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foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]
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foreign [Music] on the scene shortly before 11 pm on December 8th 1980 John Lennon was in
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such bad shape that they could not wait for the ambulance to arrive and the officers scooped up John Lennon and put
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them in the back of a police squad car to rush him off to Roosevelt Hospital because of the location of the bullet
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holes they had to lie him in the back of the vehicle face down so that John would
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not choke on his own blood John was wheeled into the emergency room by this point he had lost about 80 percent of
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his blood and virtually had no pulse at all doctors and nurses were looking for a
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way to save this man's life so they made an incision in the left chest and separated the ribs and found a very
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large amount of blood they looked for an injury to the heart and they used by hand to try to pump and massage the
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heart to bring this man back to life but every time they pumped most of what they
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pumped simply just came out blood out of the holes it was totally ineffective although seven Medics tried desperately
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to revive him John Lennon was finally pronounced dead and at 11 15 pm on ABC Monday Night Football Howard Cosell
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announced John's death to the world and you heard that clip in the trailer for part one of our coverage of John
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Lennon's case you have the most famous man in the world dead and assassinated by Mark David Chapman a guy that nobody
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knows so now everybody wants to know who is Mark David Chapman and why did he do
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this yeah the suspect arrested as you said Captain was Mark David Chapman 25 years old from Hawaii he was under heavy
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guard and taken to the tombs prison in downtown Manhattan to await arraignment which would take place Tuesday morning
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he apparently stalked John Lennon for three days he told police he had a license for the
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gun that he used to kill John Lennon which was a Charter Arms 38 caliber revolver but was only able to produce a
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bill of sale for the gun purchased in Honolulu Hawaii six weeks before the shooting Chapman told police he was
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annoyed that Lenin had only scribbled his autograph on the album police said that although Chapman gave different
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stories to the detectives about the sling he was emphatic that he knew he was shooting the 40 year old John Lennon
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David Gaffin president of Geffen Records read a statement issued by Yoko the night of Lenin's death saying quote John
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loved and prayed for the human race please do the same for him all right let's dive in to who is Mark David
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Chapman Mark Chapman was born May 10 1955 in Fort Worth Texas but he grew up in decanter Georgia in a pretty typical
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situation living with Mom Dad and then his little sister who was seven years younger than Mark the major difference
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from most other typical living situations for a child is simple his father David Chapman was a Staff
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Sergeant in the U.S Air Force and was verbally and physically abusive to both Mark and his mother
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Mark said he was in constant fear of his father so when at home he would spend most of his time locking himself away in
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his bedroom during this time of self-isolation Mark developed Imaginary Friends imaginary people and even
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characters Mark Chapman began to fantasize about having king-like power over a group of imaginary little people
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who lived in the walls of his bedroom Mark like most teenagers was a big Beetle fan growing up he attended
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Columbia High School in decanter Georgia and at the young age of 14 he was using
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drugs and skipping classes at school there's actually some recordings of Mark playing guitar and singing Beatles songs
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in 1971 Chapman became a born-again Christian this like several other influences in Chapman's life will go
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beyond that of a personal interest or even the level of faith in this situation Chapman would develop several obsessions
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throughout the course of his life and then one has to wonder perhaps was the Beatles one of his first obsessions all
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right on to the next Obsession if you will here Captain a friend recommended to mark that he read JD salinger's book
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The Catcher in the Rye this is a pretty famous book for our younger audience who
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might not be aware of this what I'm going to call a rare situation this is a book that has both been banned
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from some school libraries as well as assigned reading in other schools right the novel eventually took on a great
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personal significance for Mark David Chapman to the extent that he reportedly wished to model his
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life after the book's protagonist Holden coalfield I think that is putting it lightly other sources say that he
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believed at some point or during portions of his life that he was Holden coalfield his early adult life was
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filled with depression he moved several times and each time this was hundreds of
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miles away from the last place where he lived he went from Georgia to Chicago and back to Georgia again
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he started having suicidal thoughts and began to feel like a failure he dropped out of college after just one semester
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he then worked as a security guard this was an armed security position so he had
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to learn how to use and operate a firearm with a decent amount of success before this there was no indication that
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Mark had any experience with guns to qualify for the position Mark needed to score at least 50 points on his security
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and Firearms exam Mark scored an 88 this after taking a week-long training course
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well a little bit before this and and during this time Mark was always working with children I worked at camps worked
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with a group that had the Vietnam refugees where he worked with the children but he would reference a lot that he
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even though he's getting older he wasn't growing up he wasn't going to become a grown-up he was still going to have the
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innocence of a child and and that would make him closer to the character or Holden yeah there were times especially
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the last week or so that he worked at one camp in particular where people would later say that he just
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talked constantly about the book The Catcher in the Rye in 1977 Chapman moved to Hawaii now we
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have to understand that this guy he is slowly spiraling out of control if he ever was in control to begin with
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he is not in my opinion moving to Hawaii so much so with a job lined up or a place to live or really
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even any plan at all this to me Captain simply looks like a guy who is running away well okay there's there's a story
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from one of the campers saying that he was just this lovable guy they I think they called him like Nemo for a while
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and then they'd call him the Pied Piper and they had all these different names for him and and supposedly he was just
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excellent with children but then something happened where the the kids noticed it more than the
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parents that there was like this shift and there was this girl that was really close to him and and she's on record as
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saying that he came to visit her and their parents were like hey go give him a hug and she's like no there's
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something different about him so this going to Hawaii again it's reported multiple ways some
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people say he went there with no plan I think he's come out and said well I went there with the plan of I'm going to
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go there uh take the money I have gamble it away and if I don't win then I'm just going
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to kill myself yeah it looks like when he first gets to Hawaii that he's living in a hotel off of his meager savings
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that he had at the time and he is falling deeper and deeper into depression and became suicidal
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Chapman eventually attempted suicide by connecting a hose to his car's exhaust pipe you know start up the car roll up
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the windows and attempting to kill himself by way of carbon monoxide asphyxiation but the hose melted
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and the attempt failed right well and I also believe a fisherman came up and knocked on his window what happens here
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Captain is this is probably the first thing that the first time that I could see where somebody recognizes that there
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is something not right with this young man right and a psychiatrist admitted Chapman to I believe the name was Castle
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Memorial Hospital this for his clinical depression he didn't stay very long there
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now in 1978 Mark Chapman went on a six-week trip around the world this vacation was partly inspired by the
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film Around the World in 80 Days he then began a relationship with his travel agent this is a Japanese-American
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woman named Gloria Abe who he married in June of 1979. I also believe at this time he was actually working at the
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hospital yeah that's absolutely right he went back to work in the hospital at this time though and this is one thing
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that I always fear with people who suffer from depression people that especially to this level to the point of
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where this guy is suicidal right and I mean from a young age he's imagining things that aren't real he's living in a
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different reality he takes on not just this Hospital job but even shortly after the hospital job he starts working jobs
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that are very isolated he saw a Solitary Man solitary position working by himself
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this is not the camp where he's you know in Chicago playing guitar and singing songs for kids and and as you said he
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was loved by the kids that that he counseled at the camp he was well liked by his co-workers he thrived in that
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situation I think what we have here is in late 1979 he goes on to work this job at the hospital well that sounds like
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he's going to be working around a bunch of people no he worked as a printer off in his space by himself for large parts
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of large portions of his shifts right and then he gets into some kind of verbal altercation on a couple of
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occasions with different co-workers this leads to him being fired it sounds like
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they even took him back briefly he quits he goes on then to take another security
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job this time it's a night security job so he's by himself even more at this time so well let's be clear when he
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marries this girl she thinks so this guy's amazing they get married quickly he's physically
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abusive towards her we get married and he's amazing and then boom he's not amazing anymore yeah and she was she
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really was like this is my worst nightmare because he she claims that he showed no signs
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of being abusive towards her or or really towards anybody else other than maybe himself
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until they got married yeah this is where it's really like after the the wedding as soon as these two are married
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you would think you would hope that that relationship that this man who thinks of
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himself as a failure who thinks of himself as a loner who finally has someone who accepts him for who he is
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maybe this would be the jumping off point that he needs to getting some help to feeling loved yeah and I think he had
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some friends or at least some acquaintances that were worried about him but more worried
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about his depression not not worried that he'd hurt somebody else because he did seem like a
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a kind person and I think also if you know somebody for a little bit at a time you go well what did you used to
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do well I worked with children for years and I I worked with a Vietnam refugees and I and I um you know counseled kids
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at camps I mean they all everybody that knew him said he had a very gentle disposition so after
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the marriage he starts working these isolated solitary jobs he's having a hard time holding down a job he begins
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drinking heavily and this further develops his depression as well as some of his obsessions and these major
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obsessions at this time in his life include his favorite book The Catcher in the Rye and John Lennon
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in September of 1980 he wrote a letter to a friend which stated quote I'm going nuts he signed
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the letter The Catcher in the Rye in October of 1980 Mark David Chapman quits his job and on
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his final shift at that job he signs out on his time card with the name John Lennon
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[Music] shut down foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] guys the first few weeks I was just in a
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dream kind of thing I mean it just didn't seem real you know as reality sunk in it left Gloria
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wondering what happened to the life she had dreamed of when she first met Mark David Chapman in 1978. she saw him as a
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sort of a knight in shining armor she did she did Jim Gaines is one of the only reporters to have interviewed
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Gloria Chapman he says she spoke lovingly about her engagement they were walking on the beach and Mark
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said to Gloria would you marry me and she was just ecstatic and she described it to me as
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the happiest day of her life Mark never did perhaps that was a glimpse into the misery and she says abuse that soon
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followed I don't remember what I had to sit down glorious naive dreams have happily ever
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after vanished altogether [Music] locked the door and just crying you know and to say thank you I can't take this
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you know how long are you gonna be like this you know this is miserable why do you think she stayed with him all
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these years she was faithful it was a virtue you obeyed virtues she was trying to be a good wife in an
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impossible situation in October of 1980 Mark David Chapman went to New York City with the intention
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of killing John Lennon during this trip Chapman was inspired by the film Ordinary People to stop his plans to
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which he then went to Atlanta and then he went back to Hawaii his movements I'm not going to lie to you Captain are a
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little confusing to me during this period because we have him moving around quite a bit and we he's kind of coming
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in and out of the life of his wife during this time mind you when he is around her he's talking gibberish and
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nonsense to her he's saying things that just seem well they seem nuts to the point where she's saying you've got to
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get some help Chapman would later say that he told his wife he intended to kill John Lennon he says he went so far
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as to show her the gun and the ammunition right he also says that he was again stopped from time to time by
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what he would call signs one of these signs was that he said that he saw on the TV people talking about how one
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should not kill if you believe in God if you follow God you should not kill you should not harm other people
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he also said another sign was that he was that his wife had placed a sign on a wall in where they lived in their home
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that said thou shall not kill you typically see this when people who have completely gone off the rails they
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are looking to do something horrible it's weird though Captain because as far gone as I think Mark David Chapman was
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at this point he seems to be fully aware of what he is intending to do is a very
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bad and harmful thing yeah I think it's interesting that his movements in New York the first time we don't know
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exactly where he went what he did we don't know exactly what happened when he went back to Atlanta we don't know
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exactly what he did when he went back to Hawaii right and but he keeps saying he
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was looking for signs he was looking for something to stop him from doing what he
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intended to do this would end up with him traveling back to New York City arriving on
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December 6 1980 but New York's going to be an interesting place because if you read the book Catcher in the Rye it ends
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in New York so not only does he have a destination on who he wants to kill he has a destination spot which just
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happens to be the same spot that that his victim lives in it seems like he was intending to live out portions of that
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book and with him he has a list a list of people that uh I'm assuming it's a hit list people that he wanted to
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kill yeah his whole thought was that because of the book the book is telling people look people are phony and that
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that Holden is not phony and so you if you want to be so basically he wants to kill these
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people that are phone phony to basically have them be um I guess a warning to others
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like this is what happens to you if you're phony and Chapman he basically as we said earlier spent about three days
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out front of the Dakota I best I guess the best word for it is stalking John Lennon waiting to see John
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Lennon and he would meet and talk with other people who were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Star as well maybe get an
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autograph as well he would talk and chat with some of these other people while he
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was waiting but it wasn't until Monday on December 8th when he would actually get to see John Lennon yeah what's so
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crazy is he was actually going through the book and seeing what Holden did and he was
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basically doing the same thing all Holden went here so now I got to go here and one of the things was um
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he he went to Central Park to ask cab drivers about the birds because it's something that Holden did in the book he
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also got um hired a sex worker to go to his his hotel and and in the book Holden doesn't have sex
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with the sex workers so that's the same thing that Mark David Chapman did and then he he paid the sex
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worker double it's just it's just very strange he was he's almost following this like
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blueprint that the book laid out for him also in that list that you were talking
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about earlier again it's one of those things where people say there's 50 names on it and
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people speculate who was on it but it seems like the main people were John Lennon
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uh Johnny Carson Ronald Reagan and Paul McCartney yeah that list is a little The Hit List
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let's call it is a little difficult because this is a case and we say case but really there's this whole story that and
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so little of it involves the actual murder of John Lennon it's been well documented John Lennon's life
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of 40 years uh The Beatles their their career their success all well documented Mark David Chapman
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he is well documented because he's the man that's known to be the guy that killed one of the most famous musicians
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of all time right and so where we talk about lists you know I see I I believe David Bowie said that hey I was next on
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that list I was second on the list and what we have here is the reaction is is bizarre because it's unlike most of
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the crimes and most of the murders that we have covered here in the garage be it
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if they're solved or unsolved Mark David Chapman after he carried out his I'm using air quotes here mission
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he puts down the gun puts down his coat surrenders to the police starts thumbing
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through his book of The Catcher in the Rye and as you just pointed out and I think the best way to say it and to
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describe his time in New York is through Chapman's own words where he said you know I was living
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through the pages of The Catcher in the Rye right I was living the book the book
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was living through me during that time one story I want to go back to the David Bowie story real quick here when in
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reference to The Hit List it's a very interesting story because David Bowie said he was second on the
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list and that he was attending a Broadway production of the Elephant Man this would be the day after Lennon was
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killed right Bowie believes well he part of this he probably knows but Bowie has stated that
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John and Yoko were going to sit with him in the front row that night at the at the Elephant Man right
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and that Mark Chapman had managed to buy a ticket to sit next to all three of them
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so picture four seats here David Bowie says that night the night after John Lennon was killed there were three empty
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seats in the front row next to me and he believes that it was going to be John Lennon Yoko Ono and Mark David Chapman
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who were to occupy those seats that might have gave Chapman the opportunity to kill all three of these people now I
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believe it has been stated in certain places that the Chapman chose Lenin other over his
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other targets out of convenience that he was easier to get to possibly and that may be the truth but most of what I
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could find and it's my own personal belief I think John Lennon was at the top of
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his list well yeah first of all we we know for a fact that he had a a little bit of obsession with them when he was
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younger that's why he learned how to play guitar we have evidence of him singing uh Beatles songs we have
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evidence that he had the Beatles haircut for a while we have his wife saying that
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he talked about killing John Lennon we have him signing out from work as John Lennon
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um us we also have friends of his or acquaintances of his saying you know every now and then he would talk bad
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about people and he talked bad about John Lennon called him a phony all the time saying that he could he could do
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more that he's you know so rich but he could give to these um Charities and he's not doing enough
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well and he was verbally angry many years after the fact about Lenin's more popular than Jesus comments from back in
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1966 right he had said time and time again to several people can you believe that that man actually said that right
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what gives him the right that he that he believes he's bigger or more popular than Jesus yeah and I think you know the
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big why why all this stuff happened I I think there's multiple reasons and I think Mark had many reasons in his head
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and I think like you said access but again there's no proof that he would have murdered anybody else I mean he killed
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John and he had just the same amount of opportunity to kill Yoko if he wanted to
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and he chose not to correct and he chose not to flee the area he totally could have got away I mean New York
00:29:26
uh he's not from there right nobody would have a clue who who this guy was you shoot John Lennon and you take it
00:29:36
off down the street and if you can get away because you're on foot if nobody stops you or people
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are afraid to stop you because you have a gun he could have got away and flew back to Hawaii before they even knew who
00:29:50
who it was well and we talked earlier about Mark Chapman looking for signs looking for
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something to stop him he said that on this second trip back to New York City that he believed he couldn't kill Lennon
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on his own he didn't have the strength to do it so he says that he invoked the spirit of the devil and he did what he
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believed were devil worshiping ceremonies by himself trying to ask the devil to help him kill John Lennon yeah
00:30:25
and looking for signs he says when he finally met Lennon Lennon gives him the autograph he's waiting around during
00:30:34
that day on the 8th he met two other people and had conversations with them one of them was a man by the name of
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Paul garesh Paul garesh was somebody who frequently would stand outside of the Dakota hoping to snap a photo of John
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Lennon he even had his picture taken with John Lennon in November and he is there talking with Chapman
00:31:01
Chapman he was standing next to Chapman when Chapman got the autograph on the cover of the Double Fantasy album
00:31:10
he was the guy that snapped the photo of Lenin signing the autograph where you can see Chapman over Lenin's left
00:31:18
shoulder Chapman said years later that he told this man that he met Paul garesh hey
00:31:27
he's got to come back sometime now mind you after the autograph Lennon takes off
00:31:31
in his his limo and he says hey he's got to come back sometime you should wait around and get your album autographed
00:31:38
right they waited around for a little bit of time and at some point Paul says you know I've waited long enough I'm
00:31:46
going to I'm just going to head home I'll get it another day let's keep that in mind and then take it
00:31:52
a step further Chapman said that he met a woman outside of the Dakota that day and he had asked
00:31:59
her out on a date well I I actually think that she was there because like we said Mark David Chapman where was
00:32:06
outside the Dakota multiple days I think they actually met the day before and then he saw her again
00:32:13
the day of and they started kind of talking about like oh well we we should go grab something to eat or something
00:32:20
yeah he says that he asked her out on a date to which she said no or said she wasn't going to go for whatever reason
00:32:28
Chapman says that had either of those interactions with either of those individuals worked out differently he
00:32:37
probably wouldn't have killed he would not have killed John Lennon on December 8 1980. he said he was not never going
00:32:45
to stop I don't he said if Paul would have stuck around to get the autograph if Paul would have been there when Lenin
00:32:52
came back he wouldn't have shot him he also said if he would have gone out on the date he would have left before Lenin
00:32:59
would have returned and he would not have had the opportunity to shoot him on the 8th but you're exactly right he said
00:33:07
those two individuals should not feel bad because I would have then just killed John the next day
00:33:14
yeah or some other time I mean like you said he was in New York for a period Then he left
00:33:21
New York and then he just kept making these trips and he was going to eventually find him somewhere and if it
00:33:27
wasn't John I believe he would have killed somebody else on that list like you said if he would have got to New
00:33:33
York and somebody said oh well you know uh you know John's back in England you know John Lennon's back in England for a
00:33:40
couple months he might have went just to the next person on the list I think he had this like
00:33:47
determination he had this this like you said how he would create fake characters
00:33:54
that he felt like if he did this that he was accomplishing something well of course
00:34:01
John Lennon is one of the most famous people in the world if he kills that person
00:34:08
he will obtain a certain level of that person's Fame right at least that's what he believed and
00:34:18
unfortunately to this day 40 years later we all know his name because of his actions but it's so weird to me because
00:34:27
the whole idea is like oh well John Lennon's phony and and one could make that argument right alongside Mark
00:34:36
David Chapman yes here's this guy that talked about peace and and love and all this stuff but was abusive towards his
00:34:44
first wife maybe abusive towards his his oldest son right uh a guy that had some infidelity
00:34:53
issues possibly his wife had some infidelity issues and they're talking about you know love is the answer and
00:35:00
and All You Need Is Love and and no war and all these things and and having these um
00:35:10
publicity stunts that yes they were I guess charitable but was it also just to make Lenin a bigger star hey we got
00:35:21
married we're going to go on a honeymoon and we know that the paparazzi is going
00:35:26
to be there so we do a bed in but isn't that just doing a whole week of drawing attention to yourself yes you
00:35:34
have a cause peace not war but I think those are the things that Mark found phony
00:35:42
you know you didn't have you don't have to do a protest that way to bring upon the attention to yourself
00:35:49
but at the same time you you sit there and go okay well I could see why somebody would go look at this giant
00:35:55
icon preaching all this stuff but he's preaching it to everybody but not living it himself
00:36:02
and at times is a is a junkie but then the whole message is look who it's coming from
00:36:12
Mark David Chapman that believes he is a character in a book you can't even live your own life you're
00:36:19
such a phony that you don't even have an identity until you take on an addended identity
00:36:26
from a book you think you're so righteous but then you're abusive to your wife you're he's a giant phone he does does
00:36:40
that make any sense oh 100 I mean I I it's without hesitation that I say the guy certainly needed help and probably
00:36:49
needed help from a very young age and I don't think that we can sit here and try
00:36:54
to pick apart and rationalize the decision that he made to kill John Lennon or fully understand what his his
00:37:02
real intentions were or the the motive behind any of it because I don't know that Mark David Chapman fully
00:37:12
understands it himself and I think you're exactly right I think that at the most simple level that we can put this
00:37:20
is that Mark Chapman was very much a nobody he was a failure John Lennon was the complete opposite of
00:37:30
that he was extremely successful extremely famous and well liked he was everything
00:37:37
that Mark David Chapman was not everything that Chapman wanted to be and somehow in some weird Twisted way I
00:37:47
think Chapman believed that he could be more lenin-like if he killed John Lennon
00:37:55
yeah possibly but I I do see a a side where you know he he did drugs John did drugs
00:38:04
they were both abusive people I think there's a part of him that was like look how easy it's for him for this
00:38:13
icon because he was part of the Beatles he almost like John wasn't punished for it
00:38:21
but I was and he talks a lot about how he's going down he's fallen off the cliff
00:38:26
Fallen deeper and deeper and but again we you know there's plenty of interviews with Mark David Chapman his story
00:38:34
constantly changes he constantly talks about these different signs he saw um or the signs he did not receive I
00:38:44
mean he spent most of the evening of the eighth struggling inside of his own mind this
00:38:50
is according to Chapman trying to decide on well do I get the next cab out of here and go home or do I stick around
00:38:58
and shoot and kill John Lennon yeah to which he says there were no signs to tell me to stop
00:39:05
there was no signs that you know this man that I met Paul he left well that's a sign to keep going this woman that I
00:39:12
asked out she didn't go out with me that's a sign to stay here and keep going and then when the limo pulls up
00:39:18
and Yoko and John get out and John is walking toward him Chapman starts Hearing in his head do it
00:39:27
do it now do it do it now do it now and then he pulls the gun he takes the combat stance and he fires five shots in
00:39:36
the direction of John Lennon and he becomes the biggest piece of [ __ ] and history well we got to put this guy
00:39:44
behind bars here still Captain so what we have here is Mark Chapman he is going to he has the right to attorney he has a
00:39:53
right to a trial in February of 1981 he sends a handwritten statement to the New
00:39:59
York Times telling everyone to read The Catcher in the Rye calling it an extraordinary book that holds many
00:40:07
answers he would not be sentenced until 1981 and August late August and he and he's evaluated for six months prior
00:40:21
to his trial this is going to be with over a dozen different psychiatrists Chapman was
00:40:29
charged with second-degree murder originally his attorneys told him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity
00:40:38
well after a bunch of back and forth what ends up happening is Chapman decides of his own free will to
00:40:48
to declare himself competent and he pled guilty to the murder of John Lennon yeah
00:40:55
and he's been sentenced to 20 years which has already passed obviously but uh I know Yoko and Sean show up at
00:41:05
every Pro hearing and I think they did they tack on more time because he had a list
00:41:12
because I don't think the charge was as simple as just he was charged with the killing of John Lennon I think he was
00:41:18
also possibly charged with something maybe they dismissed that but he was I thought
00:41:24
he was charged with something because he had that that hit list well some people
00:41:29
find it interesting that his wife was never charged with anything going off of the belief that Chapman did as he said
00:41:37
tell his wife he intended to kill John Lennon showed her the gun showed her the ammunition right she knew he had already
00:41:44
gone to New York once before her simple answer is that the guy said a lot of things and did very little
00:41:53
and she did she did suggest to him many times you need to get help even scheduling him to go and talk with
00:42:02
people however he never would show up for the actual appointments right that I mean I think it's just a very difficult
00:42:10
situation mental health needs to be talked about more and more and we need to be way more
00:42:16
open about it not just because these individuals could hurt themselves but because they hurt others how many cases
00:42:22
now have we seen you know look at Columbine those guys were depressed look at this case this guy has some
00:42:30
depression issues going on he has probably some psychosis issues going on as well and if people were more willing
00:42:37
to say Hey look I'm going to have to call his doctor myself and say hey there's something
00:42:42
wrong with him and these are the things he's saying and you have to be able to report that stuff uh it would save lives
00:42:51
yeah and I don't need a degree on my wall to tell you that this guy had some mental issues I mean it's it's obvious
00:42:58
to us all he had depression issues and I don't think that that is the extent of it as you said Captain he gets 20 years
00:43:07
in prison uh he is required to have a parole hearing every two years from that year once he's eligible so in 2000 he
00:43:18
had his first parole hearing and he has had 11 of them since and every single time has been denied
00:43:27
parole it looks like per some of his statements at these parole hearings that he
00:43:35
I don't want to comment to his state of mind because I don't think that I'm qualified to do that however it looks
00:43:42
like at times throughout the years he's understood the severity of his crime and
00:43:49
he's also stated things like this was premeditated murder this was something that was selfish and evil that I did and
00:44:00
in fact this year at the age of 65 he was denied parole once again for the 11th time Mark David Chapman's 12th
00:44:12
parole hearing is scheduled for August of 2022. well one of the things that yoka
00:44:18
always says is that she fears not only just for her she fears not only for her family but
00:44:25
the safety of Mark David Chapman because how many because he has a Target on his back
00:44:31
right when he gets out well that's one reason that they moved him from the medical facility where they first kept
00:44:39
him to evaluate him for months and months before his trial they had to move him from there because they didn't
00:44:45
believe they could keep him safe so they had to take him to the prison to wait for his trial where they knew that they
00:44:52
could keep him safe so I think you're exactly right this guy would have a Target on his back regardless of where
00:45:00
he is I'm surprised that he survived this long in prison but then I also have to keep in mind if you
00:45:08
idolize John Lennon and you want to try to be more like his he was later in life
00:45:13
then you are an advocate for peace and therefore going out with a violent act on Mark David Chapman would go against
00:45:23
what those beliefs were we don't have a recommended reading this week Captain there's so many things out there so many
00:45:32
directions to point someone if they want more information on this case or the life of John Lennon or the Beatles right
00:45:40
there's multiple documentaries there's multiple movies made about the killing of John Lennon one piece of material in
00:45:50
particular that I will suggest to everyone out there is the December 1992 Larry King interview with Mark
00:45:58
David Chapman this was on the Larry King live program I found this to be a fascinating
00:46:07
interview I've really enjoyed watching Mark talk about the crimes talk about his life the
00:46:15
events leading up to that I don't know how much of it was as you would say hogwash or Flim Flam is he giving us a
00:46:24
different version because he's able to tell the story 12 years later he does at times also present himself as a victim I
00:46:31
have a hard time seeing him as a victim knowing what he did knowing that he walked around ready to murder
00:46:39
individuals for whatever reason it was right but I found it to be a fascinating interview and Larry King of course one
00:46:46
of the best interviewers of all time so I recommend the 1992 interview with Mark
00:46:52
David Chapman and if you get a chance he also had some corresponding letters with
00:46:59
the resting officer and I think there's three or four letters those were auction off but that
00:47:06
kind of gives an insight and and what I would say about this case more so than other cases is
00:47:13
there's a lot of details there's a lot of possible answers of why or possible details but because
00:47:23
the person killed was such an icon I think there's so many stories that are surrounding this case that are possibly
00:47:31
just not factually true but I'll place that Larry King and Mark David Chapman interview on our website at True Crime
00:47:40
garage.com according to Keith Greenberg's book December 8 1980 the day John Lennon died Mark David Chapman was
00:47:49
contemplating the possibilities of acquiring a nuclear device and blowing up a small City then he revised his plan
00:47:57
he could hurt a lot more people by murdering someone whom Untold Millions saw as an idol a voice and a role model
00:48:07
today Mark David Chapman is Attica State prisoner 81a2860. he is up for parole but it's
00:48:18
probably for the betterment and the safety of our society that he remains a prisoner for the rest of his days John
00:48:26
Lennon was not a perfect man we all know that in fact John Lennon said himself that he was a flawed individual he was
00:48:34
trying to become a better man a better father a better husband he was writing music to inspire everybody else to
00:48:41
evolve and to become better people as well and I think that it was Joel Siegel who
00:48:49
summed it up best in reference to the death of John Lennon he said quote it's because he dreamed so beautifully that
00:48:57
we hurt so much [Music] thank you guys so much for joining us thanks for letting us be a part of your
00:49:18
week and if you need more True Crime garage download this Stitcher app all of our shows they are free and we have a
00:49:26
bonus show called off the record on Stitcher premium there's a lot of cases to go through over 500 episodes combined
00:49:34
and with off the Record we get to go do a lot of case updates so if you're wondering about a case that we covered
00:49:42
if there's been an update we give that to you on off the record until next week Colonel that's right we'll have a new
00:49:49
off the record on Monday new case for you on Tuesday come back and see us stay safe until then be good be kind and
00:49:57
don't let her [Music] [Applause] foreign