On
this date, December 8, 1980, John Lennon is murdered
by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota
in New York City. I will post information about this killer from Wikipedia and
other links.
Mark David Chapman
|
|
Born
|
May 10, 1955
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. |
Nationality
|
American
|
Height
|
178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
|
Criminal
penalty
|
Twenty years to life imprisonment
|
Criminal
status
|
Incarcerated at Wende Correctional Facility
|
Spouse(s)
|
Gloria Abe
(m. 1979) |
Parent(s)
|
David Curtis Chapman
Diane Elizabeth Chapman |
Mark David Chapman
(born May 10, 1955) is an American prison inmate who murdered musician John Lennon on December 8, 1980. Chapman shot
Lennon outside The Dakota apartment building in Manhattan.
Chapman fired at Lennon five times, hitting him four times in the back. Chapman
remained at the crime scene and began reading J.
D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye until the police
arrived and arrested him. He repeatedly said that the novel was his statement.
Chapman's
legal team intended to mount an insanity
defense based on expert testimony that he was in a delusional psychotic
state at the time of the killing. As the trial approached, Chapman instructed
his lawyers that he wanted to plead guilty, based on what he had decided was
the will of God. The judge allowed the plea change without further psychiatric
assessment after Chapman denied hearing voices, and sentenced him to a prison
term of 20 years to life with a stipulation that mental health
treatment be provided. Chapman has been imprisoned since the murder and has
been denied parole nine times amidst campaigns (most notably by Yoko Ono)
against his release.
Personal
background
Chapman
was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1955. His father, David
Curtis Chapman, was a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and his mother, Diane
Elizabeth (née Pease), was a nurse. His younger sister, Susan, was born seven
years later. Chapman stated that as a boy, he lived in fear of his father, who
he said was physically abusive towards his mother and unloving
towards him. Chapman began to fantasize about having king-like power over a
group of imaginary "little people" who lived in the walls of his
bedroom. Chapman attended Columbia High School in Decatur,
Georgia. By the time he was fourteen, Chapman was using drugs, skipping
classes, and he once ran away from home to live on the streets of Atlanta for
two weeks. He said that he was bullied at school because he was not a good
athlete.
In
1971, Chapman became a born again Presbyterian
and distributed Biblical tracts. He met his first girlfriend,
Jessica Blankenship. He began work as a YMCA summer camp
counselor; he was very popular with the children, who nicknamed him
"Nemo". He won an award for Outstanding Counselor and was made
assistant director. Those who knew him in the caretaking professions
unanimously called him an outstanding worker. A friend recommended The Catcher in the Rye to Chapman, and
the story eventually took on great personal significance for him, to the extent
that he reportedly wished to model his life after its protagonist,
Holden Caulfield. After graduating from Columbia
High School, Chapman moved for a time to Chicago and played guitar in churches
and Christian nightspots while his friend did impersonations. He worked
successfully for World Vision with Vietnamese
refugees at a
resettlement camp at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas,
after a brief visit to Lebanon for the same work. He was named an area coordinator
and a key aide to the program director, David Moore, who later said that
Chapman cared deeply for the children and worked hard. Chapman accompanied
Moore to meetings with government officials, and President Gerald Ford
shook his hand.
Chapman
joined his girlfriend, Jessica Blankenship, as a student at Covenant
College, an evangelical Presbyterian
liberal
arts college in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. However,
Chapman fell behind in his studies and became obsessed with guilt over having
an affair. He started having suicidal thoughts and began to feel like a failure. He
dropped out of Covenant College, and his girlfriend broke off their
relationship soon after. He returned to work at the resettlement camp, but left
after an argument. Chapman worked as a security guard, eventually taking a
week-long course to qualify as an armed guard. He again attempted college but
dropped out. He went to Hawaii and then began contemplating suicide. In 1977,
Chapman attempted suicide by carbon
monoxide asphyxiation. He connected a hose to his car's exhaust pipe, but
the hose melted and the attempt failed. A psychiatrist admitted him to Castle
Memorial Hospital for clinical depression. Upon his release, he began working
at the hospital. His parents began divorce proceedings, and his mother joined
Chapman in Hawaii.
In
1978, Chapman went on a six-week trip around the world, inspired partly by the
film Around the World in Eighty
Days, visiting Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Beirut, Geneva,
London, Paris and Dublin.
He began a relationship with his travel agent, a Japanese-American
woman named Gloria Abe. They married on June 2, 1979. Chapman went to work at
Castle Memorial Hospital as a printer, working alone rather than with staff and
patients. He was fired by the Castle Memorial Hospital, rehired, then got into
a shouting match with a nurse and quit. He took a job as a night security guard
and began drinking heavily. Chapman developed a series of obsessions, including
artwork, The Catcher in the Rye, music, and John Lennon. In September
1980, he wrote a letter to a friend, Lynda Irish, in which he stated, "I'm
going nuts." He signed the letter, "The Catcher in the Rye."
Chapman had no criminal convictions up to this point.
Plan
to murder John Lennon
Chapman
allegedly started planning to kill Lennon three months prior to the murder.
He
had been a big Beatles fan, idolizing Lennon, and played guitar himself, but
turned against him after becoming a Christian; he was angered at Lennon's
comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." In the South, there were demonstrations, album
burnings, boycotts, and projectiles were thrown. Some members of Chapman's prayer
group made a joke "It went, 'Imagine, imagine if John Lennon was
dead.'" Chapman's childhood friend Miles McManushe recalls his referring
to the song as "communist." Jan Reeves, sister of one of Chapman's
best friends, reports that Chapman "seemed really angry toward John
Lennon, and he kept saying he could not understand why John Lennon had said it
[that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus]. According to Mark, there
should be nobody more popular than the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it was blasphemy."
Chapman
had later also been influenced by reading in a library book (John Lennon:
One Day at a Time by Anthony Fawcett) about Lennon's life in New York.
According to his wife Gloria, "He was angry that Lennon would preach love
and peace but yet have millions [of dollars]." Chapman later said that
"He told us to imagine no possessions, and there he
was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates,
laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and
built a big part of their lives around his music."
He
said that he chose Lennon after seeing him on the cover of The Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band. He also recalls having listened to Lennon's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album
in the weeks before the murder and has stated: "I would listen to this
music and I would get angry at him, for saying that he didn't believe in God... and that he didn't
believe in the Beatles. This was another thing that angered me, even though
this record had been done at least 10 years previously. I just wanted to scream
out loud, 'Who does he think he is, saying these things about God and heaven
and the Beatles?' Saying that he doesn't believe in Jesus and things like that.
At that point, my mind was going through a total blackness of anger and rage.
So I brought the Lennon book home, into this The Catcher in the Rye
milieu where my mindset is Holden Caulfield and anti-phoniness."
Chapman
also said that he had a hit list of people in mind, including David
Bowie, Johnny Carson, Marlon
Brando, Walter Cronkite, Elizabeth
Taylor, George C. Scott and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but John
Lennon seemed to be the easiest to find. He separately said that he was
particularly infatuated by Lennon. Chapman's planning has been described as
"muddled." Chapman went to New York in October 1980, intending to
kill Lennon. He left in order to obtain ammunition from his unwitting friend in
Atlanta, Dana Reeves, and returned to New York in November.
After
being inspired by the film Ordinary
People, Chapman returned to Hawaii, telling his wife he had been
obsessed with killing Lennon. He showed her the gun and bullets, but she did
not inform the police or mental health services. He made an appointment to see
a clinical psychologist, but before it occurred
he flew back to New York, on December 6, 1980. At one point, he considered
committing suicide by jumping from the Statue
of Liberty. Chapman says that the message "Thou Shalt Not Kill"
flashed on the TV at him, and was also on a wall hanging put up by his wife in
their apartment. On the night before the murder, Chapman and his wife discussed
on the phone about getting help with his problems by first working on his
relationship with God.
On
the day before the killing, Chapman accosted singer-songwriter James
Taylor at the 72nd Street subway station. According to
Taylor, "The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with
maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and
his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with
John Lennon." He also reportedly offered cocaine to a
taxi driver.
On
the day of the murder, David Bowie was appearing on Broadway in the play The Elephant Man. "I was second on
his list," Bowie later said. "Chapman had a front-row ticket to The
Elephant Man the next night. John and Yoko were supposed to sit front-row
for that show, too. So the night after John was killed there were three empty
seats in the front row. I can’t tell you how difficult that was to go on. I
almost didn’t make it through the performance.”
Murder
of John Lennon
Further
information: Death of John Lennon
On
December 8, 1980, Chapman left his room at the Sheraton
Hotel, leaving personal items behind that the police would later find, and
bought a copy of The Catcher in the Rye in which he wrote
"This is my statement", signing it "Holden
Caulfield." He then spent most of the day near the entrance to The Dakota
apartment building where Lennon lived, talking to fans and the doorman. Early
in the morning, a distracted Chapman missed seeing Lennon step out of a cab and
enter the Dakota. Later in the morning, Chapman met Lennon's housekeeper who
was returning from a walk with their five-year-old son Sean.
Chapman reached in front of the housekeeper to shake Sean's hand and said that
he was a beautiful boy, quoting Lennon's song "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)."
Around 5:00 p.m., Lennon and Ono left The Dakota for a photo shoot with
photographer Annie Leibovitz and a recording session at Record Plant Studios. As they walked toward
their limousine,
Chapman shook hands with Lennon and asked for him to sign a copy of his album, Double
Fantasy. Amateur photographer Paul Goresh took a photo of Lennon
signing Chapman's album. Chapman later said in an interview that he tried to
get Goresh to stay, and that he asked another Lennon fan lingering at the
building's entrance to go out with him that night. He suggested that if the girl
had accepted his invitation, or the photographer had stayed, he would not have
murdered Lennon that evening; but he probably would have tried another day.
Around
10:50 p.m., the Lennons' limousine returned to the Dakota. Lennon and Ono
got out, passed Chapman and walked toward the archway entrance of the building.
From the street behind them, Chapman fired five shots from a .38
special revolver,
four of which hit Lennon in the back and left shoulder, puncturing the left lung and left subclavian
artery.
At
the time, one newspaper reported that before Chapman fired, he softly called
out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a crouched position. Chapman said
that he does not recall saying anything and that Lennon did not turn around.
Chapman
remained at the scene, appearing to be reading The Catcher in the Rye,
until the police arrived. The police officers who first
responded, recognizing that Lennon's wounds were severe, decided not to wait
for an ambulance and rushed him to Roosevelt Hospital in a squad car. Chapman was
arrested without incident. In his statement to police three hours later,
Chapman stated, "I’m sure the big part of me is Holden
Caulfield, who is the main person in the book. The small part of me must be
the Devil."
Lennon was pronounced dead by Dr. Stephan Lynn at 11:07 p.m. at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital
Center.
Legal
process
Chapman
was charged with second
degree murder. He told police that he had used hollow-point bullets "because
they are more deadly" and "to ensure Lennon's death". Gloria
Chapman, who had known of her husband's preparations for killing Lennon but
took no action, was not charged. Chapman later said that he harbored a
"deep-seated resentment" toward his wife, "that she didn't go to
somebody, even the police, and say, 'Look, my husband's bought a gun and he
says he's going to kill John Lennon'."
Mental
state assessment
More
than a dozen psychologists and psychiatrists met with Chapman in the six months
prior to trial—three for the prosecution, six for the defense, and several more
on behalf of the court. A battery of standard diagnostic procedures and over
200 hours of clinical interviews were conducted. All six defense experts
concluded that Chapman was psychotic; five diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia, while the sixth felt
his symptoms were more consistent with manic
depression. The three prosecution experts declared that his delusions
fell short of psychosis, and instead diagnosed various personality disorders. The court-appointed
experts concurred with the prosecution's examiners that he was delusional, yet competent to stand trial. In the examinations,
Chapman was more cooperative with the prosecution's mental health experts than
with those for the defense, possibly (according to one psychiatrist) because he
did not wish to be considered "crazy", and persuaded himself that the
defense experts only declared him insane because they were hired to do so.
The
Rev. Charles McGowan, who had been pastor of Chapman's old church, Chapel Woods
Presbyterian in Decatur, Ga., visited Chapman as well, and told him of his
conviction that religion held the key to his crime. "I believe there was a
demonic power at work," he said. Chapman initially embraced his old religion
with new fervor as a result; but after McGowan revealed information to the
press that Chapman had told him in confidence, Chapman disavowed his renewed
interest in Christianity and reverted to his initial explanation: that he had
killed Lennon to promote the reading of The Catcher in the Rye. When
asked why it was so important for people to read the book, Chapman said he
"didn't know" and "didn't really care either—that was not his
job."
Guilty
plea
Chapman's
first court-appointed lawyer, Herbert Adlerberg, withdrew from the case amid
threats of lynching. Police feared that Lennon fans might storm the hospital so
they transferred Chapman to Rikers
Island for his personal safety.
At
the initial hearing in January 1981, Chapman's new lawyer, Jonathan Marks,
entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. In February,
Chapman sent a handwritten statement to The New York Times urging everyone to read The
Catcher in the Rye, calling it an "extraordinary book that holds many
answers." The defense team sought to establish witnesses as to Chapman's
mental state at the time of the killing. It was reported they were confident he
would be found not guilty by reason of insanity, in which case he would have
been committed to a state mental
hospital and received treatment.
However,
in June, Chapman told Marks that he wanted to drop the insanity defense and
plead guilty. Marks objected with "serious questions" over Chapman's
sanity, and legally challenged his competence to make this decision. In the
pursuant hearing on June 22, Chapman said that God had told him to plead guilty
and that he would not change his plea or ever appeal, regardless of his
sentence. Marks told the court that he opposed Chapman's change of plea but
that Chapman would not listen to him. Judge Dennis Edwards refused a further
assessment, saying that Chapman had made the decision of his own free will,
and declared him competent to plead guilty.
Sentencing
hearing
On
August 24, 1981, the sentencing hearing took place. Two experts gave
evidence on Chapman's behalf. Judge Edwards interrupted Dorothy Lewis, a research psychiatrist who was
relatively inexperienced in the courtroom, indicating that the purpose of the
hearing was to determine the sentence and that there was no question of
Chapman's criminal responsibility. Lewis had maintained that Chapman's decision
to change his plea did not appear reasonable or explicable, and she implied
that the judge did not want to allow an independent competency assessment. The
district attorney argued that Chapman committed the murder as an easy route to
fame. When Chapman was asked if he had anything to say, he rose and read the
passage from The Catcher in the Rye, when Holden tells his little sister,
Phoebe, what he wants to do with his life:
Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.
The
judge ordered psychiatric treatment for Chapman during his incarceration and
sentenced him to 20-years-to-life, 5 years less than the maximum sentence of
25-years-to-life. Chapman was given five years less than the maximum because he
pleaded guilty to second degree murder, thereby avoiding the time and expense
of a trial.
Imprisonment
In
1981, Chapman was imprisoned at Attica, outside of Buffalo,
New York. After Chapman fasted for 26 days in February 1982, the New York State Supreme Court
authorized the state to force feed him. Martin Von Holden, the director of the
Central New York Psychiatric Center, said that Chapman still refused to eat
with other inmates but agreed to take liquid nutrients. Chapman was confined to
a Special Handling Unit (SHU) for violent
and at-risk prisoners, in part due to concern that he might be harmed by
Lennon's fans in the general population. There were 105 prisoners in the
building who were "not considered a threat to him," according to the New York State
Department of Correctional Services. He had his own prison cell, but spent
"most of his day outside his cell working on housekeeping and in the
library."
Chapman
worked in the prison as a legal clerk and kitchen helper. He was barred from
participating in the Cephas Attica workshops, a charitable organization that
helps inmates to adjust to life outside prison. He was also prohibited from
attending the prison's violence and anger management classes due to concern for
his safety. Chapman reportedly likes to read and write short
stories. At his parole board hearing in 2004, he described his plans;
"I would immediately try to find a job, and I really want to go from place
to place, at least in the state, church to church, and tell people what
happened to me and point them the way to Christ." He also said that he
thought that there was a possibility he could find work as a farmhand or return
to his previous trade as a printer.
Chapman
is in the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed one conjugal
visit a year with his wife, since he accepted solitary confinement. The program allows him
to spend up to 42 hours alone with his wife in a specially built prison home.
He also gets occasional visits from his sister, clergy, and a few friends. In
2004, James Flateau, a spokesman for the state's Department of Correctional
Services, said that Chapman had been involved in three "minor
incidents" between 1989 and 1994 for delaying an inmate count and refusing
to follow an order. On May 15, 2012, Chapman was transferred to the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden,
New York, which is east of Buffalo.
Parole
applications and campaigns
As
the result of his sentence of 20-years-to-life, Chapman first became eligible
for parole in 2000, and is entitled to a hearing every two years. Since that
time, Chapman has been denied parole nine times by a three-member board.
Shortly before Chapman's first hearing, Yoko Ono
sent a letter to the board opposing his release from prison. In addition, New York State Senator Michael
Nozzolio, chairman of the Senate Crime Victims, Crime and Correction
Committee, wrote to Parole Board Chairman Brion Travis saying: "It is the
responsibility of the New York State Parole Board to ensure that public safety
is protected from the release of dangerous criminals like Chapman."
At
the 50-minute hearing in 2000, Chapman said that he was not a danger to
society. The parole board concluded that releasing Chapman would
"deprecate the seriousness of the crime and serve to undermine respect for
the law" and that Chapman's granting of media interviews represented a
continued interest in "maintaining your notoriety." They noted that
although Chapman had a good disciplinary record while in prison, he had been in
the SHU and didn't access "anti-violence
and/or anti-aggression programming." Robert Gangi, a lawyer for the
Correctional Association of New York, said that he thought it unlikely Chapman
would ever be freed because the board would not risk the "political
heat" of releasing Lennon's killer. In 2002, the parole board stated again
that releasing Chapman after 22 years in prison would "deprecate the seriousness"
of the crime, and that while his behavioral record continued to be positive, it
was no predictor of his potential community behavior. The parole board held a
third hearing in 2004, and declined parole yet again. One of the reasons given
by the board was that Chapman had subjected Ono to "monumental suffering
by her witnessing the crime." Another factor was concern for Chapman's
safety; several Lennon fans had threatened to kill him if he were released.
Ono's letter opposing his release stated that Chapman would not be safe outside
of prison. The board reported that its decision was based on the interview, a
review of records and deliberation. Around 6,000 people had signed an online
petition against Chapman's release by this time.
In
October 2006, the parole board held a 16-minute hearing and concluded that his
release would not be in the best interest of the community or his own personal
safety. On December 8, 2006, the 26th anniversary of Lennon's death, Yoko Ono
published a one-page advertisement in several newspapers saying that December 8
should be a "day of forgiveness," and that she was not yet sure if
she was ready to forgive Chapman. Chapman's fifth hearing took place on August
12, 2008. He was denied parole "due to concern for the public safety and
welfare." On July 27, 2010, in advance of Chapman's scheduled sixth parole
hearing, Ono said that she would again oppose parole for Chapman stating that
her safety, that of John's sons, and Chapman's would be at risk. She added,
"I am afraid it will bring back the nightmare, the chaos and confusion [of
that night] once again." On August 11, 2010, the parole board postponed
the hearing until September, stating that it was awaiting the receipt of
additional information to complete Chapman's record. On September 7, the board
denied Chapman's latest parole application, with the panel stating
"release remains inappropriate at this time and incompatible with the
welfare of the community."
Chapman's
seventh parole hearing was held before a three-member board on August 22, 2012.
The following day, the denial of his application was announced, with the board
stating, “Despite your positive efforts while incarcerated, your release at
this time would greatly undermine respect for the law and tend to trivialize
the tragic loss of life which you caused as a result of this heinous,
unprovoked, violent, cold and calculated crime.” Chapman's eighth parole
application was denied in August 2014. At the hearing, Chapman said, "I am
sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory."
"I found my peace in Jesus," he continued. "I know him. He loves
me. He has forgiven me. He has helped in my life like you wouldn't believe."
Chapman's ninth parole application was denied on August 28, 2016, at which
Chapman said he now saw his crime as being "premeditated, selfish and
evil". His next parole hearing is scheduled for August 2018.
Impact
Following
the murder, and for the first six years in Attica, Chapman refused all requests
for interviews. James R. Gaines interviewed him and wrote a
three-part, 18,000-word People magazine series in February and March
1987. Chapman told the parole board he regretted the interview. Chapman later
gave a series of audio-taped interviews to Jack Jones of the Democrat and Chronicle. In 1992 Jones
published a book, Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David
Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon.
Also
in 1992, Chapman gave two television interviews. On December 4, 1992, 20/20 aired an interview that he gave to
Barbara
Walters, his first television interview since the shooting. On December 17,
1992, Larry
King interviewed Chapman on his program Larry
King Live. In 2000, with his first parole hearing approaching, Jack
Jones asked Chapman to tell his story for Mugshots, a CourtTV program.
Chapman refused to go on camera but, after praying over it, consented to tell
his story in a series of audiotapes.
Chapman's
experiences during the weekend on which he committed the murder have been
turned into a feature-length movie called Chapter 27, in which he is played by Jared Leto.
The film was written and directed by Jarrett
Schaefer and is based on the Jones book. The film's title is a reference to
The Catcher in the Rye, which has 26 chapters. Chapter 27
premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2007 and
received polarized reactions from critics.[citation needed] The film had a
limited release in theaters in the United States in March 2008. Chapter 27
was released widely onto DVD on September 30, 2008. Another film was made
before the feature film entitled The Killing of John Lennon starring
Jonas Ball as Chapman, which documents Chapman's life before and up to the
murder and portrays Chapman in a somewhat sympathetic light. The film features Ball
as Chapman narrating the film and states that all the words are Chapman's own.
A
number of conspiracy theories have been published, based
on CIA and FBI surveillance of
Lennon due to his left-wing activism, and on the actions of Mark Chapman in the
murder or subsequent legal proceedings. Barrister and journalist Fenton Bresler
raised the idea in a book published in 1990. Liverpool playwright Ian Carroll,
who has staged a drama conveying the theory that Chapman was manipulated by a
rogue wing of the CIA, suggests Chapman wasn't so crazy that he
couldn't manage a long trip from Hawaii to New York shortly prior to the
murder. Claims include that Chapman was a Manchurian candidate, including speculation on
links to the CIA's Project MKULTRA. At least one author has argued
that forensic evidence proves Chapman did not commit
the murder, while others have criticized the theories as based on possible or
suspected connections and circumstances.
In
1982, Rhino Records released a compilation of
Beatles-related novelty and parody songs, called Beatlesongs.
It featured a cover caricature of Chapman by William Stout. Following its
release, Rhino recalled the record and replaced it with another cover. New
York-based band Mindless Self Indulgence released a track
entitled "Mark David Chapman" on their album If. Irish band The
Cranberries recorded a song called "I Just Shot John Lennon" for their
1996 album To the Faithful Departed. It cites
events that took place outside the Dakota on the night of Lennon's murder. The
title of the song comes from Chapman's own words.
Austin,
Texas-based art rock band ...And You Will Know Us by
the Trail of Dead have also released a song called "Mark David
Chapman" from their 1999 album Madonna.
Julian
Cope's 1988 album Autogeddon contains a song called "Don't Call
Me Mark Chapman" whose lyrics suggest it is told from the point of view of
Lennon's murderer. Filipino band Rivermaya
released a song called "Hangman (I Shot the Walrus)" on their album Atomic Bomb (1997), supposedly written from
Mark Chapman's point of view.
Chapman's
obsession with the central character and message of the The Catcher in the Rye added to
controversy about the novel. Some links have been drawn between Chapman's and
the book's themes of adolescent sensitivity and depression on the one hand, and
anti-social and violent thoughts on the other. This connection was made in the
play Six Degrees of Separation and
its film adaptation by the character played by Will Smith.
Links
have sometimes been drawn between Chapman's actions and those of other killers
or attempted killers. John Hinckley, who only months later tried to assassinate
President Ronald Reagan, was also associated with The
Catcher in the Rye. Furthermore, John Hinckley's father, John Hinckley, Sr,
was president of World Vision, for whom Chapman was employed. A writer
who experienced mental illness in the same city as Jared
Loughner has suggested that examples such as Chapman's show the need to
challenge stigma about mental health problems and ensure there
are good community mental health services
including crisis intervention.
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