PrayersForMaura
Help Find Maura Murray
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NEW YORK -- Twenty-five years ago, Mark David Chapman stamped his name into history by shooting four bullets into John Lennon's back _ a desperate, senseless grab for the kind of fame the voice of a generation was so steeped in. Instead, all he gained was infamy.
"I want to be important," Chapman later said of his mind-set before the murder. "I want to be somebody. I was never anybody."
The journey from nobody to notorious started in Decatur, Georgia, where he grew up with his parents and sister. After high school, Chapman worked as a camp counselor at an Atlanta YMCA and was briefly enrolled at Covenant College, a Christian university in Georgia. But he dropped out, broke off an engagement and entered a dark period of depression.
In the spring of 1977, Chapman moved to Honolulu, where he attempted to kill himself using the exhaust from a car. In the following years, Chapman, a devout Christian, would take exception to Lennon's perceived anti-religion beliefs. At the height of Beatlemania, Lennon had famously proclaimed the Beatles "more popular than Jesus," and later sang in "Imagine": "Imagine there's no heaven."
At the same time, Chapman developed an obsession with J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," the landmark novel that focuses on a disaffected youth, Holden Caulfield, during a trip to New York City.
Though previously a great fan of the Beatles, Chapman began attaching Caulfield's favorite slander _ "phony" _ to Lennon. He made that assessment after seeing photos of Lennon atop his exclusive Manhattan apartment building, the Dakota.
"At some point, after looking at those pictures, I became enraged at him and something in me just broke," Chapman would explain later. "I remember saying in my mind, `What if I killed him?"'
"I felt that perhaps my identity would be found in the killing of John Lennon."
Believing himself the embodiment of Holden Caulfield, Chapman, then 25, arrived in New York City Dec. 6, 1980. Two days later, he bought another copy of Salinger's book and wrote in it, "This is my statement." He went to the Dakota and waited for Lennon.
When he arrived, Lennon politely signed an autograph for the pudgy, dark-haired, ordinary-looking fan. Chapman stayed, waiting for Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, to return later that evening.
"It was like a runaway train," Chapman would later say of his desire to kill Lennon. "There was no stopping it."
Just after 10:50 p.m., the couple exited their limousine and began walking into the Dakota. Chapman unloaded, hitting the 40-year-old Lennon with all but one shot. Then, without a word, he sat down and opened "The Catcher in the Rye."
The man whose songs and lyrics had meant so much to so many, died on the way to the hospital.
The outpouring of grief was immediate _ as was confusion. Who was Chapman? Why did he do it?
More: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/ny-bc-ny--lennon-markchapma1128nov28,0,6576773.story?coll=nyc-moreny-headlines
"I want to be important," Chapman later said of his mind-set before the murder. "I want to be somebody. I was never anybody."
The journey from nobody to notorious started in Decatur, Georgia, where he grew up with his parents and sister. After high school, Chapman worked as a camp counselor at an Atlanta YMCA and was briefly enrolled at Covenant College, a Christian university in Georgia. But he dropped out, broke off an engagement and entered a dark period of depression.
In the spring of 1977, Chapman moved to Honolulu, where he attempted to kill himself using the exhaust from a car. In the following years, Chapman, a devout Christian, would take exception to Lennon's perceived anti-religion beliefs. At the height of Beatlemania, Lennon had famously proclaimed the Beatles "more popular than Jesus," and later sang in "Imagine": "Imagine there's no heaven."
At the same time, Chapman developed an obsession with J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," the landmark novel that focuses on a disaffected youth, Holden Caulfield, during a trip to New York City.
Though previously a great fan of the Beatles, Chapman began attaching Caulfield's favorite slander _ "phony" _ to Lennon. He made that assessment after seeing photos of Lennon atop his exclusive Manhattan apartment building, the Dakota.
"At some point, after looking at those pictures, I became enraged at him and something in me just broke," Chapman would explain later. "I remember saying in my mind, `What if I killed him?"'
"I felt that perhaps my identity would be found in the killing of John Lennon."
Believing himself the embodiment of Holden Caulfield, Chapman, then 25, arrived in New York City Dec. 6, 1980. Two days later, he bought another copy of Salinger's book and wrote in it, "This is my statement." He went to the Dakota and waited for Lennon.
When he arrived, Lennon politely signed an autograph for the pudgy, dark-haired, ordinary-looking fan. Chapman stayed, waiting for Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, to return later that evening.
"It was like a runaway train," Chapman would later say of his desire to kill Lennon. "There was no stopping it."
Just after 10:50 p.m., the couple exited their limousine and began walking into the Dakota. Chapman unloaded, hitting the 40-year-old Lennon with all but one shot. Then, without a word, he sat down and opened "The Catcher in the Rye."
The man whose songs and lyrics had meant so much to so many, died on the way to the hospital.
The outpouring of grief was immediate _ as was confusion. Who was Chapman? Why did he do it?
More: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/ny-bc-ny--lennon-markchapma1128nov28,0,6576773.story?coll=nyc-moreny-headlines