Mark David Chapman: Difference between revisions

Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955 in Fort Worth, Texas) murdered English musician and activist John Lennon on December 8, 1980 in New York City. Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back outside The Dakota apartment building, in the presence of Lennon's wife Yoko Ono and others. Chapman remained at the scene until arrested by police.

A scheduled jury trial did not go ahead because Chapman changed his plea from not guilty by reason of insanity to guilty of second degree murder, against the advice of his lawyer. He had been assessed as delusional and possibly psychotic, and the defense team argued that Chapman was not competent to make the decision. However, Chapman was sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life and remains incarcerated at Attica State Prison in New York, having been denied parole five^[1] times. His applications for parole have been opposed by Yoko Ono, as well as by an online grassroots public campaign.

Chapman has been widely associated with the book The Catcher in the Rye, which he carried with him at the time and claimed would explain his perspective. Various specific motivations have also been suggested. Chapman has since stated that what he did was wrong. There have been a number of interviews, books and films concerning Chapman and the murder of Lennon.

Chapman was the first child of David, a staff sergeant in the Air Force, and Diane, a nurse. His sister, Susan, was born seven years later. He later said that he lived in fear of his father, who sometimes abused his mother. He also fantasized about having God-like power over a group of imaginary "little people".^[2]

He attended Columbia High School in Decatur, Georgia. From 14 he used drugs, sometimes 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. His favorite band was The Beatles.^[2] He took marijuana, LSD, heroin, mescaline and barbiturates. When John Lennon was quoted in 1966 as saying "We're more popular than Jesus Christ now", Chapman laughed about it with his friends.^[3]

At 16, Chapman became a born again Christian, and distributed Bible tracts. He met his first girlfriend, another born-again Christian named Jessica Blankenship. He began work as a YMCA summer camp counselor; he was very popular with the children, who nicknamed him "Nemo". He won an award for Outstanding Counselor and was made assistant director.^[2][4] Those who knew him in the caretaking professions unanimously called him an outstanding worker.^[5]

A friend recommended The Catcher in the Rye to Chapman, and the story eventually took on great personal significance for him, to the extent that he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist, Holden Caulfield.^[2]

After graduating from Columbia High, Chapman moved for a time to Chicago and played guitar in churches and Christian nightspots while his friend did impersonations. He worked successfully at 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 the program director, David Moore, who later said Chapman cared deeply for the children and worked hard. Chapman accompanied Moore to meetings with government officials, and President Gerald Ford shook his hand.^[5][6]

Chapman joined his girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship as a student at Covenant College (a strict Presbyterian college that emphasizes the liberal arts) in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. However, Chapman fell behind in his studies and became obsessed with guilt over having an affair.^[7] The academic pressure and a failing romance sent him in to an emotional tailspin.^[3] He started having suicidal thoughts and feeling like a failure. He dropped out of Covenant College, and his girlfriend broke off their relationship. He returned to work at the resettlement camp, but left after an argument. Chapman then took a job as a security guard, eventually taking a week-long course that qualified him to be an armed guard. He made another attempt to go to college but dropped out again. He decided to go to Hawaii and then kill himself.^[7]

In 1977 Chapman attempted suicide by carbon monoxide asphyxiation. He connected a vacuum cleaner hose to his car exhaust pipe and lead it inside the car, thus exposing himself to the car's exhaust, but the hose melted in the exhaust pipe and the attempt failed. He was discovered and brought to a local mental health clinic. A psychiatrist admitted him to Castle Memorial Hospital for clinical depression. Upon his release, the hospital hired him part-time. He played guitar for the patients and counseled them. He found a place to live with a Presbyterian minister.^[8] His parents began divorce preceedings, and his mother joined Chapman in Hawaii.^[3]

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. Looking for more money, Chapman got a job at Castle Memorial Hospital as a printer, working alone rather than with staff and patients. He then got into an argument with Abe's boss at the travel agency and made her quit and find another job. He was then fired by the Castle Memorial Hospital, rehired, then got into a shouting match with a nurse and quit. He took a job as a night security guard and began drinking heavily.^[8]

Chapman developed a series of obsessions, including artwork, The Catcher in the Rye, music, and John Lennon, and started hearing voices again. In September 1980, he wrote a letter to a friend, Lynda Irish, in which he stated, "I'm going nuts", and signed it "The Catcher in the Rye".^[9]

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, 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. He made an appointment to see a clinical psychologist but instead, on December 6, flew back to New York. He offered cocaine to a taxi driver.^[3] He reports having reenacted scenes from The Catcher in the Rye.

On the morning of December 8, 1980, he departed from the Sheraton Hotel, he 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 "Holden Caulfield". 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.^[10] 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.^[11] 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, the largest and most important artery in the human body, causing very severe blood loss by aortic dissection. There was an isolated newspaper claim at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a "combat stance",^[12] but this is not stated in court hearings or witness 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 City 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."^[13]

Lennon was pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m. at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He was 40 years old.

Chapman was charged with second degree murder. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric examination. The conclusion was that, while delusional, he was competent to stand a trial. Nine psychiatrists/clinical psychologists were prepared to testify at his trial – six of the clinical opinion that he was psychotic and three of the clinical opinion that his delusions fell short of the necessary criteria for psychosis. Lawyer Herbert Adlerberg was assigned to represent Chapman but, amid threats of lynching, withdrew. Police feared that Lennon fans might storm the hospital and they transferred Chapman to the Rikers Island jail.^[14]

At an initial hearing, in January 1981, Chapman's new lawyer Jonathan Marks entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In February, Chapman sent a handwritten statement to The New York Times, urging everyone to read The Catcher in the Rye, calling it an extraordinary book that holds many answers.^[15] The defense team sought to establish witnesses as to Chapman's mental state at the time of the killing.^[16] It was 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 objected with "serious questions" over Chapman's sanity, and legally challenged his competence to make this decision, requesting a further assessment of his mental state. In the pursuant hearing on June 22, Chapman said God had told him to plead guilty and that he would not change his plea or ever appeal, regardless of his sentence. Marks told the court that he opposed Chapman's change of plea but that Chapman would not listen to him since reporting having had two conversations with God on June 8 and June 10. Judge Dennis Edwards refused a further assessment, said Chapman had made the decision of his own free will, and declared him competent to plead guilty.^[17][18][5]

On August 24, the sentencing hearing took place. Two psychiatrists gave evidence on Chapman's behalf. Judge Dennis Edwards interrupted the second psychiatrist, saying the purpose of the hearing was to determine the sentence and that there was no question of Chapman's criminal responsibility, drawing applause from the courtroom. The District Attorney said Chapman did it as an easy route to fame. The defense lawyer said Chapman did not even appreciate why he was there. When Chapman was asked if he had anything to say, he rose and read a passage from The Catcher in the Rye. The judge ordered that Chapman should receive psychiatric treatment in prison and sentenced him to 20 years to life, slightly less than the maximum possible of 25 years to life.^[19]

Chapman has been imprisoned since 1981 in the Attica Correctional Facility, outside of Buffalo, New York.

Chapman fasted for 26 days in February 1982. After the New York State Supreme Court authorized the state to force feed him, Dr. Martin Von Holden, the director of the Central New York Psychiatric Center, said Chapman still refused to eat with other inmates but agreed to take liquid nutrients.^[20]

Chapman has been 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."^[21]

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.^[22] The Daily Mirror reported he wanted to set up a church with his wife.^[23]

Chapman is on the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed two conjugal visits a year with his wife.^[22][24] 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.

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.^[25]

Chapman has been denied parole five times, by a three-member board, in closed hearings lasting less than an hour, in October 2000, October 2002, October 2004, October 2006 and August 2008.

Prior to the 2000 hearing, Yoko Ono sent a letter to the board opposing the release of Chapman.^[26][27] 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."^[28]

At the 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 murder's 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" and that Chapman's granting of media interviews represented a continued interest in "maintaining your notoriety". They noted that although Chapman had an "exemplary disciplinary record" while in prison, he had been in special protective housing and so unable to access "anti-violence and/or anti-aggression programming."^[29]

Robert Gangi, a lawyer for the Correctional Association of New York, said he thought it unlikely Chapman would ever be freed because the board would not risk the "political heat" of releasing the killer of John Lennon.^[30]

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.^[31]

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."^[21] 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.^[32]

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.^[33][34]

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 was not sure if she was ready to yet.^[35]

Chapman's fifth hearing was on August 12, 2008. He was again denied parole "due to concern for the public safety and welfare". His next attempt for parole will be in August 2010. ^[36]

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."^[37] 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 "bigger 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 said 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."^[38]

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 protagonist Holden Caulfield's polemics 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."^[39] 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. A psychiatrist 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 Lennon's 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 10 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."^[38] 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."^[40]

Following the murder, Chapman underwent dozens of assessments by different psychiatrists. He described his anger toward his father, who he said used to hit his mother. He spoke of 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.^[9]

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.^[41] 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.^[40]

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."^[13]

In his 2006 parole board hearing, when asked if he did it to become famous, 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."^[42]

Following the murder, and for the first six years in Attica, Chapman refused all requests for interviews. James R. Gaines then 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, New York-based 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 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^[43] and other Latin American publications. Chapter 27 premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and received mostly negative reviews. The film had a limited release in theaters in the United States in March 2008.^[44] Chapter 27 was released widely onto DVD on September 30, 2008.

A number of conspiracy theories have been published, based on CIA and FBI surveillance of Lennon due to his left-wing activism, and on the actions of Mark Chapman in the murder and subsequent legal proceedings. ^[45]

In 1982, Rhino Records released a compilation of Beatles-related novelty and parody songs, called Beatlesongs, it featured a caricature of Chapman on the cover which was drawn by William Stout. Following its release, Rhino recalled the record and replaced it with another cover.^[46]

English singer-songwriter Julian Cope released the song "Don't Call Me Mark Chapman" on his 1994 album Autogeddon, containing the lyrics, "It's all going off in his hands/A deadly assassin, yeah/What will his money buy now?"

Texas 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.

Irish band The Cranberries recorded the song "I Just Shot John Lennon", which was included on their 1996 album To the Faithful Departed.

The Killing of John Lennon, a 2007 dramatized documentary starring Jonas Ball as Mark David Chapman, portrays the series of events leading up to Lennon's murder.

Australian rocker Rick Springfield wrote a song titled "3 Warning Shots" on his July 2008 release Venus in Overdrive about Mark David Chapman and the murder of John Lennon. Springfield, who credits the Beatles and especially Lennon in his songwriting, refuses to mention Chapman's name in the song or when describing the song in interview. The song is not about Lennon's murder, but the anger Springfield feels towards Chapman.

On Mindless Self Indulgence's 2008 album If, there is a song called "Mark David Chapman," which criticizes greedy major labels and emo bands & trends, sarcastically remarking that it is time for a new Mark David Chapman.

The Marilyn Manson album Holy Wood, which compares the modern celebrity phenomenon to Catholic sainthood, references the John Lennon murder in the song "Lamb of God." A lyric in the second verse, which is about Lennon, says "We were looking for the lamb of God / We were looking for Mark David," stressing the need for the murderer in order to create the tragic celebrity death that ensued an intensified level of hysteria and fanaticism among the public. The song also cites the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as having a similar celebrity murder reaction.

The Half Man Half Biscuit song "When The Evening Sun Goes Down" contains the line: "I'm off to see the Bootleg Beatles as the Bootleg Mark Chapman". ^[47]

The Guns N' Roses song "Catcher In The Rye" was written about the book of same name and how it has influenced people. The lyrics seem to be based around the book itself and the Author (J D Salinger) and how it influenced the murder of John Lennon, with lines such as "So now you set the wheels in motion, It haunts our memories, You were the instrument, You were the one, How a body took a body, And gave that boy a gun".

The song "Save Yourself" on American hip-hop artist Aesop Rock's 2001 album Labor Days contains the sarcastic lyrics "naw man it wasn't me it was Holden Caulfield brother; I just read and pulled the trigger".

Wikiquote has quotations related to Mark David Chapman.

• 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
• Court TV News "in-depth" section on Chapman