Callum Jones
The man who assassinated John Lennon has finally provided a chilling explanation as to why he killed The Beatles star over four decades ago.
It was back on December 8, 1980, when the front man of the much-loved Liverpool band was gunned down by Mark David Chapman as he returned home from a studio session with his wife, Yoko Ono.
The 40-year-old, who continues to be considered one of the world's greatest songwriters, bled out on the steps outside his apartment in New York, sending shockwaves across the globe.
As we approach the 45th anniversary of the assassination, Chapman told a parole board why he decided to gun down The Beatles star.
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Speaking from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in August in an interview transcript obtained by the New York Post, the now 70-year-old said: "This was for me and me alone, unfortunately, and it had everything to do with his popularity.
"My crime was completely selfish."
Chapman was asked by a commissioner why he wanted to murder Lennon, to which he replied: "To be famous, to be something I wasn’t. And then I just realized, hey, there is a goal here.
"I don’t have to die and I can be a somebody. I had sunk that low."
Chapman has said during previous parole hearings how he had planned to assassinate Lennon two months prior in the October of 1980.
The killer even lurked outside the Dakota department building and waited for the music star, but he never showed.
He returned on December 8 of that year, which is when he fatally shot Lennon four times in the back.
Chapman had previously said he related to Holden Caulfield, the main character from JD Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye - which he decided to start reading right after taking Lennon's life.
Over the years, Chapman has expressed his remorse over the assassination.
Speaking of Lennon, the inmate said: "This was a human being. Here I am living so much longer, and not just family but his friends and the fans, I apologize for the devastation that I caused you, the agony that they must have gone through.
"I had no thought about that at all at the time of the crime, I didn’t care. I don’t have any interest at all in being famous. Put me under the rug somewhere. I don’t want to be famous anymore, period.”
Chapman was recently denied parole for the 14th time after receiving a 20-years-to-life prison sentence back in the 1980s.
He won't be able to apply for parole again until 2027 after a board found that Chapman lacked 'genuine remorse or meaningful empathy' for the victims of his horrific crime.
Lennon was survived by wife Ono, their son Sean and his eldest son Julian, who he shared with his first wife Cynthia.