Nova reported in August that Mark Chapman, who is doing time serving a 20 years to life sentence for the killing of John Lennon in 1980, was refused parole for the 10th time.
The transcript was released yesterday, and Chapman admitted that his act was “senseless” and that he feels shame. In a statement reported by the Associated Press via Ultimate Classic Rock,
“Thirty years ago I couldn’t say I felt shame and I know what shame is now. It’s where you cover your face, you don’t want to, you know, ask for anything.”
He also talked about how Lennon was “incredible” to him when he signed his copy of Double Fantasy on the day of his assassination, and that it made him question whether or not to go through with killing Lennon.
“I was too far in. I do remember having the thought of, ‘Hey, you have got the album now. Look at this, he signed it, just go home.’ But there was no way I was just going to go home.”
According to his wife, Gloria, who spoke shortly before his hearing, he had made a trip to New York from their home in Hawaii two months preceeding Lennon’s death, but changed his mind. “He came home scared, telling me that to make a name for himself he had planned to kill Lennon. But he said my love had saved him.”
Chapman explained that his main reason for killing Lennon was due to a desire for fame rather than hated for Lennon. Yet he said his decision to use hollow-point bullets was “to make sure he would be dead. It was immediately after the crime that I was concerned that he did not suffer.”
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