On Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was killed outside of his New York City apartment building returning home with his wife and collaborator Yoko Ono. The Beatle was shot by Mark David Chapman, who was arrested at the scene and later sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
In 2000, Chapman became eligible for parole and has since been denied several times. His most recent parole hearing took place in August, but his statements from the hearing have just been released. Chapman explained his motivation for killing Lennon, and said of the murder, "I knew what I was doing." He was then denied parole for the 12th time.
Read on to see what Chapman said about why he targeted the musician.
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Chapman wanted fame.
Bureau of Prisons/Getty ImagesOn Aug. 31, Chapman had his 12th parole hearing. He has had one every two years since 2000. As reported by the Associated Press, the transcript from the hearing was released after a freedom of information request was filed.
Chapman said that he was seeking fame by killing Lennon. He called the murder his "big answer to everything." He continued, "I wasn’t going to be a nobody, anymore.”
"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," Chapman explained. "This was evil in my heart. I wanted to be somebody and nothing was going to stop that.”
He acknowledged the harm he caused, saying, "I hurt a lot of people all over the place and if somebody wants to hate me, that’s OK, I get it."
He was denied parole for the dozenth time.
Jack Kay/Daily Express/Getty ImagesIn their denial, the parole board cited "selfish disregard for human life of global consequence.” The board also told Chapman that he left "the world recovering from the void of which [he] created."
Lennon's killer's next hearing is scheduled for February 2024. He is currently imprisoned at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York.
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Chapman was envious of Lennon.
Michael Putland/Getty ImagesWhen Chapman had his parole hearing in 2020, he said he was seeking "glory" by killing Lennon and that he was jealous of the musician's life.
"At the time my thinking was he has all of this money, lives in this beautiful apartment and he is into music representing a more cautious lifestyle, a more giving lifestyle," Chapman said, as reported by ABC News. "It made me angry and jealous compared to the way I was living at the time. There was jealousy in there."
He also said, "It was just self-glory, period. It was nothing more than that. It boiled down to that. There's no excuses."
The parole board said in a statement at the time, "During the interview you stated you committed this murder to seek glory. You said 'infamy brings you glory.' This panel finds your statement disturbing. Your actions represented an evil act. The fact that today, almost 40 years later, you can still speak of what you did as something that you felt was a positive and in your mind gave you 'glory' at the time, is disturbing for this panel."
He was sentenced 41 years ago.
Bettmann / Getty ImagesChapman pled guilty to killing Lennon and was sentenced in 1981. His lawyers wanted to prove that he was not responsible "by reason of mental disease or defect," but Chapman said that god told him to plead guilty, as reported by The New York Times. At the sentencing, Chapman read a passage from The Catcher in the Rye, a book that he was obsessed with and was reading when he was arrested on the day of the murder.
