John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, has been denied parole for the 14th time.
John Lennon’s killer has been denied parole for the 14th time.
Mark David Chapman fatally shot the Beatles singer outside his Manhattan apartment building in December 1980 and was sentenced to 20 years to life behind bars the following August, and he recently made a fresh bid for release.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision revealed the 70-year-old killer appeared before a parole board on 27 August but his submission was denied.
The transcript for the latest hearing is not yet available.
However, at a 2022 hearing, Chapman admitted he knew his actions were “evil”.
He said: “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.”
Denying his release in 2022, the parole board said the murder of the Imagine singer had left “the world recovering from the void of which you created”.
Chapman shot Lennon after travelling from Hawaii to New York and hours earlier, the singer – who was 40 when he died – had signed his copy of his recently-released album Double Fantasy.
And in 2012, the killer admitted he had hesitated before committing the fatal act.
He said: “It wasn’t all totally cold-blooded, but most of it was. I did try to tell myself to leave. I’ve got the album, take it home, show my wife, everything will be fine.
“But I was so compelled to commit that murder that nothing would have dragged me away from that building.”
Chapman – who is incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York – will next be eligible for parole in February 2027.
Lennon’s former personal assistant Dan Richter – who lived and worked with the star and his wife Yoko Ono as their PA from 1969 to 1973 – previously admitted he felt the singer’s lack of security led to him being murdered as he shouldn’t have used the main door to his apartment building.
He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “That door was a danger point. You can identify and avoid that. And there was a side door he could have used.”
He also recalled fearing John was about to be murdered on a visit to meet Bob Dylan at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
Dan got out of the car first to check the area were safe but was left terrified by a man speedily approaching them while reaching into his pocket.
He added: “I thought I was going to die. Turned out he was hotel security coming to see if we needed help!
“Then I realised Bob was standing there all the time, totally unnoticed, in camouflage fatigues, laughing.”
John Lennon’s killer Mark David chapman denied parole
