On the 8 December 1980, the world reacted in horror when news broke that Beatles legend John Lennon had been shot dead in a senseless killing outside his own apartment block in New York. The tragic act, committed by an obsessive Beatles fan named Mark David Chapman, hasn't moved far from the headlines ever since.
The latest project to delve into the shooting is Apple TV+’s new three-part docuseries, John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial, out today. Directed by Nick Holt and Rob Coldstream, the documentary team have been granted extensive access to the case via FOI act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorney’s office. What's more, the team spoke to a range of figures with unique perspectives towards the fatal event, including interviews with Richard Peterson, a taxi driver who witnessed the shooting; Jay Hastings, a doorman at The Dakota building who heard Lennon’s last words; David Suggs, Chapman’s defence lawyer; Elliot Mintz, a confidant to Lennon and Yoko Ono; and Dr. Naomi Goldstein, the psychiatrist who first assessed Chapman.
The backstory
On 8 December, 1980, John Lennon had just finished a session with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for what would become the famous Rolling Stone cover shot of him naked alongside his wife, Yoko Ono.
Almost six weeks earlier, in Honolulu, Hawaii, a former security guard, 25-year-old Mark David Chapman, had purchased a .38 calibre Charter Arms revolver. On 6 December – following a previous visit to New York in October and November – he flew back to the city, booked into a YMCA and then the next day switched to the Sheraton Centre, visible from Lennon’s apartment.
Chapman was described by those who knew him as a Beatles fan, and a man who had recently become extremely religious. He was also obsessed with J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher In The Rye, and apparently found significance in the protagonist Holden Caulfield, who calls out “phonies” in the book.
On 8 December, Chapman left his hotel room and took a copy of the novel in which he had written “this is my statement” and signed it “Holden Caulfield”. He headed to the Dakota building, where Lennon and Ono lived.
He met Lennon’s housekeeper in the morning, who was out for a walk with Lennon’s five year old son, Sean, and shook Sean’s hand and called him a “beautiful boy”. A few hours later, around 5pm, Chapman met Lennon for the first time, and Lennon signed his copy of the album Double Fantasy for him.
The murder
Chapman loitered outside the Dakota for the rest of the day and the evening, with Lennon and Ono returning at 10.50pm. As they got out of their car and walked towards the entrance of the Dakota, Chapman fired out five shots from the gun, four of which hit Lennon in the back and shoulder.
Lennon was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital but with the extensive bleeding of the gunshot wounds. He was declared dead on arrival.
Chapman had remained on the murder scene until the NYPD arrived and arrested him. According to his police statement at the time, he said: “I'm sure the big part of me is Holden Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be the Devil."
According to New York Magazine, there were many theories about what had driven Chapman to murder a man who used to be his hero: “They talked about a man who had been suicidal and then became confused about his identity (in this case thinking that he was John Lennon and that his own wife was Yoko Ono), a man who might, then, commit a murder that was actually a kind of suicide. They discussed a man who had suffered a loss of “ego boundaries,” with the blurring of lines between fantasy and reality that is the mark of the classic schizophrenic. They talked about a man who worshipped stars and could think of no way to become a star himself, except by uniting with a star in violence. They discussed the possibility of a man so crazed with love for John Lennon that the slightest rebuff—a curt word that afternoon, a scrawled autograph—might drive him to kill. They were all theories. Nobody knew for sure.”
Following the murder, and given his severe mental health issues, Chapman’s legal team were planning to present an insanity defence, as he was diagnosed by experts to be in a delusional psychotic state.
However, Chapman refused this and pleaded guilty in the trial – in which he still carried The Catcher In The Rye book – saying that what he had decided was “the will of God”. Chapman stood trial and on 24 August, 1981 was sentenced to 20 years to life, to be accompanied with mental health treatment.
According to the 1992 book by Jack Jones, Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon, Chapman told him about his motives for the murder: “I would listen to this music and I would get angry at him [Lennon], for saying that he didn't believe in God, that he just believed in him and Yoko, and that he didn't believe in the Beatles… I just wanted to scream out loud, "Who does he think he is, saying these things about God and heaven and the Beatles?" Saying that he doesn't believe in Jesus and things like that. At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage.”
Chapman today
Chapman is still in prison today, and has had 12 requests for parole refused since he became eligible in 2000.
At this time, Correctional Association of New York lawyer Robert Gangi said that he thought it unlikely that Chapman would ever be freed because the board would not risk the “political heat” of releasing John Lennon's killer.
Ono has also stated that if Chapman were released, she and Lennon's sons would not feel safe for the rest of their lives. “I am afraid it will bring back the nightmare, the chaos and confusion once again,” she added in an open letter.
He remains married to his wife, Gloria, who continues to visit him in jail, and Chapman's thirteenth parole hearing is scheduled for February 2024.
John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial streams on Apple TV+ now.
