♪ yee-hey ♪ love is all you need, love is all you need ♪ ♪ oh, yeah ♪ she loves you ♪ yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ she loves you, yeah, yeah, ♪ she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com one was world renowned. among the greatest musicians of the 20th century. >> john lennon had charisma. he was just special. >> john lennon was my favorite beatle. >> the other was a lonely kid from georgia with no particular talents and no real direction in life. >> everyone said he was a nice person. >> he wanted to bring attention to himself. >> they were as different as night and day. two men on intense personal

journeys that converged in a single shocking act. >> i took five steps and fired. [ gunshots ] five shots sxwlp. >> i literally held john lennon's heart in my hand. >> it was an unthinkable crime that left millions in mourning. the murder of john lennon. next. ♪ it's a chilly night at around 10:45 p.m. police respond to a report of a shooting at the dakota, an exclusive apartment building on manhattan's upper west side.

>> when we drove up to the dakota, there was a man standing in the middle of the street pointing into the archway, saying that's the man doing the shooting. we get out of the car. we approached the archway. on each side of it. looked in. and saw a man with his hands up. >> five shots that have been fired. all but one found their target. >> so i grabbed the guy around the neck. the doorman, jose, said "he's the one. he's the only one. he shot john lennon." i was totally in shock. i threw him up against the wall, and i said, "you did what?" >> former beatle john lennon has been shot with four hollow point bullets at close range. police rush lennon to nearby roosevelt hospital, but it's too late. shortly after 11:00 p.m. the

emergency room doctor pronounces john lennon dead. >> former beatle john lennon was gunned down in front of his exclusive manhattan apartment. >> ending the life of a folk hero. >> the co-op building where he was gunned down as he -- >> the news ripped through the air in shock waves. john lennon shot and killed in the dakota apartment building. >> it was really shocking. >> 40 years old. >> how could he be dead? how could this have happened? >> the city was in shock. not just people my generation that grew up listening to their music in the '60s. i think just about everybody felt that on so many levels it was wrong. >> it was terrible. i mean, i think just the way so many people that didn't even know john felt. and it just hit home with me much more because he befriended me and he didn't have to befriend me. >> in new york cnn investigative reporter laura dedio has come up with some new facts about john lennon's accused killer. >> the killer was identified as

mark david chapman, a 25-year-old fan and drifter from hawaii. >> nothing in his background set off or would have caused to set off any alarm bells. about chapman. >> chapman apparently was well liked by most of the people he knew. the most common description we heard was open, friendly, a hard worker with a ready smile. >> i don't think i've seen anybody get mad at him or say anything bad about him. >> just didn't seem like the kind of person. >> he was very peaceful. >> he was a fine young happen. >> i couldn't have asked for anything better. >> most of those can't believe he's the same person charged with killing john lennon. >> everybody that we interviewed, and there were a lot, every one said he was a nice person not capable of doing something like this. >> it was a tragic conclusion to an extraordinary life. john lennon, co-fuounder of the legendary beatles, was gone.

during the 1960s the beatles were the biggest rock group in the world. their influence and popularity were unparalleled. >> i think the beatles spoke to young people in the '60s in a way that no other band did. and they influenced people in so many different ways. not just musically but socially, politically, culturally. they were the touchstone for everything that was going on in the '60s. >> among the millions of american kids who worshiped the beatles was a shy, reclusive teenager named mark david chapman. he was an especially fervent fan of john lennon. during their heyday the beatles were open about their experiences with psychedelic drugs. like his idols, chapman begins experimenting. >> the defendant described that there was periods of time in his life when he was more of the hippie nature, tried experimental drugs as many people in that period of time

did. >> but in 1971 chapman becomes a born again christian. he quits drugs and rejects rock and roll. the beatles and john lennon in particular. >> i became a christian when i was 16. and that lasted about a year of genuine walking with him. through my life off and on i have struggled with different things, as we all do. and at those times i would turn to the lord. >> chapman's newfound faith comes into conflict with his feelings about his former idol. according to friends, chapman was notably bothered by lennon's songs "god," in which he states "i don't believe in jesus," and his hit "imagine," with the lyrics "imagine there's no countries and no religion too." chapman even wrote his own words to the song, with the altered lyric, "imagine john lennon dead." >> the defendant claimed that he

was offended by the statement that john lennon had made that the beatles had become more popular than jesus christ. >> it was an off the cuff comment made during an interview in 1966, but it caused a lasting furor. >> a number of people in the bible belt, young and old, took this comment to be oh, you're bigger than jesus, you're bigger than god, and this is blasphemy and how dare you say something like this. he was totally misquoted. what he meant to say was that more people paid attention to the beatles than paid attention to jesus, and he was only making an observation about that, not putting any context to it or not saying that was a good thing or a bad thing. >> the beatles weather the storm. but in 1970 the band breaks up and lennon embarks on a solo career with his new wife, yoko ono. a year later the lennons move to new york city and take up residence at the fabled dakota

apartments. the dakota's gothic facade had been featured in the film "rosemary's baby." it was home to some of the world's most famous artists, actors, and musicians. >> i think he felt it was time for a change, and i think they viewed america as being a breath of fresh air for them at that time. little did they know what trouble awaits them. >> in new york john and yoko adopted a high profile politically and musically. perhaps inevitably their anti-war activism drew the attention and ire of the nixon administration. >> in the early '70s the united states government began a campaign against john lennon to silence him. they were really concerned that he would influence young people who were going to be voting for the first in the 1972 election, and he didn't want that to happen. >> they were conducting surveillance operations. they were monitoring him. cars would follow him around.

they did the whole intelligence enchilada. >> after nixon was driven from office by the watergate scandal, the pressure on lennon let up, and by 1975 he had withdrawn from the public eye. >> he was not in hiding. he was not a recluse. what he was doing was devoting full time to raising his son sean. that was his priority. ? during those days lennon and ono became familiar figures in their neighborhood. >> he liked the informality of new york. he liked the architecture. he liked the ability to walk. >> i would hear stories about how john would be walking with his family down the street and people could walk up to him. in fact, someone asked about what's it like living in manhattan? he said people are cool, they don't bug you. >> he loved new york because

people didn't bother him. in new york they respected his privacy. they'd say hey, john, how are things going? and they'd shake his hands. hey, john, i love your music or something. but they didn't pester him. >> in november 1980 he came out of his retirement with the release of "double fantasy" an album recorded with ono. lennon had just turned 40. to many it seemed john lennon had entered a promising new phase. but this image of a happy contented husband and father would only serve to enrage a young man in hawaii, a once devoted fan, mark david chapman. >> he was in the house sitting naked in front of his stereo, listening to really loud beatles music, and invoking satan to help him have the power to kill john lennon. ♪ turn around

♪ every now and then i get a little bit tired ♪ ♪ of craving something that i can't have ♪ ♪ turn around, barbara ♪ i finally found the right snack ♪ [ female announcer ] fiber one.

it was shortly before 11:00

monday night. >> john lennon was gunned down before -- >> the suspect is identified as mark david chapman. >> his assailant waited with a .38-caliber. >> on the night he shot john lennon, mark david chapman was just 25 years old. it had been 25 years of almost painful anonymity. >> there was nothing that we learned from the extensive interviews and investigation of the defendant's background that suggested that he was much different than any other 25-year-old person. >> at least on the surface. chapman grew up in georgia. the older of two children in what seemed like a typical suburban family. >> the defendant claimed in interviews with psychiatrists that he had a rough childhood and had a less than ideal relationship with his father. but there's nothing in his background of such an extreme or extraordinary nature that would suggest some kind of latent insanity or mental disease or defect caused by some childhood trauma. >> after high school chapman

begins to drift to a series of jobs and halfhearted attempts at college. in 1977 he flies to hawaii, we are plans to kill himself. he reportedly tries twice but fails. chapman stays in hawaii. over the next three years he is hospitalized at least once, gets married, takes a job in a print shop, then quits and goes to work as an unarmed security guard at a luxury high-rise condo. he's obsessed with j.d. salinger's "catcher in the rye," the classic novel of adolescent angst. chapman identifies closely with the book's protagonist, holden caulfield, who rails against the phonies he encounters. chapman would later claim that by the summer of 1980 he was coming unhinged. >> j.d. salinger, who has not been heard from in years, he's reclusive, wrote "catcher in the rye," a book read by millions, admired by millions.

i wonder what he must be thinking when he is -- if he is watching this. >> in 1982 larry king interviewed mark chapman via a remote feed from attica prison. >> mark, why are you blaming a book? >> i'm not blaming a book. i blame myself for crawling inside of the book. and i certainly awant to say tht j.d. salinger and "the catcher in the rye" didn't cause me to kill john lennon p in fact i wrote to j.d. salinger. i got his box number from someone. and i apologized to him for this. >> in october of 1980 chapman turns his resentment against phonies toward john lennon when he reads an article about the upcoming release of "double fantasy." >> this thing started, larry, when i got angry at lennon. i found a book in the library that showed him on the roof of the dakota. and you're familiar with the dakota. it's a very nice, sumptuous building. and falling in on myself, i'm angry at seeing him on the

dakota. and i say to myself, that phony, that bastard. i got that mad. i took the book home to my wife, and i said look, he's a phony. >> this is his calendar from september '79 to december of '80. and it leads you all the way through his manic months before lennon's death. >> writer jim gaines spent hundreds of hours between 1984 and 1985 interviewing mark chapman. >> and you can see it becomes crazier and crazier. >> chapman told gaines that for years his mind had been like a war zone, occupied by opposing forces he described as the big people and the little people. >> he had a whole population of little people living in his head, to whom he gave instructions, who had meetings about what his activities should be. it was extreme. >> seething with anger, chapman

buys a five-shot .38-caliber charter arm special revolver. >> the gun used to kill john lennon was traced by new york authorities to j & s enterprises, a gun shop a block away from the honolulu police department. the sales receipt shows the gun was purchased by mark chapman on october 27th of this year. it shows chapman paid $197 in cash for the gun. >> just before buying the gun chapman had quit his job as a security guard. when he signed out for the last time, he inscribed the name "john lennon" in the condominium's log book, then crossed it out. six days later, on october 29th, mark chapman flies to new york city. armed with the gun he bought in hawaii, he stakes out the dakota, waiting for his chance to take revenge on the hero he believes has betrayed him. but john lennon is not the only potential victim.

chapman, it seems, has back-ups. >> so he brought the gun with him, came to new york. and had planned at that point to kill someone who was a celebrity in order to bring attention to himself. >> lennon wasn't his only target. he had a list of substitute targets, if you will. if he couldn't get to lennon, then he would have attempted to kill walter cronkite, johnny carson, george c. scott, jackie kennedy onassis, or marlon brando. any of these people were his potential targets after lennon. lennon was his first choice. >> even so, chapman's agenda included a wild scheme to kill scott while the actor was on stage in a broadway show. >> the defendant said he had front row seats and his plan was to stand up in the middle of the show, take his gun, and fire into the body of george c. scott. it wasn't a particularly adroit

plan because when he went to the gun store to buy bullets in order to have ammunition for his gun he was told that in new york you cannot buy bullets for your gun. >> after two weeks in new york chapman flies back. he reveals to his wife that he is obsessed with john lennon and plans to kill him. she convinces chapman to make an appointment with a psychologist. but he doesn't keep it. in early december chapman flies back to new york, stopping over in atlanta to procure five .38-caliber hollow-point bullets. >> this was not someone who was interested in causing serious physical injury or assaulting someone. this was someone intent upon committing a murder. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order.

good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ all ] bigger! now let's say a friend invites you over and they have a really big, really fun pool. and then another friend invites you over who has a much smaller, less fun pool. which pool would you rather go to? does the big pool have piranhas? i believe so. does it have a dinosaur that can turn into a robot and chop the water like a karate ninja? yeah. wait, what? why would it not? [ male announcer ] it's not complicated. bigger is better. and at&t now covers more than 99% of all americans. ♪

on the morning of december 6th, 1980, mark david chapman, the man who would soon kill john lennon, arrives in new york city. he goes to the dakota shortly before noon and joins a small group of fans hovering near the entrance. chapman will spend the next two days waiting for john lennon. >> who was mark david chapman? >> on december 8th, 1980 mark david chapman was a very confused person. he was literally living inside of a paperback novel, j.d. salinger's "the catcher in the rye." he was vacillating between

suicide, between catching the first taxi home back to hawaii, between killing, as you said, an icon. >> around 3:00 a.m. on the morning of december 8th, chapman checks in with his wife back in hawaii. after hanging up chapman takes his bible from his suitcase and turns to the new testament book of john. he writes the name "lennon" after the words "the gospel according to john." around 8:00 a.m. he heads back to the dakota. >> i had some type of premonition that this was the last time i was going to leave my hotel room. i hadn't seen him up to that point. that's what makes it interesting. i wasn't even sure he was in the building. then i left the hotel room, bought a copy of "the catcher in the rye," signed it to holden caulfield from holden caulfield and then wrote underneath it "this is my statement." underlining the worth this. the emphasis on the word this. i had planned ton say anything after the shooting. that morning chapman meets

another fan named paul gorish. gorish, an amateur photographer, had come to know lennon personally. one of his photos was later used as the cover for len onon's posthumous single "watching the wheels." >> when i got there there was a guy standing outside the archway on the right side as you went into the dakota. he was standing there holding a copy of "doubling fantasy" in his left arm. and this guy approahed me and he said to me "are you waiting for lennon?" so i said yes. and he said do you work for john? and i said no. and he said, oh. he said, "my name is mark." he said, "i'm from hawaii." what struck me strange is when he said that he had a southern accent. so i said, well, if you're from hawaii, how come you have a southern accent? and he said, "well, originally i'm from georgia." and i said, oh. so i then said, well, where are you staying while you're in the city? and with that he turned to me and said, "why do you want to

know?" >> sometime before 5:00 p.m. lennon and ono leave their apartment to go to lennon's last recording session. chapman and gorish are both on the sidewalk out front. chapman silently hands lennon his copy of "double fantasy." >> mark came up on john's left and held out the album. and john turned and looked at him and said, "do you want me to sign that?" he nodded. john took the album. john said, "do you have a pen?" he handed him a pen. john started to sign the album. i had my camera on my neck. it looked like a good picture. so i looked through the viewfinder, and i took the photo. that was the photo of john signing the album for his killer. >> and he looked at me. he said, "is that all? do you want anything else?" and i felt then and now that he

knew something subconsciously, that he was looking into the eyes of the person that was going to kill him. >> once lennon and ono leave for the recording studio, only chapman, gorish, and the dakota doorman remain. around 8:00 p.m. gorish calls it a night. >> the guy mark came over to me and said, are you leaving? and i said yeah. he says, well, i don't know if i'd leave. you might not see him again. and i said what are you talking about? i see him all the time. he said, well, you never know, he might go to spain or something, and you'll never see him again. >> i wanted him to stay because i wanted out of there. there was a great part of me that didn't want to be there. >> you might have killed him the next day. >> oh, yes. i would have probably come back. >> after gorish leaves, chapman remains in front of the dakota. he waits patiently for some 2 1/2 hours. >> i was sitting at the inside of the arch of the dakota building, and it was dark. it was windy. jose, the doorman, was out along

the sidewalk. and i see this limousine pull up. and i said, this is it. and i stood up. and yoko got out. john was far behind, say, 20 feet, and he got out. i nodded to yoko when she walked by me. john came out. and he looked at me. and i think he recognized here's the fellow that i signed the album earlier. and he walked past me. i took five steps toward the street, turned, withdrew my charter arms .38 -- [ gunshots ] and fired five shots into his back. [ doctor ] and in a clinical trial versus lipitor,

crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100. way to go, crestor! yeah! getting to goal is a big deal, especially if you have high cholesterol plus any of these risk factors. because you could be at increased risk for plaque buildup in your arteries over time. so, when diet and exercise aren't enough to lower cholesterol, adding crestor can help. go, crestor! ♪

♪ oh, yeah [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone, like people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine, or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. crestor! yes! [ female announcer ] ask your doctor about crestor. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help.

i didn't even know if the bullets were going to work. and when they worked, i remember thinking, they're working, they're working. >> five bullets. the first misses, hitting a woepd of the dakota. the next two strike lennon in the left side of his back. two more hit his left shoulder. mortally wounded, lennon

staggers up five steps to the reception area and collapses. >> i stood there with the gun hanging limply down on my right side, and jose the doorman came over, and he's crying. and he is grabbing my arm and shaking my arm, and he shook the gun right out of my hand and he kicked the gun across the pavement and had somebody take it away. and i was just -- i was stunned. i didn't know what to do. i took "the catcher in the rye" out of my pocket. i paced. i tried to read it. i just couldn't wait till those police got there. i was just devastated. >> the first policemen are on the scene within two minutes and take control of chapman. just after, two more officers arrive, and immediately rush to aid lennon. >> officer frownberger and palmer carried him out to a radio car to take him to the hospital. of course, there was no ambulance on the way at that time. and my partner and i took chapman and put him in the radio car, take him to the station, read him his rights.

>> dr. steven lin is on call at roosevelt hospital. >> two police officers came rushing through the front door of the emergency department, literally carrying over their shoulders a limp body. they said, dr. lynn, we can't get any vital signs. >> also in the emergency room was alan weiss, a young producer from abc new york, who had been in a motorcycle accident. >> gunshot. gunshot in the chest. it's hitting the door now was the answer. at that moment a stretcher was wheeled in. six to eight police officers around it, trotting, running it back as fast as they could. >> we rushed into the trauma room. there was no pulse. there was no blood pressure. we had an unresponsive patient. >> they brought him in literally to the room that i'm lying outside of. the doctor ran in, some other medical people ran in, they pulled the curtain. >> we didn't know who our patient was at that moment in time. it wasn't until the nurses took

his wallet out of his pocket, as they always do in the process of identifying, and somebody said, "this says john lennon." >> one police officer stood next to another police officer and whispered "it's john lennon." >> we looked at the body in front of us, and all of us said this can't possibly be john lennon. but in fact it was. >> so i hear sobbing behind me. and i look behind me and i can see this woman is being brought in by a police officer. i ask the police officer who is that? and he said it's yoko ono. >> only option, the only way we could give him any possibility of surviving was to make an incision in his chest and to see if there was some way to stop the bleeding. >> and the most vivid memory that i have is john's chest is being -- is just open and it's just blood. literally saw the doctor's hands inside of his chest. >> we opened the chest. we found a chest full of blood. all of the blood vessels leaving the heart were completely destroyed.

we pumped fluid into the heart. i literally held john lennon's heart in my hand. we massaged the heart. we tried to restore flow. but there was absolutely nothing we could do. we pronounced john lennon dead on arrival at the roosevelt hospital that evening. silence fell over the emergency department. staff began to cry. we didn't quite know how to respond or how to react. it became my job to walk down to the end of the hall to talk to yoko ono. i walked into the room. i think that she knew as soon as i entered the door what i was going to say. >> there's muzak playing and it mutt have been about 10 after 11:00. the song "all my loving" starts to play. the song ends. a minute, two minutes later there's a scream. a shrill woman's voice screaming, "no, no, no, oh, no." it went on for a minute and a half and it was constantly

repeated. and then there was silence. >> and finally the head nurse brought in her husband's ring and gave it to her and she understood the finality of the act that had occurred. and the first thing that she said to me was, "please delay making the announcement. my son sean is probably at home sitting in front of the tv. i don't want him to find out about his father's death while watching a tv program." >> i don't think that it really hit me until i heard that muzak playing the song "all my loving." i called wabc, the newsroom, told them what i knew, that john lennon had been shot and as i understand it they passed it on to abc network and abc network made the decision to pass it on to howard cosell and frank gifford. and howard cosell made the -- broke the news during "monday night football." >> the news ripped through the air in shock waves. >> by 11:35 p.m., the word was out. almost immediately mourners began gathering outside the

dakota for a candlelight vigil. they sang beatles songs and chanted "give peace a chance." >> i just felt like, you know, an incredible weight was just pressing down on me. it was just extraordinarily, extraordinarily sad. >> it impacted all of us so severely. it was as if a friend or a family member had passed away. >> i think that one of the reasons that we felt that way about him is because we had embraced him as our own. >> on december 10th, john lennon was cremated in a private ceremony. four days later, on december 14th, millions of people around the world responded to yoko ono's request to pause for ten minutes of silence to remember john lennon.

on the morning of december 9th, mark chapman, the man who killed john lennon, was put in a bulletproof vest and taken by van to the new york city criminal courts building. while chapman was awaiting arraignment, police were searching his hotel room, looking for clues that might

reveal his motive. >> in the hotel room, we found kind of a display of all of his stuff, and we had a bible, a passport, photos, and a tape by todd rundgren, airline tickets, a letter of introduction from the young men's christian association, a place mat with a picture of "the wizard of oz," and a receipt from the ymca that he stayed previously to the sheraton. >> the stuff was laying there, laid out in such a way that he intended for someone to find it exactly the way it was laid out. >> how do you feel about taking this case? >> i feel good about it. >> jonathan marks, a former assistant u.s. attorney, is appointed to defend chapman. >> jonathan marks is asked about whether or not he might ask for a change of venue for the trial, and his response was certainly not at this point. he said, even if we held the trial in paris, people would know about it.

>> the fact that a lot of people are angry with mr. chapman and the fact that you're going to represent him, how do you feel about that? >> i am simply a lawyer representing a client. >> this wasn't a whodunit. the defendant remapd ined at th scene. there were witnesses who saw the shooting. he'd made no effort to flee the scene. it was clear from the initial investigation that the defendant was going to lodge an insanity defense. >> the first order of business was to have chapman's mental state evaluated. >> the only issue in this trial will be whether or not he was insane at the time of the shooting. >> this is the prison unit of bellevue hospital, where mark chapman, the alleged killer of former beatle john lennon, is being held on a second-floor cell amidst extraordinary security precautions by the department of corrections. >> defense counsel called on me and asked if i would help him on the chapman case. i agreed. >> forensic psychiatrist dr. daniel schwartz interviewed mark chapman on eight separate occasions for the defense.

>> clearly, mr. chapman knew what he was doing. he used a gun in an all too accurate way. he knew that it was a gun. he knew it could kill. he pointed it at the intended victim. and unfortunately, it worked. >> the serious question in this case is whether or not his mental illness impaired his ability to appreciate that what he was doing was wrong. simply being mentally ill does not acquit somebody. it's only if this mental illness impairs his ability to know and appreciate the nature and the consequence of his conduct, or that it's wrong. >> dr. schwartz believes that chapman's mental illness began in childhood. >> mr. chapman became seriously withdrawn at about the age of 9 or 10. it was about that age that he began imagining a whole world of

people, little people. in the living room. in the walls of his living room, and he was their emperor, their commander. and it was my clinical assessment that he was both a paranoid schizophrenic, as we understood the definition in those days, and suffering from bipolar disorder. i truly believe that when he went after john lennon, he was suicidal. john lennon was himself, had become himself. he believed that if he would kill himself he would be reborn, in killing lennon he was killing himself. >> mark david chapman at that point was a walking shell who didn't ever learn how to let out his feelings of anger, of rage, or disappointment. mark david chapman was a failure in his own mind. he wanted to become somebody important, larry. he didn't know how to handle being a nobody. mark david chapman struck out at

something he perceived to be phony, something he was angry at, to become something he wasn't, to become somebody. >> former assistant district attorney kim hogrefe doesn't buy it for a minute. >> left the courthouse with no comment. >> if he was obsessed with anything, it was bringing attention to himself. he was narcissistic, he was grandiose, he wanted to bring attention to himself. the fact that john lennon was the victim here was simply because john lennon was available, publicly available, and others were not. he wasn't crazed. he wasn't obsessed. he wasn't entitled to the insanity defense. we felt he was criminally responsible, that he did not have a mental disease or defect, and that whatever his mental state was, it did not prevent him from knowing the nature of his conduct and that it was wrong. >> with the evidence at hand, a grand jury indictment is expected. >> on june 22nd, 1981, just over six months after the murder and the day his trial is set to begin, chapman changes his plea

to guilty, against the advice of his defense team. >> when the defendant entered the guilty plea, i was disappointed by that fact. i was looking forward to the opportunity to prove the facts that we had assembled in a public trial. >> mark david chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life, and sent to the new york state penitentiary at attica. in his interview with larry king chapman claimed to have recovered from the mental illness that had led to his crime. >> it was me, larry. and i accept full responsibility for what i did. i have seen places where i am blaming the devil, and i hope that isn't kept going after this interview. i'm not blaming the devil. i'm blaming myself. but in a major sense, it wasn't me because i'm better now. i'm sorry for what i did. i realize now that i really ended a man's life. i just saw him as a

two-dimensional celebrity with no real feelings. he was an album cover to me. so what's better, bigger or smaller? [ all ] bigger! now let's say a friend invites you over and they have a really big, really fun pool. and then another friend invites you over who has a much smaller, less fun pool. which pool would you rather go to? does the big pool have piranhas? i believe so. does it have a dinosaur that can turn into a robot and chop the water like a karate ninja? yeah. wait, what? why would it not? [ male announcer ] it's not complicated. bigger is better. and at&t now covers more than 99% of all americans. ♪ there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order.

good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. "stubborn love" by the lumineers did you i did. email? so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house...

daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. driven to make car buying easy. we're car people, i know, you're probably looking at me thinking "thatweird, who's ever heard of car buying beieasy!?" right?! well, with new edmunds price promise it is. just compare cars from local price promise dealers and get an upfront price that's locked in! car buying with no haggling, and no stress? sfx: (slerrrp) you don't see that everyday. jingle: edmunds.com! get edmunds price promise today. you're an emailing, texting, master of the digital universe. but do you protect yourself? ♪ apparently not. when you access everything, you give everyone access to everything about you. but that's ok. while you do your thing... [ alert rings ] we'll be here at lifelock, doing our thing. watching out for things your credit card alone can't. [ alert rings ] and relentlessly protecting your identity.

get lifelock protection and live life free. [ alert rings ] in the years since john lennon's death, many people have tried to make sense of his murder. in the early 1990s, journalist and author jack jones interviewed chapman at length for his book "let me take you down: inside the mind of mark david chapman." >> mark is an unusual

individual. he's a sociopath, but he is much more intelligent than i think most of these people. i think his mind is capable of almost infinite self-deception. i believe unlike a lot of people he tries very hard to emphasize with other people. he tries to sense that owe people have pain also. it's mostly intellectual knowledge. he didn't really feel it. he wanted to hurt the world. chapman told me he fantasized in getting hold of a nuclear bomb and maybe blow up a small city, injuring and killing millions of people. >> chapman shot john lennon because he wanted his moment of glory in the sun. that's it. that's the conclusion that we came to. i stand by it to this day. >> we're back with jack jones, how do you react to those who say we shouldn't interview the mark david chapmans? there shouldn't be television shows or books, that we focus

attention on the wrong area? >> probably these are the same type of people who say we shouldn't be writing about or studying aids because it's a very unpleasant, deadly topic. we have an opportunity for a guy like mark chapman who has agreed to open himself up for exploration and study to hopefully prevent other mark david chapmans from coming along. people who criticize journalists for exploring people like that i think disappoint. >> it gives him publicity for this horrendous act he committed. the killers become as famous as the people they killed. and it's really unfortunate. >> as with almost any famous tragic event, conspiracy theories have sprouted up regarding the shooting of john lennon. the prevailing scenario has mark david chapman as a patsy, programmed by mysterious government operatives to kill lennon. there was absolutely no evidence

that he was assisted or aided by another person. he was simply someone who acted alone without assistance of other people. >> i've been through every fbi document in john's file. there's not one shred of evidence to suggest that the u.s. government had the least interest in john after 1972. >> what do you make of the conspiracy theories in the last the -- 12 years, cia, mind control, et cetera? >> against john lennon? >> yeah. >> hog wash. >> no one asked you to do it. no one prompted you to do it, no cabal or nothing? >> no they probably wish they would have had me. but they didn't. this was me doing it. >> more than 30 years after killing john lennon mark chapman remains in prison. he first became eligible for parole in the year 2000. he has been denied at least seven times since then. >> i think it's best for mark chapman to stay in psychiatric care as he is. he committed a heinous act.

whether or not he's been treated or cured, i can't tell you. i don't know. he did something that was horribly wrong. he changed the track in the life of the world, in my opinion. i think he needs to stay where he is. >> this guy murdered him. he shot him in the back which is what people don't realize, he shot him in the back. he's a coward. >> i don't think the killer of john lennon should ever be paroled. the damage that he wreaked on a wife, two sons, beatles fans around the world. i can't imagine there's anything he could do or say that would warrant parole. >> john lennon's widow yoko ono has repeatedly opposed chapman's release from prison. >> my husband john lennon was a very special man. a man of humble origin. he both liked and helped the whole world with his words and music. he tried to be a good power for

the world, and he was. he gave encouragement, inspiration and dreams to people, regardless of their race, creed and gender. for me, he was the other half of the sky. we were in love with each other at the most deepest of love at the last moment. for our son sean, he was the world. that world shattered when the subject pulled the trigger. for julian. it was losing his father twice. for the people of the world, it was as though the light went out for a moment and darkness prevailed. with this one act of violence, in those few seconds, the subject managed to change my whole life.

devastate his sons and bring deep sorrow and tears to the world. >> in 1985, new york city dedicated an area of central park, directly across from the dakota as strawberry fields, for one of lennon's most famous songs. countries from around the world donated trees. and the imagine mosaic centerpiece was a gift from the city of naples. tangible proof that the legacy of john lennon transcends borders and generations. >> i was walking down the street and i saw a kid probably no older than 16 or 17 wearing a t-shirt with john lennon's face on it. i thought this is really interesting. here he is, he died more than 30 years ago, and for this young person, he still had resonance. >> the best way to remember john

lennon is to be inspired by his optimism, his integrity, his clarity, and his love for his family. family. he was the real deal. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com she was young. she was beautiful. and she was in big trouble. >> the 20-year-old from seattle sits in italian jail, a prime suspect in the mysterious death of her roommate. >> is amanda knox a whore or a saint