The Killing of John Lennon Page #6

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New York City Police

have arrested and charged a suspect

in last night's murder

of John Lennon.

He's 25-year-old

David Chapman of Hawaii,

who police say had been in New York for

about a week, apparently stalking Lennon.

The police

describe Chapman as a "wacko".

Sources say he shot Lennon five times

as the musician returned to his apartment,

then dropped his gun

and waited for police.

Authorities say they do not know

of a motive for that killing.

Informed of Lennon's death, his former

songwriter partner, Paul McCartney, said:

"l can't take it. John was a great guy. He's

going to be missed by the whole world. "

As June Massell reports,

many of Lennon's fans and admirers

heard about his death

on late-night-radio music programmes.

[June] John Lennon will be remembered

as a gifted and talented musician.

The Beatles were

the top pop group in the world

from the time their first album

was released in 1964

until they broke up in 1970.

With Lennon at the time of the shooting

was his wife, Yoko Ono,

who Lennon once said

helped him find his identity.

When doctors told her Lennon was dead,

she cried, "Tell me it isn't true. "

June Massell,

ABC News, Chicago.

[Mark] I didn't care

what the doctors thought about me.

I was above and beyond that.

I was with a pure,

holy purpose

and there was nothing they could do

that would touch it.

I thought they were all phoneys.

I became a saviour,

a prophet.

The "Catcher in the Rye"

of my generation.

Hello, Mr Chapman.

How are you?

Have you had

a comfortable night?

I slept fine.

Good.

Do you know where you are?

Bellevue Hospital.

- Mm-hm. Right.

- Correct.

- Why are you here?

- For the murder of John Lennon.

[clears throat]

Did you kill John Lennon?

- You oughta know that.

- Yes, I do.

Next question.

Why did you kill John Lennon?

Well, that's tough to answer.

Probably, uh...

a number of different reasons.

- Let's start. I have a Iot of time.

- I'm sure you do.

A Iot of questions,

a Iot of answers.

You provide the answers.

I ask the questions.

So give me one reason.

Because I thought

he was a phoney.

- A phoney?

- Mm-hm.

- Didn't Iike his music, is that it?

- No, I actually Ioved his music.

You didn't Iike his Iyrics?

Well, I...

I thought I understood his Iyrics,

but I guess I didn't.

What's phoney

about John Lennon?

Have you ever

thought about death before?

Killing?

Killing? Yeah.

I have thought about death.

I have thought about killing.

I just killed a man.

Is that killing enough for you?

Do you ever think about suicide or taking

yourself out of pain some other way?

Yeah, I've thought about suicide.

I tried to wipe myself out

before I wiped John Lennon out.

- You did?

- Yeah.

And what happened?

I couldn't do it.

I was too chicken.

- You were?

- Yeah.

I went up on top

of the Empire State Building,

and, uh...

I wanted to blow my brains out.

- Why is that?

- I believe nobody's ever done it before.

It'd be all over the newspapers.

What stopped you?

Picturing myself

hitting the bottom.

The fear.

Fear of physical pain.

I pictured my brains

on the ground.

I thought

I still might be alive.

Do you have that same picture

in your head about John Lennon?

Do you think

he felt the pain you felt?

Well, I'm sure he felt pain.

I don't know.

I guess I didn't really know him.

Did he do something

to you personally?

[clears throat]

I don't want to talk any more.

I don't want to talk about the killing.

I'm trying to

block it out of my mind.

Why is that?

Why do you think?

I don't know.

- Have you ever killed anyone?

- No, I haven't.

- Have you ever seen someone dead?

- Yes.

Bullet wounds, blood?

Did you get excited about that?

I'm done talking.

It's conviction you want, is it?

- Or is it fame?

- We're done. I'm done talking.

- You certainly are.

- Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you, Mr Chapman.

It was great talking to you.

[PA] Stop there.

- Let's go and grab something after this.

- [PA] Clear.

- [men shout]

- [PA] Stop there.

[shouting gets louder]

[man] Hey, killer!

See you soon, killer.

[newsreader] Lennon's killer had

several days of psychiatric examination

under a 24-hour suicide watch,

before being moved to Rikers lsland jail

to a more secure cell

for his own protection

from other prisoners.

He spent his first two days

refusing food

following a threat

scrawled on a prison wall:

"You don't have much time left. "

"Soon, killer. Soon. "

[Mark] Within days, the lawyer

assigned to represent me withdrew.

This from a guy with a rep

for defending no-hope clients.

I began reading "Catcher" again,

and it was like I was reading a whole

other book from the one I'd read before,

Iike I was reading a blueprint

of what had happened to me.

I made a list

of 50 total coincidences.

It was like the whole killing

was set up by destiny,

just something

that was meant to be.

That's when I realised

John Lennon had been killed

to promote the reading

of "The Catcher in the Rye".

And that same electric current

passed through my body again,

and lit up

all the cells in my brain.

[roars]

I became euphoric, knowing now

there was a reason beyond myself

for what I had done.

[gunshots]

[newsreader] Shots have been fired as

Reagan left the Washington Hilton hotel.

White House officials

say the president was not hit,

but there are reports that three people

were wounded by gunfire.

Joe Ewog was there

when the shooting happened.

[Joe] A series of explosions

that sounded like firecrackers.

They'd gone into the back seat by

one of the Secret-Service agents. After...

- He got that from me.

-..swarming around the man with the gun.

They surged back towards where I was,

near one of the doors to the hotel.

They wrestled him to the ground,

then put him in a police car.

[newsreader] John Hinckley Jr

had become obsessed by Jodie Foster

and had imagined that she would be

impressed if he murdered the president.

Good idea. I had a backup Iist,

but Reagan wasn't on it.

I was going for Jackie Onassis,

George C Scott,

Johnny Carson,

if I couldn't get Lennon.

Very anxious.

Hyperventilating

and exhausted.

Cooperative.

Insatiable need for attention.

Have you seen

any other doctors at all?

Grandiose visions of himself.

Mood fluctuations.

Bingo.

Paranoid tendencies.

Rage.

What was the logic

behind all this?

Would you say

you loved the man?

Tell me about your mother.

Are you able to see that...

you're a separate person

from the person in the book?

[Mark] My mission was now

to promote "The Catcher in the Rye",

and I was gonna use my trial,

the trial of the century,

to promote

the reading of that book.

Two weeks before the trial,

Chapman has instructed his Iawyers

that he wishes to plead guilty.

In a statement today, Chapman

says that God had spoken to him

and wanted him

to plead guilty.

Defence lawyer Jonathan Marks

has asked judge Dennis Edwards

to have a panel re-examine him

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