John Lennons killer admits act was evil but he was hungry for fame

Ringo Starr opens up in 2011 about the death of John Lennon

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Mark Chapman, 67, killed The Beatles star John Lennon back in 1980 and was sentenced to a prison term of 20 years to life. The murderer has since admitted he “knew it was wrong” to shoot the star but that he had “wanted the fame” too much at the time to walk away.

Mark shot the legendary musician as he walked into the archway of his apartment building at The Dakota in New York City on December 8, 1980.

Following a murder that shocked the world, Chapman’s legal team planned to argue an insanity defense based on the testimony of mental health experts who said that he was in a delusional psychotic state.

However, Chapman told his lawyers that he wanted to plead guilty based on what he had decided was the will of God. 

Since becoming eligible for parole, he has applied for it 12 times but has always been denied.

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Chapman has since told a parole board he knew it was wrong to kill the Beatle, but that he was seeking fame and had “evil in his heart”. 

A transcript released by New York officials on Monday under a freedom of information request detailed exactly what he said before the board denied him parole for a 12th time, Sky News reports. 

During his parole hearing, Chapman said he had a “selfish disregard for human life of global consequence”.

He also said his decision to kill Lennon was “my big answer to everything. I wasn’t going to be a nobody anymore”.

He continued: “I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there.

“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.”

Before the killing of Lennon, Chapman had no prior criminal convictions and had just resigned from a job as a security guard in Hawaii.

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He went on to tell the board: “This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that.”

On the day of his death, when he was returning to his shared Upper West Side apartment with wife Yoko Ono, Lennon previously met Chapman.

Earlier on, he had stopped to sign an autograph for the killer on a copy of his recently released album Double Fantasy.

Chapman has expressed remorse during his parole hearings over the years, admitting he had caused a lot of damage.

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

However, he was denied release after the board said his actions had left “the world recovering from the void of which you created”.

Chapman is currently serving his life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley in New York state after he was transferred out of Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, in March of this year.

His next appearance before the parole board is scheduled for February 2024.

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