The man who killed ex-Beatle John Lennon says that he hoped to live and work with an upstate New York minister if released.
Mark David Chapman was denied parole for the seventh time last week, and a transcript of the hearing was released Wednesday. The 57-year-old can try again in two years.
Chapman shot Lennon in December 1980 outside the Manhattan apartment building where the former Beatle lived. He was sentenced in 1981 to 20 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
The parole board noted his positive efforts while in jail but said releasing him would trivialize the killing.
The former security guard from Hawaii said that his motivation for the killing was instant notoriety.
Speaking during his seventh parole hearing, Chapman told the New York State Board of Parole he committed the "cold-blooded" crime "simply because (Lennon was) the most famous person I knew of".
Speaking about John's widow, Yoko Ono, Chapman added: "I would like Mrs. Lennon to really know that. I think it would help somewhat that it wasn't anger. It wasn't anything against her husband as a person, only as a famous person. If he was less famous than three or four other people on the list, he would not have been shot."
Chapman, 57, went on to reveal that he had a list of six or seven potential targets, including Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor and actor George C. Scott.
Chapman - who had waited for Lennon to return to his apartment building before shooting him in the back of the head - had contemplated abandoning his murder plot when earlier in the day he met Lennon, who had signed his album cover.
He said: "It wasn't all totally cold-blooded, but most of it was. I did try to tell myself to leave. 'I've got the album, take it home, show my wife, everything will be fine.' But I was so compelled to commit that murder that nothing would have dragged me away from that building."
Chapman pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in August 1981, with the judge ruling that he must receive psychiatric treatment.
Lennon killer wants to live with minister if freed
The man who killed ex-Beatle John Lennon says that he hoped to live and work with an upstate New York minister if released.
Mark David Chapman was denied parole for the seventh time last week, and a transcript of the hearing was released Wednesday. The 57-year-old can try again in two years.
Chapman shot Lennon in December 1980 outside the Manhattan apartment building where the former Beatle lived. He was sentenced in 1981 to 20 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
The parole board noted his positive efforts while in jail but said releasing him would trivialize the killing.
The former security guard from Hawaii said that his motivation for the killing was instant notoriety.
Speaking during his seventh parole hearing, Chapman told the New York State Board of Parole he committed the "cold-blooded" crime "simply because (Lennon was) the most famous person I knew of".
Speaking about John's widow, Yoko Ono, Chapman added: "I would like Mrs. Lennon to really know that. I think it would help somewhat that it wasn't anger. It wasn't anything against her husband as a person, only as a famous person. If he was less famous than three or four other people on the list, he would not have been shot."
Chapman, 57, went on to reveal that he had a list of six or seven potential targets, including Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor and actor George C. Scott.
Chapman - who had waited for Lennon to return to his apartment building before shooting him in the back of the head - had contemplated abandoning his murder plot when earlier in the day he met Lennon, who had signed his album cover.
He said: "It wasn't all totally cold-blooded, but most of it was. I did try to tell myself to leave. 'I've got the album, take it home, show my wife, everything will be fine.' But I was so compelled to commit that murder that nothing would have dragged me away from that building."
Chapman pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life in August 1981, with the judge ruling that he must receive psychiatric treatment.
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