Mark David Chapman, the man who killed John Lennon in 1980, said he assassinated the musician out of a desire for fame.
Chapman, 65, was denied parole for the 11th time in August. According to a transcript of the hearing, which was released to Fox News on Monday, Chapman called his actions “despicable” and “creepy.”
“I assassinated him … because he was very, very, very famous, and that’s the only reason, and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory, very selfish,” Chapman said.
Chapman shot and killed Lennon on Dec. 8 as the award-winning artist and his wife Yoko Ono returned to their Manhattan apartment. Earlier that day, Chapman received an autograph from Lennon as he left his apartment. Chapman said during his parole hearing that he often thinks about the pain he caused Ono by murdering her husband.
“I just want her to know that she knows her husband like no one else and knows the kind of man he was. I didn’t,” he said.
Chapman told the parole board that he has “no complaint whatsoever” if they decide to keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life.
“I deserve zero, nothing. At the time, I deserved the death penalty. When you knowingly plot someone’s murder and know it’s wrong and you do it for yourself, that’s a death penalty right there, in my opinion,” he said.
In denying his release, the parole board said it was disturbed by his statements about wanting to get fame from the killing and called the murder an “evil act.”
Chapman will be eligible for parole again in two years.
