Mark David Chapman

American homicide; a schizophrenic, he shot and killed John Lennon outside the door of his New York brownstone on 8 December 1980 at 10:50 PM EST, just hours after getting his autograph. A Beatles fan since he was ten, he signed his name "John Lennon" at motels before leaving Hawaii for New York.

Chapman was born to David and Kathryn within a year of their marriage. His father was an Air Force sergeant and his mother was a nurse. The family moved to Indiana where David enrolled at Purdue University for a degree in electrical engineering. His mother worked for three years while his father took care of him. His mother recalls that as an infant, he rocked and shook the crib to the point they had to take off the casters. When he was 12 he told his mother about his friends, "the little people."

The family moved to Decatur, Georgia where his father worked for an oil company. In 1964 his IQ was measured at 121, the lower end of the gifted scale. He had lots of friends, worked in the school library and filled his free time with projects. He collected coins, started a neighbourhood newspaper, opened a shop in the garage where he would oil and wash bicycle for 50 cents. He attended Sunday school, liked music and became a devoted Beatles fan.

Mark described his mother as "dreamish and moody" and afraid of getting old. His experience of his father was that of an unemotional, shy and reclusive man. He got involved in drugs the late 1960s and rebelled. He ran away from home, returning two weeks later. Chapman had a record of arrests from 1972, most recently 19 March 1980 for armed robbery and abduction. He had gone through life periods in which he was extremely religious and would not play Beatles' records because they had been considered more popular than Jesus. In August or September, 1975, he lost his virginity to a refugee worker. His parents were divorced in 1978.

He worked as a security guard while battling bouts of depression and thoughts of suicide.