Unhappy boy
Mark David Chapman was born on May 10, 1955, near Fort Worth, Texas. A lonely child, he retreated into a fantasy world to blot out his father's periodic acts of violence against his mother. He invented an empire of "little people", over whom he exercised complete control. When times were good, Chapman would treat his subjects by playing them songs by his favourite band - The Beatles. During darker periods, he would visit awful catastrophes upon the helpless little people. By his early teens, Chapman was experimenting with psychedelic drugs and spending extended periods away from home.

Promising youth
Despite this difficult start, things did improve for Chapman. He became a fervent Christian and discovered that he had a knack for working with children. He was a successful summer camp counsellor, earning praise from his employers and devotion from the kids under his charge. But Chapman's new-found Christianity didn't square with the free-wheeling spirituality of his old hero, John Lennon. Earlier in his career, Lennon had remarked that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". As he grew older and his life began to founder once again, Chapman's disenchantment with Lennon intensified. At the same time, he began to identify with Holden Caulfield, the disconnected anti-hero of J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Caulfield hates "phonies". In Chapman's eyes, Lennon had become a phony.

A man obsessed
By 1980, Chapman had a devoted wife, Gloria, and the beginnings of a new start in Hawaii. But there were dark corners in his life. He had attempted suicide in 1977 and was now besieged by urges to kill John Lennon. He travelled to New York City in October, 1980, and bought a revolver, only to abandon his plan and return home. On December 6, however, he was back in the Big Apple. He headed for the Dakota, a smart apartment building where Lennon lived with Yoko Ono and their young son, Sean.

Sidewalk shooter
On December 8, Chapman was outside the Dakota all day. During the early afternoon, he obtained Lennon's autograph as the singer left for a recording session. According to Chapman, he was wrestling with his conscience when Lennon returned at 10.50pm, accompanied by Yoko Ono. But the dark voice inside won and he fired five rounds at his former hero. Four of them found their target and Lennon collapsed on the steps of the Dakota, mortally wounded. Chapman appeared outwardly calm, allowing the building's doorman to knock the weapon from his hand. He read from The Catcher in the Rye as he waited for police offers to arrive.

Model prisoner
At his trial, Chapman refused legal advice, pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Public reaction to Lennon's killing ranged from shock to anger and Chapman received several death threats. He was sentenced to life, with a minimum sentence of 20 years behind bars and became a model prisoner. Despite a good disciplinary record, he was refused parole in 2000. The Parole Board decided that to release him would "deprecate the seriousness of the crime". Its members must also have considered the fact that Chapman's life might be in danger if he were released. At the parole hearing, Chapman claimed he was cured of the mental instability that caused him to commit his crime, suggesting that Lennon himself would have wished him to be freed. But he also seemed to comprehend the gravity of his actions: "John Lennon was a person. He was breathing and I knocked him right off his feet, and I don't feel, because of that, I have any right to be standing on my feet here," he told the Parole Board. Chapman was refused parole again in 2002 and 2004. He remains in solitary confinement at the Attica Correctional Facility, near Buffalo, New York.