Deranged killer Mark David Chapman gunned down John Lennon over a pathetic desire to “be a somebody,” he recently told a parole board, ahead of the shocking crime’s 45th anniversary.
“This was for me and me alone, unfortunately, and it had everything to do with his popularity,” Chapman, 70, said from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Dutchess County in late August, according to an interview transcript obtained by The Post on Friday.
“My crime was completely selfish.”
Chapman, who assassinated the beloved 40-year-old Beatle outside the Dakota apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, made his 14th unsuccessful attempt at getting sprung from prison. He apologized for causing “devastation” to fans and friends of the rock legend — but the board ultimately didn’t buy his sorrow, the records showed.
Asked by a commissioner why he wanted to murder Lennon, he said, “to be famous, to be something I wasn’t.”
“And then I just realized, hey, there is a goal here,” Chapman continued. “I don’t have to die and I can be a somebody. I had sunk that low.”
During previous parole hearings, Chapman made similar statements about glory, saying he was seeking fame “and had evil in my heart.”
Hellbound and Down 