John Lennon /// Part 2 /// 448 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music]
foreign [Music] on the scene shortly before 11 pm on December 8th 1980 John Lennon was in
such bad shape that they could not wait for the ambulance to arrive and the officers scooped up John Lennon and put
them in the back of a police squad car to rush him off to Roosevelt Hospital because of the location of the bullet
holes they had to lie him in the back of the vehicle face down so that John would
not choke on his own blood John was wheeled into the emergency room by this point he had lost about 80 percent of
his blood and virtually had no pulse at all doctors and nurses were looking for a
way to save this man's life so they made an incision in the left chest and separated the ribs and found a very
large amount of blood they looked for an injury to the heart and they used by hand to try to pump and massage the
heart to bring this man back to life but every time they pumped most of what they
pumped simply just came out blood out of the holes it was totally ineffective although seven Medics tried desperately
to revive him John Lennon was finally pronounced dead and at 11 15 pm on ABC Monday Night Football Howard Cosell
announced John's death to the world and you heard that clip in the trailer for part one of our coverage of John
Lennon's case you have the most famous man in the world dead and assassinated by Mark David Chapman a guy that nobody
knows so now everybody wants to know who is Mark David Chapman and why did he do
this yeah the suspect arrested as you said Captain was Mark David Chapman 25 years old from Hawaii he was under heavy
guard and taken to the tombs prison in downtown Manhattan to await arraignment which would take place Tuesday morning
he apparently stalked John Lennon for three days he told police he had a license for the
gun that he used to kill John Lennon which was a Charter Arms 38 caliber revolver but was only able to produce a
bill of sale for the gun purchased in Honolulu Hawaii six weeks before the shooting Chapman told police he was
annoyed that Lenin had only scribbled his autograph on the album police said that although Chapman gave different
stories to the detectives about the sling he was emphatic that he knew he was shooting the 40 year old John Lennon
David Gaffin president of Geffen Records read a statement issued by Yoko the night of Lenin's death saying quote John
loved and prayed for the human race please do the same for him all right let's dive in to who is Mark David
Chapman Mark Chapman was born May 10 1955 in Fort Worth Texas but he grew up in decanter Georgia in a pretty typical
situation living with Mom Dad and then his little sister who was seven years younger than Mark the major difference
from most other typical living situations for a child is simple his father David Chapman was a Staff
Sergeant in the U.S Air Force and was verbally and physically abusive to both Mark and his mother
Mark said he was in constant fear of his father so when at home he would spend most of his time locking himself away in
his bedroom during this time of self-isolation Mark developed Imaginary Friends imaginary people and even
characters Mark Chapman began to fantasize about having king-like power over a group of imaginary little people
who lived in the walls of his bedroom Mark like most teenagers was a big Beetle fan growing up he attended
Columbia High School in decanter Georgia and at the young age of 14 he was using
drugs and skipping classes at school there's actually some recordings of Mark playing guitar and singing Beatles songs
in 1971 Chapman became a born-again Christian this like several other influences in Chapman's life will go
beyond that of a personal interest or even the level of faith in this situation Chapman would develop several obsessions
throughout the course of his life and then one has to wonder perhaps was the Beatles one of his first obsessions all
right on to the next Obsession if you will here Captain a friend recommended to mark that he read JD salinger's book
The Catcher in the Rye this is a pretty famous book for our younger audience who
might not be aware of this what I'm going to call a rare situation this is a book that has both been banned
from some school libraries as well as assigned reading in other schools right the novel eventually took on a great
personal significance for Mark David Chapman to the extent that he reportedly wished to model his
life after the book's protagonist Holden coalfield I think that is putting it lightly other sources say that he
believed at some point or during portions of his life that he was Holden coalfield his early adult life was
filled with depression he moved several times and each time this was hundreds of
miles away from the last place where he lived he went from Georgia to Chicago and back to Georgia again
he started having suicidal thoughts and began to feel like a failure he dropped out of college after just one semester
he then worked as a security guard this was an armed security position so he had
to learn how to use and operate a firearm with a decent amount of success before this there was no indication that
Mark had any experience with guns to qualify for the position Mark needed to score at least 50 points on his security
and Firearms exam Mark scored an 88 this after taking a week-long training course
well a little bit before this and and during this time Mark was always working with children I worked at camps worked
with a group that had the Vietnam refugees where he worked with the children but he would reference a lot that he
even though he's getting older he wasn't growing up he wasn't going to become a grown-up he was still going to have the
innocence of a child and and that would make him closer to the character or Holden yeah there were times especially
the last week or so that he worked at one camp in particular where people would later say that he just
talked constantly about the book The Catcher in the Rye in 1977 Chapman moved to Hawaii now we
have to understand that this guy he is slowly spiraling out of control if he ever was in control to begin with
he is not in my opinion moving to Hawaii so much so with a job lined up or a place to live or really
even any plan at all this to me Captain simply looks like a guy who is running away well okay there's there's a story
from one of the campers saying that he was just this lovable guy they I think they called him like Nemo for a while
and then they'd call him the Pied Piper and they had all these different names for him and and supposedly he was just
excellent with children but then something happened where the the kids noticed it more than the
parents that there was like this shift and there was this girl that was really close to him and and she's on record as
saying that he came to visit her and their parents were like hey go give him a hug and she's like no there's
something different about him so this going to Hawaii again it's reported multiple ways some
people say he went there with no plan I think he's come out and said well I went there with the plan of I'm going to
go there uh take the money I have gamble it away and if I don't win then I'm just going
to kill myself yeah it looks like when he first gets to Hawaii that he's living in a hotel off of his meager savings
that he had at the time and he is falling deeper and deeper into depression and became suicidal
Chapman eventually attempted suicide by connecting a hose to his car's exhaust pipe you know start up the car roll up
the windows and attempting to kill himself by way of carbon monoxide asphyxiation but the hose melted
and the attempt failed right well and I also believe a fisherman came up and knocked on his window what happens here
Captain is this is probably the first thing that the first time that I could see where somebody recognizes that there
is something not right with this young man right and a psychiatrist admitted Chapman to I believe the name was Castle
Memorial Hospital this for his clinical depression he didn't stay very long there
now in 1978 Mark Chapman went on a six-week trip around the world this vacation was partly inspired by the
film Around the World in 80 Days he then began a relationship with his travel agent this is a Japanese-American
woman named Gloria Abe who he married in June of 1979. I also believe at this time he was actually working at the
hospital yeah that's absolutely right he went back to work in the hospital at this time though and this is one thing
that I always fear with people who suffer from depression people that especially to this level to the point of
where this guy is suicidal right and I mean from a young age he's imagining things that aren't real he's living in a
different reality he takes on not just this Hospital job but even shortly after the hospital job he starts working jobs
that are very isolated he saw a Solitary Man solitary position working by himself
this is not the camp where he's you know in Chicago playing guitar and singing songs for kids and and as you said he
was loved by the kids that that he counseled at the camp he was well liked by his co-workers he thrived in that
situation I think what we have here is in late 1979 he goes on to work this job at the hospital well that sounds like
he's going to be working around a bunch of people no he worked as a printer off in his space by himself for large parts
of large portions of his shifts right and then he gets into some kind of verbal altercation on a couple of
occasions with different co-workers this leads to him being fired it sounds like
they even took him back briefly he quits he goes on then to take another security
job this time it's a night security job so he's by himself even more at this time so well let's be clear when he
marries this girl she thinks so this guy's amazing they get married quickly he's physically
abusive towards her we get married and he's amazing and then boom he's not amazing anymore yeah and she was she
really was like this is my worst nightmare because he she claims that he showed no signs
of being abusive towards her or or really towards anybody else other than maybe himself
until they got married yeah this is where it's really like after the the wedding as soon as these two are married
you would think you would hope that that relationship that this man who thinks of
himself as a failure who thinks of himself as a loner who finally has someone who accepts him for who he is
maybe this would be the jumping off point that he needs to getting some help to feeling loved yeah and I think he had
some friends or at least some acquaintances that were worried about him but more worried
about his depression not not worried that he'd hurt somebody else because he did seem like a
a kind person and I think also if you know somebody for a little bit at a time you go well what did you used to
do well I worked with children for years and I I worked with a Vietnam refugees and I and I um you know counseled kids
at camps I mean they all everybody that knew him said he had a very gentle disposition so after
the marriage he starts working these isolated solitary jobs he's having a hard time holding down a job he begins
drinking heavily and this further develops his depression as well as some of his obsessions and these major
obsessions at this time in his life include his favorite book The Catcher in the Rye and John Lennon
in September of 1980 he wrote a letter to a friend which stated quote I'm going nuts he signed
the letter The Catcher in the Rye in October of 1980 Mark David Chapman quits his job and on
his final shift at that job he signs out on his time card with the name John Lennon
[Music] shut down foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] guys the first few weeks I was just in a
dream kind of thing I mean it just didn't seem real you know as reality sunk in it left Gloria
wondering what happened to the life she had dreamed of when she first met Mark David Chapman in 1978. she saw him as a
sort of a knight in shining armor she did she did Jim Gaines is one of the only reporters to have interviewed
Gloria Chapman he says she spoke lovingly about her engagement they were walking on the beach and Mark
said to Gloria would you marry me and she was just ecstatic and she described it to me as
the happiest day of her life Mark never did perhaps that was a glimpse into the misery and she says abuse that soon
followed I don't remember what I had to sit down glorious naive dreams have happily ever
after vanished altogether [Music] locked the door and just crying you know and to say thank you I can't take this
you know how long are you gonna be like this you know this is miserable why do you think she stayed with him all
these years she was faithful it was a virtue you obeyed virtues she was trying to be a good wife in an
impossible situation in October of 1980 Mark David Chapman went to New York City with the intention
of killing John Lennon during this trip Chapman was inspired by the film Ordinary People to stop his plans to
which he then went to Atlanta and then he went back to Hawaii his movements I'm not going to lie to you Captain are a
little confusing to me during this period because we have him moving around quite a bit and we he's kind of coming
in and out of the life of his wife during this time mind you when he is around her he's talking gibberish and
nonsense to her he's saying things that just seem well they seem nuts to the point where she's saying you've got to
get some help Chapman would later say that he told his wife he intended to kill John Lennon he says he went so far
as to show her the gun and the ammunition right he also says that he was again stopped from time to time by
what he would call signs one of these signs was that he said that he saw on the TV people talking about how one
should not kill if you believe in God if you follow God you should not kill you should not harm other people
he also said another sign was that he was that his wife had placed a sign on a wall in where they lived in their home
that said thou shall not kill you typically see this when people who have completely gone off the rails they
are looking to do something horrible it's weird though Captain because as far gone as I think Mark David Chapman was
at this point he seems to be fully aware of what he is intending to do is a very
bad and harmful thing yeah I think it's interesting that his movements in New York the first time we don't know
exactly where he went what he did we don't know exactly what happened when he went back to Atlanta we don't know
exactly what he did when he went back to Hawaii right and but he keeps saying he
was looking for signs he was looking for something to stop him from doing what he
intended to do this would end up with him traveling back to New York City arriving on
December 6 1980 but New York's going to be an interesting place because if you read the book Catcher in the Rye it ends
in New York so not only does he have a destination on who he wants to kill he has a destination spot which just
happens to be the same spot that that his victim lives in it seems like he was intending to live out portions of that
book and with him he has a list a list of people that uh I'm assuming it's a hit list people that he wanted to
kill yeah his whole thought was that because of the book the book is telling people look people are phony and that
that Holden is not phony and so you if you want to be so basically he wants to kill these
people that are phone phony to basically have them be um I guess a warning to others
like this is what happens to you if you're phony and Chapman he basically as we said earlier spent about three days
out front of the Dakota I best I guess the best word for it is stalking John Lennon waiting to see John
Lennon and he would meet and talk with other people who were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Star as well maybe get an
autograph as well he would talk and chat with some of these other people while he
was waiting but it wasn't until Monday on December 8th when he would actually get to see John Lennon yeah what's so
crazy is he was actually going through the book and seeing what Holden did and he was
basically doing the same thing all Holden went here so now I got to go here and one of the things was um
he he went to Central Park to ask cab drivers about the birds because it's something that Holden did in the book he
also got um hired a sex worker to go to his his hotel and and in the book Holden doesn't have sex
with the sex workers so that's the same thing that Mark David Chapman did and then he he paid the sex
worker double it's just it's just very strange he was he's almost following this like
blueprint that the book laid out for him also in that list that you were talking
about earlier again it's one of those things where people say there's 50 names on it and
people speculate who was on it but it seems like the main people were John Lennon
uh Johnny Carson Ronald Reagan and Paul McCartney yeah that list is a little The Hit List
let's call it is a little difficult because this is a case and we say case but really there's this whole story that and
so little of it involves the actual murder of John Lennon it's been well documented John Lennon's life
of 40 years uh The Beatles their their career their success all well documented Mark David Chapman
he is well documented because he's the man that's known to be the guy that killed one of the most famous musicians
of all time right and so where we talk about lists you know I see I I believe David Bowie said that hey I was next on
that list I was second on the list and what we have here is the reaction is is bizarre because it's unlike most of
the crimes and most of the murders that we have covered here in the garage be it
if they're solved or unsolved Mark David Chapman after he carried out his I'm using air quotes here mission
he puts down the gun puts down his coat surrenders to the police starts thumbing
through his book of The Catcher in the Rye and as you just pointed out and I think the best way to say it and to
describe his time in New York is through Chapman's own words where he said you know I was living
through the pages of The Catcher in the Rye right I was living the book the book
was living through me during that time one story I want to go back to the David Bowie story real quick here when in
reference to The Hit List it's a very interesting story because David Bowie said he was second on the
list and that he was attending a Broadway production of the Elephant Man this would be the day after Lennon was
killed right Bowie believes well he part of this he probably knows but Bowie has stated that
John and Yoko were going to sit with him in the front row that night at the at the Elephant Man right
and that Mark Chapman had managed to buy a ticket to sit next to all three of them
so picture four seats here David Bowie says that night the night after John Lennon was killed there were three empty
seats in the front row next to me and he believes that it was going to be John Lennon Yoko Ono and Mark David Chapman
who were to occupy those seats that might have gave Chapman the opportunity to kill all three of these people now I
believe it has been stated in certain places that the Chapman chose Lenin other over his
other targets out of convenience that he was easier to get to possibly and that may be the truth but most of what I
could find and it's my own personal belief I think John Lennon was at the top of
his list well yeah first of all we we know for a fact that he had a a little bit of obsession with them when he was
younger that's why he learned how to play guitar we have evidence of him singing uh Beatles songs we have
evidence that he had the Beatles haircut for a while we have his wife saying that
he talked about killing John Lennon we have him signing out from work as John Lennon
um us we also have friends of his or acquaintances of his saying you know every now and then he would talk bad
about people and he talked bad about John Lennon called him a phony all the time saying that he could he could do
more that he's you know so rich but he could give to these um Charities and he's not doing enough
well and he was verbally angry many years after the fact about Lenin's more popular than Jesus comments from back in
1966 right he had said time and time again to several people can you believe that that man actually said that right
what gives him the right that he that he believes he's bigger or more popular than Jesus yeah and I think you know the
big why why all this stuff happened I I think there's multiple reasons and I think Mark had many reasons in his head
and I think like you said access but again there's no proof that he would have murdered anybody else I mean he killed
John and he had just the same amount of opportunity to kill Yoko if he wanted to
and he chose not to correct and he chose not to flee the area he totally could have got away I mean New York
uh he's not from there right nobody would have a clue who who this guy was you shoot John Lennon and you take it
off down the street and if you can get away because you're on foot if nobody stops you or people
are afraid to stop you because you have a gun he could have got away and flew back to Hawaii before they even knew who
who it was well and we talked earlier about Mark Chapman looking for signs looking for
something to stop him he said that on this second trip back to New York City that he believed he couldn't kill Lennon
on his own he didn't have the strength to do it so he says that he invoked the spirit of the devil and he did what he
believed were devil worshiping ceremonies by himself trying to ask the devil to help him kill John Lennon yeah
and looking for signs he says when he finally met Lennon Lennon gives him the autograph he's waiting around during
that day on the 8th he met two other people and had conversations with them one of them was a man by the name of
Paul garesh Paul garesh was somebody who frequently would stand outside of the Dakota hoping to snap a photo of John
Lennon he even had his picture taken with John Lennon in November and he is there talking with Chapman
Chapman he was standing next to Chapman when Chapman got the autograph on the cover of the Double Fantasy album
he was the guy that snapped the photo of Lenin signing the autograph where you can see Chapman over Lenin's left
shoulder Chapman said years later that he told this man that he met Paul garesh hey
he's got to come back sometime now mind you after the autograph Lennon takes off
in his his limo and he says hey he's got to come back sometime you should wait around and get your album autographed
right they waited around for a little bit of time and at some point Paul says you know I've waited long enough I'm
going to I'm just going to head home I'll get it another day let's keep that in mind and then take it
a step further Chapman said that he met a woman outside of the Dakota that day and he had asked
her out on a date well I I actually think that she was there because like we said Mark David Chapman where was
outside the Dakota multiple days I think they actually met the day before and then he saw her again
the day of and they started kind of talking about like oh well we we should go grab something to eat or something
yeah he says that he asked her out on a date to which she said no or said she wasn't going to go for whatever reason
Chapman says that had either of those interactions with either of those individuals worked out differently he
probably wouldn't have killed he would not have killed John Lennon on December 8 1980. he said he was not never going
to stop I don't he said if Paul would have stuck around to get the autograph if Paul would have been there when Lenin
came back he wouldn't have shot him he also said if he would have gone out on the date he would have left before Lenin
would have returned and he would not have had the opportunity to shoot him on the 8th but you're exactly right he said
those two individuals should not feel bad because I would have then just killed John the next day
yeah or some other time I mean like you said he was in New York for a period Then he left
New York and then he just kept making these trips and he was going to eventually find him somewhere and if it
wasn't John I believe he would have killed somebody else on that list like you said if he would have got to New
York and somebody said oh well you know uh you know John's back in England you know John Lennon's back in England for a
couple months he might have went just to the next person on the list I think he had this like
determination he had this this like you said how he would create fake characters
that he felt like if he did this that he was accomplishing something well of course
John Lennon is one of the most famous people in the world if he kills that person
he will obtain a certain level of that person's Fame right at least that's what he believed and
unfortunately to this day 40 years later we all know his name because of his actions but it's so weird to me because
the whole idea is like oh well John Lennon's phony and and one could make that argument right alongside Mark
David Chapman yes here's this guy that talked about peace and and love and all this stuff but was abusive towards his
first wife maybe abusive towards his his oldest son right uh a guy that had some infidelity
issues possibly his wife had some infidelity issues and they're talking about you know love is the answer and
and All You Need Is Love and and no war and all these things and and having these um
publicity stunts that yes they were I guess charitable but was it also just to make Lenin a bigger star hey we got
married we're going to go on a honeymoon and we know that the paparazzi is going
to be there so we do a bed in but isn't that just doing a whole week of drawing attention to yourself yes you
have a cause peace not war but I think those are the things that Mark found phony
you know you didn't have you don't have to do a protest that way to bring upon the attention to yourself
but at the same time you you sit there and go okay well I could see why somebody would go look at this giant
icon preaching all this stuff but he's preaching it to everybody but not living it himself
and at times is a is a junkie but then the whole message is look who it's coming from
Mark David Chapman that believes he is a character in a book you can't even live your own life you're
such a phony that you don't even have an identity until you take on an addended identity
from a book you think you're so righteous but then you're abusive to your wife you're he's a giant phone he does does
that make any sense oh 100 I mean I I it's without hesitation that I say the guy certainly needed help and probably
needed help from a very young age and I don't think that we can sit here and try
to pick apart and rationalize the decision that he made to kill John Lennon or fully understand what his his
real intentions were or the the motive behind any of it because I don't know that Mark David Chapman fully
understands it himself and I think you're exactly right I think that at the most simple level that we can put this
is that Mark Chapman was very much a nobody he was a failure John Lennon was the complete opposite of
that he was extremely successful extremely famous and well liked he was everything
that Mark David Chapman was not everything that Chapman wanted to be and somehow in some weird Twisted way I
think Chapman believed that he could be more lenin-like if he killed John Lennon
yeah possibly but I I do see a a side where you know he he did drugs John did drugs
they were both abusive people I think there's a part of him that was like look how easy it's for him for this
icon because he was part of the Beatles he almost like John wasn't punished for it
but I was and he talks a lot about how he's going down he's fallen off the cliff
Fallen deeper and deeper and but again we you know there's plenty of interviews with Mark David Chapman his story
constantly changes he constantly talks about these different signs he saw um or the signs he did not receive I
mean he spent most of the evening of the eighth struggling inside of his own mind this
is according to Chapman trying to decide on well do I get the next cab out of here and go home or do I stick around
and shoot and kill John Lennon yeah to which he says there were no signs to tell me to stop
there was no signs that you know this man that I met Paul he left well that's a sign to keep going this woman that I
asked out she didn't go out with me that's a sign to stay here and keep going and then when the limo pulls up
and Yoko and John get out and John is walking toward him Chapman starts Hearing in his head do it
do it now do it do it now do it now and then he pulls the gun he takes the combat stance and he fires five shots in
the direction of John Lennon and he becomes the biggest piece of [ __ ] and history well we got to put this guy
behind bars here still Captain so what we have here is Mark Chapman he is going to he has the right to attorney he has a
right to a trial in February of 1981 he sends a handwritten statement to the New
York Times telling everyone to read The Catcher in the Rye calling it an extraordinary book that holds many
answers he would not be sentenced until 1981 and August late August and he and he's evaluated for six months prior
to his trial this is going to be with over a dozen different psychiatrists Chapman was
charged with second-degree murder originally his attorneys told him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity
well after a bunch of back and forth what ends up happening is Chapman decides of his own free will to
to declare himself competent and he pled guilty to the murder of John Lennon yeah
and he's been sentenced to 20 years which has already passed obviously but uh I know Yoko and Sean show up at
every Pro hearing and I think they did they tack on more time because he had a list
because I don't think the charge was as simple as just he was charged with the killing of John Lennon I think he was
also possibly charged with something maybe they dismissed that but he was I thought
he was charged with something because he had that that hit list well some people
find it interesting that his wife was never charged with anything going off of the belief that Chapman did as he said
tell his wife he intended to kill John Lennon showed her the gun showed her the ammunition right she knew he had already
gone to New York once before her simple answer is that the guy said a lot of things and did very little
and she did she did suggest to him many times you need to get help even scheduling him to go and talk with
people however he never would show up for the actual appointments right that I mean I think it's just a very difficult
situation mental health needs to be talked about more and more and we need to be way more
open about it not just because these individuals could hurt themselves but because they hurt others how many cases
now have we seen you know look at Columbine those guys were depressed look at this case this guy has some
depression issues going on he has probably some psychosis issues going on as well and if people were more willing
to say Hey look I'm going to have to call his doctor myself and say hey there's something
wrong with him and these are the things he's saying and you have to be able to report that stuff uh it would save lives
yeah and I don't need a degree on my wall to tell you that this guy had some mental issues I mean it's it's obvious
to us all he had depression issues and I don't think that that is the extent of it as you said Captain he gets 20 years
in prison uh he is required to have a parole hearing every two years from that year once he's eligible so in 2000 he
had his first parole hearing and he has had 11 of them since and every single time has been denied
parole it looks like per some of his statements at these parole hearings that he
I don't want to comment to his state of mind because I don't think that I'm qualified to do that however it looks
like at times throughout the years he's understood the severity of his crime and
he's also stated things like this was premeditated murder this was something that was selfish and evil that I did and
in fact this year at the age of 65 he was denied parole once again for the 11th time Mark David Chapman's 12th
parole hearing is scheduled for August of 2022. well one of the things that yoka
always says is that she fears not only just for her she fears not only for her family but
the safety of Mark David Chapman because how many because he has a Target on his back
right when he gets out well that's one reason that they moved him from the medical facility where they first kept
him to evaluate him for months and months before his trial they had to move him from there because they didn't
believe they could keep him safe so they had to take him to the prison to wait for his trial where they knew that they
could keep him safe so I think you're exactly right this guy would have a Target on his back regardless of where
he is I'm surprised that he survived this long in prison but then I also have to keep in mind if you
idolize John Lennon and you want to try to be more like his he was later in life
then you are an advocate for peace and therefore going out with a violent act on Mark David Chapman would go against
what those beliefs were we don't have a recommended reading this week Captain there's so many things out there so many
directions to point someone if they want more information on this case or the life of John Lennon or the Beatles right
there's multiple documentaries there's multiple movies made about the killing of John Lennon one piece of material in
particular that I will suggest to everyone out there is the December 1992 Larry King interview with Mark
David Chapman this was on the Larry King live program I found this to be a fascinating
interview I've really enjoyed watching Mark talk about the crimes talk about his life the
events leading up to that I don't know how much of it was as you would say hogwash or Flim Flam is he giving us a
different version because he's able to tell the story 12 years later he does at times also present himself as a victim I
have a hard time seeing him as a victim knowing what he did knowing that he walked around ready to murder
individuals for whatever reason it was right but I found it to be a fascinating interview and Larry King of course one
of the best interviewers of all time so I recommend the 1992 interview with Mark
David Chapman and if you get a chance he also had some corresponding letters with
the resting officer and I think there's three or four letters those were auction off but that
kind of gives an insight and and what I would say about this case more so than other cases is
there's a lot of details there's a lot of possible answers of why or possible details but because
the person killed was such an icon I think there's so many stories that are surrounding this case that are possibly
just not factually true but I'll place that Larry King and Mark David Chapman interview on our website at True Crime
garage.com according to Keith Greenberg's book December 8 1980 the day John Lennon died Mark David Chapman was
contemplating the possibilities of acquiring a nuclear device and blowing up a small City then he revised his plan
he could hurt a lot more people by murdering someone whom Untold Millions saw as an idol a voice and a role model
today Mark David Chapman is Attica State prisoner 81a2860. he is up for parole but it's
probably for the betterment and the safety of our society that he remains a prisoner for the rest of his days John
Lennon was not a perfect man we all know that in fact John Lennon said himself that he was a flawed individual he was
trying to become a better man a better father a better husband he was writing music to inspire everybody else to
evolve and to become better people as well and I think that it was Joel Siegel who
summed it up best in reference to the death of John Lennon he said quote it's because he dreamed so beautifully that
we hurt so much [Music] thank you guys so much for joining us thanks for letting us be a part of your
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if there's been an update we give that to you on off the record until next week Colonel that's right we'll have a new
off the record on Monday new case for you on Tuesday come back and see us stay safe until then be good be kind and
don't let her [Music] [Applause] foreign

John Lennon /// Part 2 /// 448

Part 2 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

This week, forty years ago a legend was murdered. John Lennon was a worldwide icon and he was shot and killed in the streets of New York City by a madman. Join us in the Garage was we take a glimpse at John’s life, his murder and the maniac who shot him.

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Brief Summary

The episode details John Lennon's assassination by Mark David Chapman and explores Chapman's troubled life and motivations.

Key points

John Lennon's Tragic Death. John Lennon was rushed to the hospital after being shot, but tragically pronounced dead.
Mark David Chapman's Obsession. Chapman stalked Lennon for days, fueled by his obsession with 'The Catcher in the Rye.'
Chapman's Failed Suicide Attempt. Before killing Lennon, Chapman attempted suicide in his car but was interrupted.
The Hit List. Chapman had a list of targets, including Lennon and other celebrities.
The Night of the Murder. David Bowie recalls three empty seats next to him that night, meant for Lennon, Yoko, and Chapman.
Chapman's Obsession. Chapman's fixation on Lennon is revealed through his past and intentions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

John loved and prayed for the human race.

David Gaffin reads Yoko's statement after Lennon's death.

4:38WatchNov 11, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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