John Lennon’s murderer says he didn’t want the singer to suffer

By Kenneth Lovett / New York Daily News

ALBANY, N.Y. — John Lennon’s killer said he used hollow-point bullets to make sure the former Beatle died, but not suffer.

“I secured those bullets to make sure he would be dead,” Mark David Chapman said, according to a transcript released Thursday of his late August parole hearing. “It was immediately after the crime that I was concerned that he did not suffer.”

Chapman, who ultimately was denied parole for a 10th time, said amidst the chaos after he gunned down Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, as the singer and his wife, Yoko Ono returned from a late night recording session to their Dakota building apartment across from Central Park, he thought he might face an angry mob.

“Afterward I was maybe a little shocked myself and I am like, ‘you know, anything can happen here,’” he said.

But that fear passed once he was in the police car. He said the officer who cuffed him was “a big fellow” and professional. Chapman said he also felt safe once behind bars, where he was separated from the rest of the inmate population.

At one point, he was sent to Rikers Island, where he said he had an entire tier to himself. He never feared the staff might try to hurt him.

Chapman called his 1981 plea to second-degree murder without a trial “the right thing to do” and said he would have accepted an even stiffer sentence than the 20-years-to-life he received. Now 63, he currently is housed at upstate Wende Correctional Facility.

Chapman reiterated he felt he was overcome by the devil in wanting to kill Lennon.

At one point, he flew from his Hawaii home to New York to carry out the murder, but had a change of heart after watching the movie “Ordinary People” and calling his wife back in Hawaii to confess his plans. She convinced him to come home.

For two or three months, Chapman said, he was fine but then the compulsion to act began again despite saying he had found God at the age of 16.

“The thoughts started coming again, and it was a roller coaster after that,” he said.

Chapman returned to New York. Hours before killing Lennon, Chapman managed to get the singer to sign a copy of his new album as he left the Dakota for the recording studio.

“He was incredible,” Chapman said. “I think about that every day.”

But it wasn’t enough to thwart his murderous plans.

“I was too far in,” Chapman said. “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 going to go home.”

After Lennon got into the car to leave, Chapman said that “I do remember, you know, praying and saying, God, just, you know help me here so I did reach out that day and say help, you know. So there was a definite — there was a tug of war there that you wouldn’t believe but ultimately my decision. You know, the devil can’t make us do what we don’t want to do and God certainly gives us freewill so the guy who is responsible is sitting right here in front of you.”

Chapman is in involuntary protective custody, though he said during his hearing he understands it’s to keep not just him, but other inmates and prison staff safe.

He still serves as a porter and works at the prison hospital fixing wheelchairs.

He spent a good portion of his latest parole hearing talking about his relationship with Jesus. He and his wife, Gloria Hiroko Chapman, have had a ministry for the past 13 years, developing brochures using his experience to help prisoners.

“We put them inside a cover letter and we send them to prison ministries all around the world and any individual, any church that’s interested in, you know, helping out prisoners to find another way,” Chapman said. “We believe that Jesus is that way and that He can change lives if you ask Him into your life.”

In denying Chapman parole in August for a 10th time, the board said his release “would be incompatible with the welfare and safety of society and would so deprecate the serious nature of the crime as to undermine respect for the law.”

The board recognized his clean prison record since 1994 and the fact he is deemed to be a low risk of turning into a repeat offender.

“Nonetheless, none of which out weighs the gravity of your actions or the serious and senseless loss of life you have caused,” the panel wrote.

Chapman is next eligible for parole in 2020.