Details of the parole hearing of John Lennon's killer Mark Chapman have surfaced. Apparently he told the officials on the parole board that he shot the former Beatle because he wanted to "steal" his fame, and that, therefore, in some ways he had achieved his goal, although he added that in other ways: "I'm a bigger nobody than I was before"
Admitting he had considered killing other celebrities, and had gone to New York on a previous occasion with the intent of shooting Lennon, Chapman said: "It was just a tremendous compulsion of just feeling this big hole. Of being what I thought was a big nobody, a big nothing, and I couldn't let it go. And it just kept going very strongly, and I couldn't stop it."
Chapman continued that he deserved "nothing, because of the pain and suffering I caused, I deserve exactly what I've gotten right now".
As previously reported, the parole board refused Chapman parole because he had "a clear lack of respect for life" and subjected Lennon's widow Yoko Ono to "monumental suffering by her witnessing the crime".