Mark David Chapman was born on 10 May 1955 and is a murderer who gained notoriety when he shot English musician John Lennon in New York City on 8 December 1980. As Lennon was walking through the archway of The Dakota, his apartment building on the Upper West Side, Chapman fired five shots at the musician a few yards away, using a Charter Arms Undercover 38 Special revolver. Lennon was hit four times from the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, and pronounced dead on arrival.
Chapman had once been a fan of the Beatles. Still, he was infuriated at Lennon’s perceived lavish lifestyle and public statements, including his comment that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” and the lyrics of two of his later songs, “God” and “Imagine.” He was also fascinated with the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, and to the extent that he wanted to model the life of the book’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
In preparation for that killing, the lawyers for Chapman set up an insanity defense based on the expert psychiatric testimony that he was in a delusional psychotic state when he fired the shots. But as the trial date neared, Chapman instructed his counsel that he wanted to plead guilty, regardless of the consequences, because that was the will of God. He was sentenced to serve twenty years to life in prison, but with a stipulation that all corrections mental health treatment be provided.
As it were, Chapman is serving his time behind bars in Green Haven State Prison. It is his life, and that motive for murder and the tragedy of Lennon’s killing that gets discussed, explored, and broken down in different forms of media, including the 2023 Apple TV+ docuseries, “John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial.“.
