May 10, 1955

Murderer

Mark Chapman is a mentally disturbed product of popular cull ture. In the late 1960s he was a drug-using fan of the Beatles. He later became obsessed with J. D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Intent on becoming famous, Chapman decided to kill a celebrity. After settling on former Beatle John Lennon as his target, he flew from Hawaii to New York, carrying a copy of his beloved The Catcher in the Rye. On December 8, 1980, he shot and killed John Lennon outside Lennon’s Manhattan apartment. In 2002 Chapman was serving a sentence of twenty years to life in Attica State Prison, New York. He was slated to be up for parole (early release) in 2002.

Two tales of one childhood

In 1955, less than a year after Kathryn and David Chapman married, their son, Mark David was born. The...