monday night. john lennon was gunned down before the suspect is identified as mark david chapman. his assailant waited with a .38-caliber. on the night he shot john lennon, mark david chapman was just 25 years old. it had been 25 years of almost painful anonymity. there was nothing that we learned from the extensive interviews and investigation of the defendant s background that suggested that he was much different than any other 25-year-old person. at least on the surface. chapman grew up in georgia. the older of two children in what seemed like a typical suburban family. the defendant claimed in interviews with psychiatrists that he had a rough childhood and had a less than ideal relationship with his father. but there s nothing in his background of such an extreme or extraordinary nature that would suggest some kind of latent insanity or mental disease or defect caused by some childhood trauma. after high school chapman