PICTURED: Latest mugshot of John Lennon's killer Mark Chapman released ahead of parole hearing
A new picture of John Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, has been realesed ahead of his latest parole hearing this week, six years after his last mugshot was released.
Chapman killed Lennon outside the singer's apartment in New York in 1980 and the 66-yer-old looks like he has shed some weight and hair since the last mugshot was taken in 2012. Ever since he became eligible for parole back in 2000, Chapman has filed nine applications but has been denied every single time. The last time he applied, in 2016, it was rejected because of the "premeditated and celebrity-seeking nature of the crime". Chapman had shot Lennon four times in front of his wife, Yoko Ono.
After he was arrested, he admitted to killing the singer because he wanted to be famous. He was subsequently sentenced to 20 years to life at the Wende Correctional Facility after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The latest mugshot had been taken January this year but had only been released to the public on August 20, reported the Daily Mail.
The exact date of the parole hearing has not been made public and it is reported it will be held in private. The decision from the hearing could take up to two weeks to be made known. Lennon's wife Ono has said that Chapman should not be released and that she is afraid for the safety of their two sons, Julian and Sean, as well as herself.
Scores of Beatles fans gathered at Strawberry Fields in Central Park, which is a memorial to the murdered singer close to where he was murdered, to speak out about the possible release. During the last parole hearing, Chapman said that he had rediscovered religion while he was in prison. He also admitted that what he did was wrong and that the crime was "premeditated, selfish and evil".
The man has also spoken about receiving letters from Lennon's fans and how the murder has affected their lives. Lennon would have turned 77 on August 21 if he was still alive. Chapman said: "At that time, I wasn't thinking about anybody else, just me. But now, you know, obviously, through people's letters and through things I hear a lot of people were affected here. I am sorry for causing that type of pain. I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory." Chapman is currently in police custody at the prison.
Gloria Chapman, his wife whom he got married to just 18 months before he committed the murder, has conjugal visits with him to this day. His stepsister, Linda Walker, told the publication that his own family is hoping that he will be denied parole and will remain in jail. She has described how the 63-year-old man used to send letters to her mother, Reathy Breteler, who was married to Chapman's father till he died in 1995, in an effort to get in touch with his father who wanted nothing to do with him.
Chapman believes that his stepmother purposely kept the letters from his father and has expressed resentment for the marriage. Walker said: "He was trying to get to his dad via my mother. He was writing letters and David's request was 'don't open them'. He just said he didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore." The letters stopped after his father died but Walker is afraid that he might try to contact her mother if he is set free.
Walker has said that she will try to get a restraining order against him but is also worried that by the time she gets to do that it might be too late. She said: "If he ever got out, holy moly. I don't think he would find my mom, because she's married again, she's got a different last name. She's not living a high on the hog life, and there's no way that she could hide anywhere or do anything about it. She just stays in her teeny apartment and tries to make best of her life, the rest of her life."
The family is quite literally terrified about what he could do to them because of his violent nature and a source close to Chapman's stepmother told the Daily Mail: "They live in fear of this man and that he could do God knows what to them."