Mark David Chapman gunned down Lennon, in front of the singer’s New York apartment, in December 1980.
nytimes.com
Who Is Mark David Chapman?
Mark David Chapman endured a troubled childhood before becoming a born-again Christian. He shot and killed John Lennonoutside of the iconic musician’s Manhattan apartment building on December 8, 1980, claiming he did so because of the ex-Beatle’s immense fame. Sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, Chapman has since been denied parole multiple times.
Early Life
Chapman was born on May 10, 1955, in Fort Worth, Texas, to a U.S. Air Force sergeant and a nurse. Following a troubled childhood and early experimentation with drug use, he became a born-again Christian at age 16.
After moving to Hawaii in 1977, Chapman attempted to commit suicide. He later found work as a security guard, and in 1979 he married a travel agent named Gloria Abe.
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Killing John Lennon
In 1980, Lennon released the album Double Fantasy, his first record release in years, bringing the ex-Beatle out of seclusion and putting him back in the spotlight. On December 6, 1980, Chapman purchased Double Fantasy at a New York record store.
Two days later, with the album in hand, Chapman waited outside the Dakota, Lennon’s posh Manhattan apartment building. He watched as Lennon exited the building at approximately 5:50 p.m., on his way to a recording session, and walked toward his limo. A smiling Lennon generously agreed to autograph the album for Chapman while an amateur photographer clicked a photograph. Chapman then, strangely, placed his newly autographed album atop a nearby planter.
Around 10:30 that evening, Lennon returned home in his limo. Chapman was waiting. This time, he was after much more than an autograph. As Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, left the car, Chapman raised his gun and fired several shots at the musician, hitting him four times in the back and shoulder. Ono, who was standing next to her husband, witnessed the incident. Lennon was pronounced dead just one hour later, at nearby Roosevelt Hospital.
When New York City police officers arrived at the scene, they discovered Chapman casually thumbing through a copy of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The following day, the world grieved for Lennon. A vigil was held outside of the Dakota, drawing thousands of anguished fans.
John’s been shot!’ The murder of rock icon John Lennon in 1980
A poster size photo of the late John Lennon is displayed in his memory in front of his apartment building in New York City, Dec. 14, 1980. (AP Photo/Carlos Rene Perez)
By Deb Kiner
Just a few hours before he was shot, on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, had their photo taken by Annie Leibovitz for Rolling Stone magazine.
Yoko is fully clothed while Lennon is curled at her side, nude, in their apartment in the Dakota building in New York City.
Lennon had received a haircut just before the photo shoot.
A short time later, Lennon is interviewed in his apartment by radio personality Dave Sholin and the RKO Radio crew.
John Lennon, left, and Paul McCartney, are seen at a news conference May 13, 1968 at the Americana Hotel in New York. (AP Photo/John Lindsay)
According to biography.com, Lennon said, at the end of the interview, “I consider that my work won’t be finished until I’m dead and buried and I hope that’s a long, long time.”
At 11:15 p.m. that night – just 25 minutes after he was shot four times – Lennon is declared dead in the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital.
They had left the Dakota around 4:30 p.m. and were approached by Mark David Chapman, who wanted his copy of the album “Double Fantasy” autographed. Lennon signs it and a friend of Lennon’s takes some photos of the two.
Just before 11 p.m. that evening, Ono and Lennon were headed home from Record Plant, where that were working on a new song. As the couple got out of their limo, Chapman pulled out a .38-caliber handgun. Four of the five shots hit Lennon in the back and chest.
Ono screamed, “John’s been shot!”
The Beatles, Britain’s top rock band, relax in London over tea in 1963. The group from left: John Lennon, Paul McCartney; George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The group is sporting similar thatch haircuts with bangs to the edge of their eyebrows. No other information available with photo. (AP Photo)
Lennon was one of The Beatles, the English rock band that also included Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The Beatles formed in 1960 and disbanded in 1970. Lennon then pursued a solo career.
Ono scattered Lennon’s ashes in Central Park where the Strawberry Fields memorial was later created.
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Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He was eligible for parole in 2000. He remains in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, N.Y., and has been denied parole 10 times, most recently in August 2018. He is required to have a parole hearing every two years. The next will be in 2020.
Lennon, singer, songwriter and peace activist was born in England on Oct. 9, 1940.
According to biography.com, Lennon was raised by an aunt but saw his mother regularly. She taught him to play musical instruments and bought him his first guitar.
According to biography.com, Lennon was 16 when he created a “skiffle band called the Quarry Men.”
John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono display a letter from Lennon to British Prime Minister Harold Wilson at the Beatles’ Apple Records headquarters, Nov. 25, 1969. The letter explains his reasons for returning his Order of the British Empire medal, including British support for the U.S.A.’s war in Vietnam and British involvement in Biafra and Nigeria. (AP Photo)
Lennon met Paul McCartney in 1957 and invited him to join his band.
They eventually formed a successful music writing partnership that evolved into the British phenomena, The Beatles.
A year after meeting McCartney, McCartney introduced Lennon to George Harrison. The band also added a college friend, Stuart Sutcliffe and then drummer Pete Best.
“The first recording they made was Buddy Holly’s ‘That’ll Be the Day’ in 1958. In fact, it was Holly’s group, the Crickets, that inspired the band to change its name. Lennon would later joke that he had a vision when he was 12 years old — a man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them, ‘From this day on, you are Beatles with an ‘A.’”
Brian Epstein discovered the Beatles in 1961 and secured them a contract. Ringo Starr came on board as the drummer. The group released its first single in October 1962 – “Love Me Do.”
“Please Please Me,” which topped the charts in Britain, followed along with “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
In 1962 Lennon married Cynthia Powell and they had a son, Julian. They divorced in 1968 and in 1969 Lennon married Yoko Ono, a Japanese avant-garde artist.
In 1964 the Beatles brought their act to the United States appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
Singer John Lennon is shown in 1971. (AP Photo)
After the show, the Beatles made the movie “A Hard Day’s Night.” Their second movie, “Help!” was released in 1965, according to biography.com.
Lennon left the Beatles in September 1969. McCartney left in April 1970.
In 1970, Lennon released a solo album, “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” followed in 1971 by “Imagine.”
Lennon and Ono moved the United States in 1971 “but were constantly threatened with deportation by the Nixon administration. Lennon was told that he was being kicked out of the country due to his 1968 marijuana conviction in Britain, but the singer believed that he was being removed because of his activism against the unpopular Vietnam War. Documents later proved him correct. (Two years after Nixon resigned, in 1976, Lennon was granted permanent U.S. residency),” according to biography.com.
In 1973, Lennon and Ono separated. Lennon continued to release successful albums including “Mind Games,” “Walls and Bridges” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
He and Ono reconciled in 1974 and in 1975 they had a son, Sean.
Five years later, Lennon was dead.
FILE – In this Aug. 22, 1980, file photo, John Lennon, right, and his wife, Yoko Ono, arrive at The Hit Factory, a recording studio in New York City. German police said Monday, Nov. 20, 2017 they have arrested a man suspected of handling stolen objects from the estate of John Lennon, including diaries which were stolen from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, in New York in 2006. (AP Photo/Steve Sands, File)
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