buys a five-shot .38 revolver. the gun was traced by new york authorities to jns enterprises, a gun shop a block away from the honolulu police department. a sales receipt shows the gun was purchased by mark chapman october 27th of this year. it shows chapman paid $197 in cash for the gun. just before buying the gun, chapman had quit his job as a security guard when he signed out for the last time, he inscribed the name john lennon in the condominium s log book, then crossed it out. six days later on october 29th, mark chapman flies to new york city. armed with the gun he bought in hawaii, he stakes out the dakota, waiting for his chance to take revenge on the hero he believes has betrayed him. but john lennon is not the only
commander. and it was my clinical assessment that he was both a paranoid schizophrenic as we understood the definition in those days, and suffering from bipolar disorder. i truly believe that when he went after john lennon, he was suicidal. john lennon was himself, had become himself. he believed that if he would kill himself, he would be reborn, in killing lennon, he was killing himself. mark david chapman at that point was a walking shell who didn t ever learn how to let out his feelings of anger, of rage, or disappointment. mark david chapman was a failure in his own mind. he wanted to become somebody important, larry. he didn t know how to handle being a nobody. mark david chapman struck out at something he perceived to be phony, something he was angry
and said why do you want to know? sometime before 5:00 p.m., lennon and ono leave the apartment to go to his last recording session. chapman and gorish are on the sidewalk out front. chapman silently hands lennon his copy of double fantasy. guy came on john s left and held out the album and john turned and look theed at him and said do you want me to sign that? he nodded, john took the album. john said do you have a pen? he handed him a pen. john started to sign the album, and i had my camera on my neck, and it looked like a good picture, so i looked through the view finder, and i took the photo. that is the photo of john signing the album for his killer. and he looked at me, and he said, is that all? do you want anything else? and i felt then and now that he
i am simply a lawyer representing a client. this is not a whodunit. there were witnesses who saw him do the shooting and he made no effort to flee the scene. it was clear from the initial investigation that the defendant was going to lodge an insanity defense. and the first order of business was to have chapman mental state evaluated. the only issue will be whether or not he was ip sane at the time of the shooting. this is the front entrance of the bellevue hospital where the killer of john lennon mark chapman is being held by extraordinary security precautions by the department of corrections. and asked if i would help on the chapman case. i agreed. forensic psychiatrist dr. daniel schwartz interviewed mark david chapman on eight separate occasions for the defense. clearly, mr. chapman knew what he was doing, he used a gun
whole life, devastate his sons, and bring deep sorrow and tears to the world. in 1985, new york city dedicated an area of central park, directly across from the dakota, as strawberry fields, for one of lennon s most famous songs. countries from around the world donated trees. and the imagine mosaic centerpiece was a gift from the city of naples. tangible proof that the legacy of john lennon transcends borders and generations. i was walking down the street the other day, and i saw a kid probably no older than 16 or 17 wearing a t-shirt with john lennon s face on it. and i thought, this is really interesting. here it is, he died more than 30 years ago. and for this young person, he