A parole board heard testimony from the guy who shot John Lennon dead outside his New York City apartment building in 1980, admitting that he knew it was terrible to murder the adored former Beatle but did it because he wanted fame and had “evil in my heart.”
Mark The board had just refused David Chapman parole for the 12th time when he made the remarks, citing his “selfish disdain for human life of global value.” In a transcript made available on Monday in response to a freedom of information request, Chapman stated that the choice to murder Lennon was “my big answer to everything. I wasn’t going to be a nobody, anymore.”
“I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there,” Chapman told the board. “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.”
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 was going to stop me from becoming someone I wanted to be.
In the Hudson Valley of New York, in the Green Haven Correctional Facility, Chapman is completing a term of 20 years to life. Throughout the years, he has expressed regret during his parole hearings numerous times.
He said at the Aug. 31 hearing:
“I hurt a lot of people all over the place and if somebody wants to hate me, that’s OK, I get it,”
The board noted Chapman’s action has left “the world recovering from the void of which you created” in its decision to refuse him freedom. The following parole board hearing for Chapman is set 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. Due to his lunacy, Hinckley had been declared not guilty.
