“I assassinated him… because he was very, very, very famous and that’s the only reason and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory, very selfish.”
-- Mark David Chapman in his apology to the Lennon family for assassinating John Lennon
On December 8, 1980, madman Mark David Chapman fired four hollow-point bullets from his .38 special revolver and ended the life of a musical icon who fought tirelessly for peace and love. The music world ground to a halt that day. However, the death of 40-year-old John Lennon represented much more – culture and honesty lost a valued proponent.
“For everyone who cherished the sustaining myth of the Beatles, the murder was something else. It was an assassination, a ritual slaying of something that could hardly be named. Hope, perhaps; or idealism. Or time. Not only lost, but suddenly dislocated, fractured.”
– Critic Jay Cocks for his 1980 Time cover story about the legacy of John Lennon
Of all people, why would anyone kill John Lennon? The composer of “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance” inspired countless others as a medium for peace and political activism. Lennon wished only to create change through his craft. As a Beatle and as a solo artist, John worked tirelessly for social justice and for the spread of love.
“My husband John Lennon was a very special man. A man of humble origin, he brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music.
– Yoko Ono
Why?
Mark David Chapman is serving a 20 years-to-life prison sentence for shooting and killing Lennon. He became eligible for parole in 2000 and is required to have a parole hearing every two years. Chapman was denied parole for the 11th time last month (August 2020) on the grounds it “would be incompatible with the welfare of society.”
Chapman said he had purchased the gun no more three months prior to the shooting. He left his wife in Hawaii to come to New York City, telling her he needed to “find himself.” This evidently was a violent, crazy man's way of explaining his quest for glory.
He had a list of three other potential targets in case Lennon did not work out.
"I came up with whatever famous people I could," Chapman said.
It’s long been believed that Chapman’s plan to kill his idol was formulated in the midst of his heavy drinking. In recent years Chapman has claimed that his hit list extended beyond Lennon. In 2010, he claimed he’d chosen Lennon “out of convenience.”
It could have been Paul McCartney, Elizabeth Taylor, talk-show host Johnny Carson, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, actor George C Scott, even Ronald Reagan. Hawaii governor George Ariyoshi rounded out the list.
Chapman had decided John Lennon was a hypocrite. The release of “Imagine” in 1971 – a song Chapman considered communist – was perhaps the final straw. Chapman would say …
“He told us to imagine no possessions and there he was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and built a big part of their lives around his music.”
(James McMahon. “The shooting of John Lennon: Will Mark David Chapman ever be released?” Independent. March 02, 2020.)
Chapman killed Lennon because he was "angry and jealous" at the way the Beatle was living and was seeking "glory" for himself, according to hearing transcripts.
Chapman told parole commissioners in 2020 …
"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. It made me angry and jealous compared to the way I was living at the time. There was jealousy in there."
When asked if anything in this thinking had changed during the last 40 years of his incarceration about why he shot Lennon, Chapman said it boiled to glory. Chapman confessed …
"It was just self-glory, period. It was nothing more than that. It boiled down to that. There's no excuses."
Chapman concluded his plea with a lengthy soliloquy and apology to Yoko Ono.
"I just want her to know that she knows her husband like no one else and knows the kind of man he was. I didn't. I just judged him from a book and I murdered him. He was in a book. He was extremely famous. I didn't kill him because of his character or the kind of man he was. He was a family man. He was an icon. He was someone that spoke of things that now we can speak of and it's great.”
Chapman continued …
"Back in the '60s when you said the things that he said, you were a creep. I remember I was in my 20s and I was conscious of the times and the press and presidency and all of that and how they looked upon anti-war people. Now we realize that Vietnam was a horrible mistake. This has to go and you put your life on the line back then when you felt that way. This was the kind of man he was.
“I assassinated him, to use your word earlier, because he was very, very, very famous and that's the only reason and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory, very selfish. I want to add that and emphasize that greatly. It was an extremely selfish act. I'm sorry for the pain that I caused to her. I think about it all of the time."
(Aaron Katersky. “Mark David Chapman, man who killed John Lennon, said in parole hearing he wanted 'glory.'” ABC News. September 21, 2020.)
Chapman says he now has become a devoted Christian and pledged to become an evangelist. According to Chapman: "Look how low I went, but yet God still loves me and cares about me and has given me purpose and meaning in my life."
Where has the meaning gone for the millions of fans of John Lennon? In an allusion to a Lyle Lovett song “God Will,” I can relate to who can forgive Chapman …
“God does
But I
don't
God will
But I won't
And that's the difference
Between
God and me”
To me, Mark David Chapman is a dream killer who robbed the world of an irreplaceable musical innovator living his life in defense of peace and love. No other rock artist has had the musical and cultural influence of John Lennon. Perhaps the world was not fit for an artist who exemplified truth and conviction. Still, Chapman extinguished the hopes and ideals for the future. He crushed love that would have been.
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
– John Lennon
Among his many accolades, John Lennon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) with the other Beatles in 1965. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time and included him as a solo artist in their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.
In 1987, Lennon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Lennon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994. Participants in a 2002 BBC poll voted him eighth of "100 Greatest Britons".
John Lennon continues to be mourned throughout the world and has been the subject of numerous memorials and tributes. In 2002, the airport in Lennon's home town was renamed the Liverpool John Lennon Airport. On what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday in 2010, Cynthia and Julian Lennon unveiled the John Lennon Peace Monument in Chavasse Park, Liverpool. The sculpture, entitled “Peace & Harmony,” exhibits peace symbols and carries the inscription "Peace on Earth for the Conservation of Life · In Honour of John Lennon 1940–1980.” In December 2013, the International Astronomical Union named one of the craters on Mercury after Lennon.
Empty Garden (Excerpt)
By Elton John
“What happened
here
As the New York sunset disappeared
I found an empty garden
among the flagstones there
Who lived here
He
must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the
tears and grew a good crop
And now it all looks
strange
It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain”
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