According to Rolling Stone magazine Mark David Chapman is now 57 years old and has been allowed a seventh parole hearing. He was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and is entitled to a parole hearing every two years. The New York State Department of Corrections has been setting up the parole hearings since year 2000.
Chapman pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sent to Attica state prison where he remained until May. Then he was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility. Both are maximum security facilities near Albany, NY.
The LA Times reports that Chapman will be interviewed at the hearing and a decision could be made as early as August 23 or 24. Chapman has an exemplary disciplinary record. He has worked in the prison kitchen and has clerked at the prison law library. Since 1979, Chapman has been married to Gloria Chapman, a 59 year old Japanese hospital worker who lives on the outskirts of Honolulu, HI. She visits Chapman once a year for conjugal visits. He claimed at his year 2000 hearing that he had a job waiting for him on a farm and planned to start a ministry with his wife.
According to the Daily Mail, Chapman has been accused of being a CIA killer for the American right wing. He killed John Lennon with four gunshot wounds on December 8, 1980. Chapman, who had been seen hanging out at the famous Dakota apartment building in New York city, asked Lennon to sign an album when he returned from an evening recording session. As Lennon walked away, Chapman assumed a combat stance on one knee before firing a .38 revolver. The bullets were specially adapted to cause maximum damage and were called “dum dum” bullets. Fifteen minutes later, Lennon was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. Chapman had shot him in the back.
Showing no care or concern, the pudgy, unremarkable looking Chapman started reading a copy of J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher In The Rye”, which triggered reporters to scour through the coming of dysfunctional age book and to write reams of speculation. Chapman was later found to be a drug addled and mentally ill 25 year old who idolized the weird, reclusive Lennon until he discovered just how wealthy and unlike himself the musician and father was.
But Chapman was found to have a long list of celebrities that he labeled as potential targets, and Lennon turned out to be the most convenient. Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono has fought parole, declaring a fear of Chapman on behalf of herself and Lennon’s sons, Julian and Sean. It may be that Julian spoke for himself, since Yoko Ono was responsible for much of the terrible treatment that Julian received from his father and from Yoko Ono throughout his life.