‘Evil in my heart’: Mark David Chapman shares what drove him to kill John Lennon

John Lennon’s killer, Mark David Chapman, knew it was wrong to kill former Beatle John Lennon but did so anyway for fame and because he had “evil in his heart.”

>> Read more trending news

Chapman, 67, spoke to a parole board earlier this year, but the transcript was just released because of a freedom of information request, The Associated Press reported.

The convicted killer said he wanted to kill the singer and songwriter as “my big answer to everything. I wasn’t going to be a nobody, anymore.”

“I am not going to blame anything else or anybody else for bringing me there,” Chapman said, according to the AP. “I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was evil, I knew it was wrong, but I wanted the fame so much that I was willing to give everything and take a human life.”

Chapman bought the gun three months before he used it to shoot and kill Lennon outside of the Beatles’ apartment, The Dakota, on New York City’s Upper West Side on Dec. 8, 1980, People magazine reported.

Earlier in the day, the gunman had Lennon autograph a copy of the album “Double Fantasy.”

The parole board denied Chapman’s 12th request for parole, citing that he had a “selfish disregard for human life of global consequence,” the AP reported.

Chapman will go in front of another parole board in February 2024.

He is currently serving a 20-years-to-life sentence at Green Haven Correctional Facility in New York.

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 38

Remembering John Lennon Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (centre), the Indian mystic who introduced British pop group The Beatles to transcendental meditation, with George Harrison (1943 - 2001, left) and John Lennon (1940 -1980), at the UNICEF Gala in Paris. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) (Keystone/Getty Images)

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 17

hIn this Dec. 9. 1980, file photo, police lead suspect Mark David Chapman, with his head covered, from the 20th Precinct on New York's Upper West Side. Chapman shot and killed John Lennon, a former Beatles member.

John Lennon: What you need to know John Lennon was one of the founding members of the Beatles. (NCD)

©2022 Cox Media Group