logo

John Lennon’s killer said he did it for the fame: “This was evil in my heart”

Lennon was gunned down outside of his New York City apartment building in December, 1980.

Beatles John Lennon

Image: PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy

When you purchase through affiliate links on Guitar.com, you may contribute to our site through commissions. Learn more.

The man who murdered beloved Beatle John Lennon told officials that he did it because he wanted fame and “nothing was going to stop that”.

67-year-old Mark David Chapman was up for parole in August and denied for the 12th time by a board that cited his “selfish disregard for human life of global consequence”. In denying his release, the board mentioned Chapman’s action has left “the world recovering from the void of which you created.” (via AP News)

In a transcript released by state officials Monday (7 November), Chapman said the decision to kill Lennon was “My big answer to everything. I wasn’t going to be a nobody, anymore.”

“I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there,” Chapman told the board. “I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.”

“This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that.”

The former Beatle was gunned down on the night of 8 December, 1980, as he and his wife Yoko Ono were returning to their Upper West Side apartment in New York City. Earlier that day, Lennon had signed an autograph for Chapman on a copy of his recently released Double Fantasy album.

Chapman is currently serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York’s Hudson Valley. He interviews with the Board of Parole every two years seeking release, and his next appearance is scheduled for February 2024.

“I hurt a lot of people all over the place and if somebody wants to hate me, that’s OK, I get it,” he said at the August hearing.

Related Artists

Related Tags

logo

The world’s leading authority and resource for all things guitar.

© 2024 Guitar.com is part of NME Networks.