‘I just shot John Lennon’: He lived a quiet life in Hawaii until he became a notorious killer
Honolulu, HAWAII — Hours before his death, on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon looked his killer in the eyes and saw a pudgy, seemingly unremarkable man who’d shyly asked for an autograph.
Lennon had obliged.
Hours later, the former Beatle would be dead — fatally shot as he returned to his luxury apartment in New York with his wife. It wouldn’t take long for the world to learn his assassin’s name: Mark David Chapman, an out-of-work security guard from Hawaii with a history of mental illness.
Chapman would later say that he’d heard voices in his head that told him to kill Lennon. Rather than pursue an insanity defense, as his lawyers wanted him to, Chapman pleaded guilty to the murder.
He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and has been denied parole 11 times.
On the 40th anniversary of Lennon’s death, Hawaii News Now dug into the archives and conducted interviews with those who were there to help tell the Hawaii story of the man who killed one of the world’s biggest stars and understand the woman who has never left his side, his wife Gloria.
While reporters retraced Chapman’s footsteps, they also sought to learn more about his wife. The two had lived on the 21st floor of Kukui Plaza. And it was in their small apartment that Gloria mourned the loss of the life she would never know and struggled to come to terms with what her husband had done. [photo: via HNN]
“My life changed, changed dramatically,” she said. “I was now, Mrs. Mark David Chapman, the wife of a murderer, and not just any murderer but one who who’s victim was known and loved by millions.”
[For more special coverage of the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s death on HNN, click here.]