On December 8, 1980, one of music’s most influential men fell to a bullet. John Lennon’s aorta was punctured, and he bled to death.
Mark David Chapman was the man that shot him.
Years prior to the murder, Chapman was just a Beatles fan living in Hawaii. Soon, however, he developed a strange obsession with Lennon that went beyond his music. Beyond his life, the tabloids, the bed ins, the drugs, the politics. Chapman idealized Lennon. And eventually, Chapman WAS Lennon, in his mind at least.
Mark David Chapman was so obsessed that he married an Asian woman and was known to have called her Yoko on more than on occasion. This man practiced writing John Lennon's signature over and over again, trying to get it just right.
With all this, Chapman became frighteningly jealous of the real John Lennon. How dare he excel in everything that I want to be, Chapman would think. This jealousy grew so large that he was compelled to kill.
So he flew out to New York City and shot the beloved singer right in his heart. Mark David Chapman was imprisoned in solitary confinement (mostly out of the judge’s fear that angry prison mates would gang up against Chapman). In 2000, his parole was rejected.