around 6,000 people had signed the online petition by this time. Lennon fans were threatening retribution if he were to be released.

In October 2006, the parole board held a 16-minute hearing and concluded that they remained "concerned about the bizarre nature of this premeditated and violent crime... While the panel notes your satisfactory institutional adjustment, due to the extremely violent nature of the offense your release would not be in the best interest of the community" or his own personal safety.

On December 8, 2006, the 26th anniversary of Lennon's death, Yoko Ono published a one-page advertisement in several newspapers saying that, while December 8 should be a "day of forgiveness", she had not yet forgiven Chapman and wasn't sure if she was ready to yet.

Chapman's next parole hearing is scheduled for October 2008.

Motivation and mental health

It has been suggested that, as a young boy, Chapman was "very sensitive and that his parents' anger towards each other intruded upon his normal development. He retreated from a very early age into a fantasy world." For a period during his teens he regularly smoked marijuana and ingested LSD. Chapman was a fan of the Beatles, particularly Lennon, but was reportedly angered by Lennon's infamous 1966 remark that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". Jan Reeves, sister of one of Chapman's best friends, reports that Chapman "seemed really angry toward John Lennon, and he kept saying he could not understand why John Lennon had said it. According to Mark, there should be nobody more popular than the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it was blasphemy. The song "Imagine" also angered Chapman – at prayer meetings and religious rallies, Chapman and his prayer group sang a parody with the lyric "Imagine, imagine John Lennon is dead." Chapman had also read in a library book (John Lennon: One Day at a Time by Anthony Fawcett) about Lennon's life in New York. "He was angry that Lennon would preach love and peace but yet have millions [of dollars]," said his wife Gloria. Chapman later reported that "He told us to imagine no possessions, and there he was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and built a big part of their lives around his music."

At some point, Chapman became obsessed with Catcher in the Rye after rereading it for the first time since high school. He was particularly influenced by the book's polemic against 'phoniness' in society, and the need to protect people, especially children. He was holding a copy of the book when he murdered Lennon, in which he had written "This is my statement". After his arrest, he wrote a letter to the media urging everyone to read the "extraordinary book" that may "help many to understand what has happened". When asked if he wanted to address the court at his sentencing, Chapman read a passage from Catcher in the Rye that describes Holden Caulfield's fantasy of being on the edge of a cliff and having to catch all children from falling. The chief witness at the sentencing, Daniel W. Schwartz, said that Chapman wanted to kill Lennon because he viewed him as a "phony". Chapman later said that he thought the murder would turn him into a Holden Caulfield, a "quasi-savior" and "guardian angel".

Chapman recalls having listened to the Plastic Ono Band album in the weeks before the murder and stated: "I would listen to this music and I would get angry at him, for saying that he didn't believe in God... and that he didn't believe in the Beatles. This was another thing that angered me, even though this record had been done at least ten years previously. I just wanted to scream out loud, 'Who does he think he is, saying these things about God and heaven and the Beatles?' Saying that he doesn't believe in Jesus and things like that. At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage. So I brought the Lennon book home, into this Catcher in the Rye milieu where my mindset is Holden Caulfield and anti-phoniness." Chapman had begun praying to the devil, as well as to God, for strength. He later stated that, while Holden was not violent, he did "have a violent thought of shooting someone, of emptying a revolver into this fellow's stomach, someone that had done him wrong" despite being "a very sensitive person and he probably would not have killed anybody as I did. But that's fiction and reality was standing in front [of] the Dakota."

Following the murder, Chapman underwent dozens of assessments by different psychiatrists. He described his anger toward his father who had regularly abused his mother, his identification with Holden Caulfield and with Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz, and his conferences with the "Little People", an imaginary set of people with whom he interacted and from whom he took guidance. He also provided a list of other celebrities he had thought about killing. Chapman later told journalist Jack Jones that he had told his "Little People" he intended to go to New York and kill John Lennon and they begged him not to, saying "Please, think of your wife. Please, Mr. President. Think of your mother. Think of yourself." Chapman says he told them his mind was made up, and that their reaction was silence.

Chapman also said that, while in New York, he had thought of leaping to his death from the Statue of Liberty. He had attempted suicide three years previously. Overall the psychiatrists concluded that, while delusional, he was competent to stand trial. However, six were prepared to testify for the defense that Chapman was psychotic. The prosecution presented three psychiatrists who said that Chapman fell short of full psychosis. Chapman has since said he thinks he was suffering from schizophrenia, a diagnosis made by some in his pre-sentencing psychiatric assessments. Journalist Jack Jones has referred to him as a sociopath.

Chapman stated to his parole board hearing in 2000 that "I feel that I see John Lennon now not as a celebrity. I did then. I saw him as a cardboard cutout on an album cover. I was very young and stupid, and you get caught up in the media and the records and the music. And now I've come to grips with the fact that John Lennon was a person. This has nothing to do with being a Beatle or a celebrity or famous."

In his 2006 parole board hearing, Chapman said "The result would be that I would be famous, the result would be that my life would change and I would receive a tremendous amount of attention, which I did receive... I was in a very confused, dark place. I was looking for reasons to vent all that anger and confusion and low self-esteem." He stated that "I believe that if I really wanted to, I could have changed my mind; I had ample opportunity to do it and I didn't do it and I regret that deeply."

Media and film

For the first six years in Attica, Chapman refused all requests for interviews. But he later told James R. Gaines his story of the murder and his youth. Gaines turned the interviews into a three-part, 18,000-word People magazine series in February and March 1987. Chapman told the Parole Board it was an interview "which I regret." Chapman later gave a series of interviews to Jack Jones of the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. In 1992 Jones published a book, Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon. In 2000, with his first parole hearing approaching, Jones asked Chapman to tell his story for "Mugshots", a CourtTV Network program. Chapman refused to go on camera but, after praying over it, consented to tell his story in a series of audiotapes. He told the Parole Board that the program "took a lot out of context, but that's okay." and that "Those three hours were really great, because I was able really – it was like a confession almost. I was able to accept my responsibility in this for probably the first real time, and I told him I didn't deserve anything. Chapman's experiences during the weekend on which he committed the murder have been turned in to a feature-length movie called Chapter 27, starring actor Jared Leto as Chapman and Lindsay Lohan as a Lennon fan who befriends him. The film's title is a reference to The Catcher in the Rye, which has 26 chapters, and was inspired by Chapter 27 of Robert Rosen's book Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon, according to the Spanish-language newsweekly Proceso and other Latin American publications. Chapter 27 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and received mostly negative reviews; the film failed to land a distributor in the USA. It has been picked up for distribution in Europe, Asia and South America.

Another film, The Killing of John Lennon, directed by Andrew Piddington and starring Jonas Ball as Chapman, premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in August 2006.

In popular culture

• Marilyn Manson's album, Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death), as well as being partially inspired by Lennon's murder, makes various references to Lennon, particularly in the song "Lamb of God".
• Elton John's 1982 song, "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)" from the album Jump Up!, refers to Mark David Chapman as the "insect (who) damaged so much grain".
• Former Beatle George Harrison referred to Chapman in his song, "All Those Years Ago", as "The devil's best friend... someone who offended all."
• Pink Floyd's guitarist David Gilmour wrote the song "Murder" about Lennon's death, which appears on his 1984 solo album About Face.
• Warrant wrote a song on their 1992 album Dog Eat Dog about Mark David Chapman called "Andy Warhol Was Right".
• Indie-rap group Jedi Mind Tricks refers to Chapman on their track "Put 'Em In The Grave", stating "I'm like Mark David Chapman with a Salinger book".
• Indie rock band ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead released a song entitled "Mark David Chapman" in their 1999 album Madonna.
• Half Man Half Biscuit mention Chapman in their song "When the Evening Sun Goes Down" from their 2002 album, Cammel Laird Social Club. The song includes the lyric "I'm off to see the Bootleg Beatles, as the bootleg Mark Chapman".
• Loudon Wainwright III mentions Chapman in the song "Not John" on his 1982 album I'm Alright. The song recalls the day of Lennon's shooting, Chapman's involvement, and the public response to it.
• Julian Cope penned the track "Don't Call Me Mark Chapman," which appears on his 1994 album Autogeddon.
• The Southern California punk band Bad Religion make reference to Chapman in the song "Don't Pray on Me" on their album Recipe for Hate. The line is "Mark David did it to John".
• The murder of John Lennon is referenced in "Dakota" by American rock band Of A Revolution on their 2005 album Stories of a Stranger.
• The heavy metal band Eighteen Visions make reference to Chapman in their song "Who the F*ck Killed John Lennon" on their release entitled Until The Ink Runs Out.
• Voice tracks taken from an early interview of Chapman are converted into a garage band song fronted by Mark David Chapman, entitled "Crazy".
• Ozzy Osbourne wrote a song entitled "Shot In the Dark", which is written from Chapman's point of view.
• Paul Simon's "Late Great Jonny Ace" on the Hearts and Bones album was written in response to Lennon's murder.
• Danish rock band Dizzy Mizz Lizzy published a song about John Lennon's death, entitled 11:07 PM.
• American rock group Styx recorded "Killing the Thing That You Love", which contains the chorus "As you look in the mirror, at what you’ve become, killing the thing that you love, like Lennon’s assassin, Lennon’s assassin".
• Sumo's "Cállate Mark" (Shut up Mark), from the "Fiebre", talks about Mark Chapman in his cell.
• Christine Lavin recorded a song titled "The Dakota" referencing the murder for her 1985 album Future Fossils.
• A scene in the 1997 film Private Parts features an irate Howard Stern insisting that Chapman be killed if he were ever released.
• The play and film Six Degrees of Separation mentions Mark Chapman during a monologue on the anti-social aspects of Catcher in the Rye.
• A conspiracy theory proposes that United States anti-extremist movements, allegedly created and influenced by former United States President Richard Nixon and FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover, saw Lennon as a "threat of the worst kind", and labeled him as a "dangerous radical that needs to be stopped". In his book Who Killed John Lennon, Fenton Bresler addresses this theory and argues that Chapman was a CIA assassin who was programmed to carry out the murder. The theory is featured in Absentia, an episode of Law & Order.
• In the song "72nd & Central" Proof of D12 references Lennon's murder.
• British psychedelic band Psychic TV has Mark David Chapman detailing his reasons for shooting John Lennon while a line from the Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is constantly looped on their 1988 double-album "Jack the TAB: Tekno Acid Beat".
• British band EMF has a single "Lies", which turned controversial for including a voice sample of Mark Chapman. Yoko Ono achieved an injunction and a modified version was included in future pressings.
• Irish band The Cranberries recorded a song "I Just Shot John Lennon". The song is a track from their 1996 release To the Faithful Departed. On a show during 1996, Dolores O'Riordan introduced this song as a tribute to a great man whose life was taken by someone brain-dead.
• Irish rock band U2, during the Spring (first) leg of the 2001 Elevation Tour, regularly made reference to Chapman in the spoken section at the end of the song "Bullet the Blue Sky" during an anti-gun tirade from Bono. The line was normally a variation on "I can make a wound that won't heal, 38 mm like the police, I'm at the door with John and Yoko, screaming 'love and peace', an old tune soon to be deceased. John, we don't need your help! America's at war with itself. More bodybags, than Vietnam, what's my name Mark Chapman"
• During WWE's WrestleMania 22, a match took place between Women's Champion Trish Stratus and Mickie James, who according to the storyline was Trish's biggest fan. Color commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler analogized Chapman's admiration for Lennon in a similar way to how James idolized Stratus, claiming to be her (kayfabe) best friend before attacking her.
• Paul McCartney wrote a poem about Chapman called "Jerk of All Jerks".

External links

• Article on Mark Chapman which argues that he killed for fame (BBC)
• BBC News Report with actual news footage from the time on right hand side of page
• A Crime Library article on Mark David Chapman, by Fred McGunagle
• John Lennon assassination conspiracy theories
• Court TV News "in-depth" section on Chapman