Mark David Chapman

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Mark David Chapman
NYPD mugshot of Chapman on December 9, 1980

Born	May 10, 1955 (1955-05-10) (age 53) Fort Worth, Texas
Penalty	20 years to life in prison
Status	Attica State Prison
Spouse	Gloria Abe (m. 1979)
Parents	David Curtis Chapman, Diane Elizabeth Pease

Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas) is the man who murdered British musician and activist John Lennon on December 8, 1980 in New York City.

Before his trial began, Chapman was allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life despite being diagnosed as delusional and possibly psychotic. He remains incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility in New York, having been denied parole four times. His applications for parole have been opposed by Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, as well as by a grassroots public campaign.

1 Early life
2 Murder of John Lennon
3 Testimony and sentencing
4 Life in Attica
5 Parole applications and campaigns
6 Motivation and mental health
7 Media and film
8 Footnotes
9 External links

[edit] Early life

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He attended Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia. At the time, he used drugs, skipped classes, and once ran away from home to live on the streets for two weeks. Chapman reported that he was bullied because he was not a good athlete. Allegedly, his favorite band at the time was The Beatles.^[1] He began work as a YMCA summer camp counselor, where he was very popular among the children, who nicknamed him "Nemo"^[2] He won an award for Outstanding Counselor^[1] and was made assistant director.^[3] The executive director of his branch said, "If there ever was a person who had the potential for doing good, it was Mark."^[4] Chapman played guitar.^[1]

Chapman later joined his girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship, as a student at Covenant College. However, Chapman fell behind in his studies and became obsessed with guilt over having an affair, which ultimately led to depression. He returned to work at the resettlement camp, but left after an argument. Chapman then took a job as a security 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.^[5]

In 1977 Chapman attempted suicide by gassing himself inside his car, but the vacuum cleaner hose melted in the exhaust pipe; he was discovered and hospitalized for mental illness. Upon his release, the hospital hired him part-time. His supervisor later said, "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."^[6]

A friend 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.

In 1978, Chapman went on a six-week trip around the world, inspired partly by the film Around the World in Eighty Days, visiting such places as Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Israel, Geneva, London, Paris, and Dublin. He began a relationship with his travel agent, a Japanese-American woman named Gloria Abe. They married on June 2, 1979. He started work as a 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".^[7]

[edit] Murder of John Lennon

Lennon and Chapman.

Chapman went to New York in October 1980 planning to kill Lennon. He left the city for a short while in order 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, he departed from the Sheraton Hotel, 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 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 shook hands with the boy as they departed.^[8] Around 5:00 p.m., Lennon and Ono 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.^[9] 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" (a reference to The Catcher in the Rye).

Around 10:49 p.m., the Lennons' limousine returned to the Dakota. Lennon and Ono passed by Chapman and walked toward 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",^[10] but this is not stated in court hearings or interviews.

Chapman remained at the scene, took out his copy of The Catcher in the Rye and 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."^[11]

Lennon was declared dead at 11:15 p.m. after having lost more than 80% of his blood.

[edit] 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, ^[12] 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, or of having any noticeable psychotic tendencies. 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.^[4]^[13]

[edit] Life in Attica

Chapman has been imprisoned since 1981 in Attica State Prison, near Buffalo in Western New York. He is reported to be an evangelical Christian. He has been separated from other prisoners because of concerns for his safety. To this end, he is confined within a Special 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".^[14]

It is also reported that Chapman works in the prison as a legal clerk and kitchen helper, but otherwise his activities are severely curtailed. He was barred from participating in the Cephas Attica workshops, a charitable organization which helps inmates to adjust to life outside prison. He 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. In his parole board hearing in 2004 he described his plans, if paroled, as follows: "I would immediately try to find a job, and I really want to go from place to place, at least in the state, church to church, and tell people what happened to me and point them the way to Christ." 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.^[15] The Daily Mirror reported he wanted to set up a church with his wife.^[16]

Chapman is on the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed two visits a year with his wife.^[17] 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^{[citation needed]}, died in February 2004^{[citation needed]}.

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.^[18]

[edit] 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. ^[19]^[20]

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."^[21]

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. He also spoke about regret for the effect on Yoko Ono.^[22] The parole 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. ^[23]

In 2002, the parole board stated again that releasing Chapman after 22 years in prison would "deprecate the seriousness" of the crime, and that while his behavioral record continued to be very positive, it was no predictor of his community behavior.^[24]

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 declined parole again. One of the reasons given by the board was having subjected Yoko Ono to "monumental suffering by her witnessing the crime". ^[14] Around 6,000 people had signed an online petition against Chapman's release by this time. Lennon fans were threatening retribution if he were to be released.^[25]

In October 2006, the parole board held a 16-minute hearing and concluded that his release would not be in the best interest of the community or his own personal safety.^[26]^[27]

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.^[28]

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

[edit] Motivation and mental health

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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."^[29] 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. 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."^[30]

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."^[31] 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."^[30] Chapman 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."^[32]

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.^[7]

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.^[33] 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.^[32]

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."^[11]

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,"^[34]

In the aftermath of the murder, the surviving Beatles (and many others) referred to him as “The Man Whose Name Must Never Be Mentioned” or “He Whose Name Must Never Be Spoken”; as George Harrison explained, it was an attempt to keep him from gaining any Lee Harvey Oswald-type fame.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Media and film

For the first six years in Attica, Chapman refused all requests for interviews. James R. Gaines interviewed him and wrote 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 later 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. 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 British music magazine Mojo (December 2007) and the Spanish-language newsweekly Proceso^[35] and other Latin American publications. Chapter 27 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and received mostly negative reviews. The film was limitedly released in theaters in the USA in March 2008.^[36]

Texan art-rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead released a song "Mark David Chapman" on the album Madonna, which was released in 1999.

New York-based rock band Mindless Self Indulgence recorded and released the song "Mark David Chapman" on their latest album, IF, stating that "When the world's overrun with too many bands, who is it time for? Mark Chapman."