Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Mark David Chapman (born May 10, 1955) murdered John Lennon on the night of December 8, 1980, in front of Lennon's residence, the Dakota Building, at the corner of West 72nd Street in Manhattan. At various points in his life, Mark Chapman was a drug-addict, a born-again Christian, and a hospitalized mental patient. At one time he attended Covenant College in Georgia. He viewed the novel The Catcher in the Rye by novelist J.D. Salinger as having great personal significance. Earlier in the day, Chapman had shaken hands with Sean Lennon and secured an autograph from John Lennon. He then remained in waiting for several hours for John to return, whereupon he shot at him five times, inflicting four wounds. He was charged with second degree murder and was found competent to stand trial. It was expected that he would plead insanity; instead, he lodged a guilty plea. He is currently incarcerated at Attica State Prison, near Buffalo, New York. He has been denied parole twice, and will be considered again for parole in 2004. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.