I think Denis Leary already managed to do that one (quite well, I might add).
I actually knew Chapman and “he was nuts” is the correct answer.
Surprisingly therapy has helped. He’s now a lot more rational than he was (or at least he was back when I knew him) and I believe he now sincerely regrets killing Lennon. Of course part of this regret may be due to his being incarcerated for the crime.
And no New York did not have the death penalty available back in the 1980s. Not until the late 1990s and I don’t believe that anyone has been executed in the state since the sentence was reintroduced.
IIRC, when Chapman had to sign out on his last day of work (a week or so before the murder), he signed his name as “John Lennon”.
One of the saddest things about John Lennon’s death is that some people intertwine the story with that of…Ronald Reagan. That would have made Lennon’s head spin. :rolleyes:
So you’re saying that Ronald Reagan had John Lennon shot?
I knew it!
Actually New York did have a death penalty in 1980 when Lennon was killed. However, Chapman would not have been eligible for the death penalty as the law then existed.
The death penalty in New York, along with the rest of the nation, was ruled unconstitutional by the USSC’s Furman decision in 1972 until the Gregg decision restored it in 1976. The death penalty was removed from the New York State Penal Code in 1984 and was restored in 1995.
Six people have been sentenced to death since 1995 but no one has been executed. Three of the death sentences have been overturned on appeal and the most recent appeal (People v. Stephen LaValle) in June 2004 would also affect the three remaining sentences so they will undoubtedly also be overturned.
The last person actually executed in New York was Eddie Mays in 1963.
I like the comparison between the letters better - “amazingly it seems to be the same handwriting as Stephen King’s” - apart from the letters I, t, y, etc.
And, OMG, did you know that the $20 bill can be folded so it looks like the WTC is on fire??? If it weren’t for this website, I never would have known!! This guy is a genius!
The two “as” he has circled don’t even look the same. One is a perfect sideways “8” the other looks more like a flying bird.
He shot Stalin to impress Reagan?
No, vice versa. 
I have it on good authority…
Ok, shaky authority…
Remember Paul is dead? I buried Paul? yada yada yada WELL IT WAS TRUE! He died, the Beatles found a look-alike replacement for him.
But in the MOST ironic twist (truth IS indeed stranger than fiction…) Paul only faked his death. He secretly moved to Woodstock, NY. And changed his name to Mark David Chapman…
MY Beatles… MY Beatles… MY Beatles
If Lennon was shot and killed in 1971 - when he was having folks like Jerry Rubin sleep on his sofa, then I would entertain the idea of a conspiracy. But by 1980, his music was adult contemporary and soft rock. Lennon’s assassination for political motives, at that time, makes about as much sense as kidnapping Phil Collins…
…though around that time they did put Christopher Cross in the Witness Protection Program. He hasn’t been heard from since.
I believe that Chapman thought that he was the ‘real’ John Lennon, and that John Lennon was an impostor (keep in mind Lennon sort of dissapeared from the public eye for a few years, and made his comeback in 1980),
So that’s why Genesis jumped the shark around that time!!!
Okay, let me see if I’ve got this straight:
Yoko hired Chapman to kill Lennon so she could screw Paul, who wanted to impress the shit out of Reagan, who was Judy Collins’ foster parent.
Right?
Oh, and Christopher Cross? No one’s heard anything from him because he got caught in a vortex of his own suck and vanished.
Well, not a reason for murder, but he had a point with that one.
I’d love to check the charitable contribution records for people like Lennon, Steisand, etc. It would be really cool if they would give away enough money every year so that they end up living on a $30-40,000 annual income (I’m being generous).
Holy shit! That guy! Years and years ago, I saw Stephen King give a lecture (must’ve been around the time of the release of the the unabridged The Stand) and that guy was sitting about two rows in front of me. Got up in the middle of the question and answer period, clutching a grocery bag full of paper (important evidence, I assume) and started going off about… well, about all that crap on the website. Except it was funnier in person. After about thirty seconds of crazy, two burly dudes in the audience stood up and escorted him outside.
Shit, never thought I’d hear about him again…