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Mark David Chapman, the man convicted in the murder of legendary Beatles singer-songwriter John Lennon, recently told the parole board of his desire to "be a somebody" prior to the December 8, 1980, fatal shooting.
“This was for me and me alone, unfortunately, and it had everything to do with his popularity,” Chapman, 70, said from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County, New York, in August, according to a transcript obtained by the New York Post last week. “My crime was completely selfish.”
Chapman, who assassinated Lennon, 40, outside the singer's Dakota apartment building, unsuccessfully attempted parole for a 14th time earlier this year, issuing an apology for the "devastation" he caused fans of the legendary musician. A commissioner asked Chapman about his motive in Lennon's murder, to which he responded, "to be famous, to be something I wasn't."
“And then I just realized, hey, there is a goal here,” Chapman added. “I don’t have to die and I can be a somebody. I had sunk that low.”
Chapman had previously made similar statements, claiming he sought fame "and had evil in my heart" during past parole hearings. The convicted murder told the board that he flew from Hawaii to New York City months ahead of the incident, inspired by the character Holden Caulfield from the book The Catcher in the Rye, and believed Lennon was a "phony."
Chapman lurked outside the Dakota in October 1980 and waited for Lennon, who never showed up during the initial attempt and said "the compulsion started building again" two months later.
“That morning of the 8th, I just knew. I don’t know how I knew but I just knew that was going to be the day that I was going to meet and kill him,” he said.
Lennon, who had signed an album for Chapman hours earlier, was shot in the back four times after stepping out of a limo with his wife Yoko Ono.
“This was a human being,” Chapman said, referring to Lennon, during his latest parole hearing for his 20-years-to-life sentence. “Here I am living so much longer, and not just family but his friends and the fans, I apologize for the devastation that I caused you, the agony that they must have gone through. I had no thought about that at all at the time of the crime, I didn’t care.”
The board, however, ruled that Chapman lacked "genuine remorse or meaningful empathy" for the victims and his next parole is scheduled for 2027.