Lucy
Sep 17, 2010, 12:33 AM
Sick. I'm not sure if this report of what was said to the parole board has already been shared because I usually avoid the topic totally.
Also, please note if you do follow the link to the article, there is a photo taken of MDC from July this year. Perhaps some of you might not like to know what he looks like these days.
John Lennon's killer: Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Carson were also on my hit list - but unfortunately John was easiest
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1312755/John-Lennons-killer-Mark-Chapman-Elizabeth-Taylor-Johnny-Carson-hit-list.html#ixzz0zm5S4ZwX
John Lennon's murderer Mark Chapman had a hit-list of famous people he wanted to kill - including Elizabeth Taylor and U.S. TV favourite Johnny Carson.
Mark Chapman admitted he was hell bent on killing a celebrity when he gunned down the ex-Beatle outside his New York apartment block 30 years ago.
‘I had a hit list of people and he was at the top of the list,’ Chapman told the parole hearing. ‘If it wasn’t Lennon it would have been someone else,’ he added.
The cold-blooded killer inisisted he had forgotten earlier claims that he also had another ex-Beatle, Paul McCartney and former First Lady Jackie Onassis in his sights.
Asked how he selected the names, he said: ‘They are famous – that was it. It wasn’t about them necessarily. It was just about me.’
He said he killed Lennon because ‘he seemed more accessible.'
'I found out what building he was at and went to that building. It wasn't quite as cloistered as some of the other people might have been.'
Chapman, now 55 and in his 30th year in jail, made it clear that he was feeling suicidal - but used that rage to instead kill someone other than himself.
'Instead of taking my own life, I took somebody else's,' he admits, calling it 'unfortunate'.
'I thought there was a chance might get shot. I wasn't really too concerned about that.'
He admits his other motive was 'instant notoriety, fame' - but insists he no longer believes he achieved it.
'I felt that by killing John Lennon I would become somebody, and instead of that I became a murderer - and murderers are not somebodies, they are big nobodies,' he told the parole board.
'It was an act of utter selfishness. I thought about me and what I would become.
'I made a horrible decision to end another human being's life, for reasons of selfishness.
'This is not anything to be proud of.'
He added: 'I don't consider myself famous; I consider myself infamous, and I have to deal with that.'
Chapman also admitted that he travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, and tricked a policeman friend into buying him bullets for the gun he had bought in Hawaii, where he lived.
He also said he tricked his father-in-law into helping him get the $5,000 he used for his numerous flights for the murderous plot.
He spoke of how he aborted his first planned assassination of Lennon after seeing 'an important movie' - although he could not remember which one.
'I came out of the movie theater and called my wife and for the first time told her what I was going to do. And I was crying.
'I told her, "Your love has saved me - I'm coming home".
'I abandoned all the plans and was going to throw the gun in the river. Of course, that didn't happen.'
He said within a few weeks the 'emptiness' and 'desire to become somebody' had 'started to build again'.
'I couldn't stop it,' he said.
'I lied to my wife and told her I'm going back there again and I'm gonna get it together and write books or something, try to find myself. She believed me wholeheartedly.
'I left on December 6th and on December 8th I committed the murder.'
Chapman admitted he is 'willing to pay for this crime in prison for however long it takes' - even if it is 'forever' - but said he deserved parole because he has turned his life around after finding God.
'My life has changed because of Jesus Christ,' he insisted. 'He is with me. Without him I am nothing.'
Chapman was denied parole after the panel ruled that his 'premeditated senseless and selfish act of tragic consequence' makes his release 'inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the welfare of the community.'
Releasing him would 'would so deprecate the seriousness of [the] crime as to undermine respect for the law,' the panel said.
He is next viable to request parole in 2012.
Also, please note if you do follow the link to the article, there is a photo taken of MDC from July this year. Perhaps some of you might not like to know what he looks like these days.
John Lennon's killer: Elizabeth Taylor and Johnny Carson were also on my hit list - but unfortunately John was easiest
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1312755/John-Lennons-killer-Mark-Chapman-Elizabeth-Taylor-Johnny-Carson-hit-list.html#ixzz0zm5S4ZwX
John Lennon's murderer Mark Chapman had a hit-list of famous people he wanted to kill - including Elizabeth Taylor and U.S. TV favourite Johnny Carson.
Mark Chapman admitted he was hell bent on killing a celebrity when he gunned down the ex-Beatle outside his New York apartment block 30 years ago.
‘I had a hit list of people and he was at the top of the list,’ Chapman told the parole hearing. ‘If it wasn’t Lennon it would have been someone else,’ he added.
The cold-blooded killer inisisted he had forgotten earlier claims that he also had another ex-Beatle, Paul McCartney and former First Lady Jackie Onassis in his sights.
Asked how he selected the names, he said: ‘They are famous – that was it. It wasn’t about them necessarily. It was just about me.’
He said he killed Lennon because ‘he seemed more accessible.'
'I found out what building he was at and went to that building. It wasn't quite as cloistered as some of the other people might have been.'
Chapman, now 55 and in his 30th year in jail, made it clear that he was feeling suicidal - but used that rage to instead kill someone other than himself.
'Instead of taking my own life, I took somebody else's,' he admits, calling it 'unfortunate'.
'I thought there was a chance might get shot. I wasn't really too concerned about that.'
He admits his other motive was 'instant notoriety, fame' - but insists he no longer believes he achieved it.
'I felt that by killing John Lennon I would become somebody, and instead of that I became a murderer - and murderers are not somebodies, they are big nobodies,' he told the parole board.
'It was an act of utter selfishness. I thought about me and what I would become.
'I made a horrible decision to end another human being's life, for reasons of selfishness.
'This is not anything to be proud of.'
He added: 'I don't consider myself famous; I consider myself infamous, and I have to deal with that.'
Chapman also admitted that he travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, and tricked a policeman friend into buying him bullets for the gun he had bought in Hawaii, where he lived.
He also said he tricked his father-in-law into helping him get the $5,000 he used for his numerous flights for the murderous plot.
He spoke of how he aborted his first planned assassination of Lennon after seeing 'an important movie' - although he could not remember which one.
'I came out of the movie theater and called my wife and for the first time told her what I was going to do. And I was crying.
'I told her, "Your love has saved me - I'm coming home".
'I abandoned all the plans and was going to throw the gun in the river. Of course, that didn't happen.'
He said within a few weeks the 'emptiness' and 'desire to become somebody' had 'started to build again'.
'I couldn't stop it,' he said.
'I lied to my wife and told her I'm going back there again and I'm gonna get it together and write books or something, try to find myself. She believed me wholeheartedly.
'I left on December 6th and on December 8th I committed the murder.'
Chapman admitted he is 'willing to pay for this crime in prison for however long it takes' - even if it is 'forever' - but said he deserved parole because he has turned his life around after finding God.
'My life has changed because of Jesus Christ,' he insisted. 'He is with me. Without him I am nothing.'
Chapman was denied parole after the panel ruled that his 'premeditated senseless and selfish act of tragic consequence' makes his release 'inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the welfare of the community.'
Releasing him would 'would so deprecate the seriousness of [the] crime as to undermine respect for the law,' the panel said.
He is next viable to request parole in 2012.