REPORTJohn Lennon’s Killer Denied Parole for Eighth Time

The man who tragically murdered Beatles singer and musician John Lennon was denied release from prison in his eighth appearance before a parole board, correction officials said on Friday.

The three-member board’s decision to keep 59-year-old Mark David Chapman in prison came after a hearing on Wednesday, August 20.

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On December 8, 1980, Chapman fired five fatal shots at John outside the Dakota apartment house where the musician lived on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The ex-Beatle was shot four times in front of his wife, Yoko Ono, and others.

Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in 1981 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

At his previous hearing in 2012, Chapman described how John had autographed an album cover for him on the day of the killing.

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“He was very kind to me,” Chapman said.

“I did try to tell myself to leave. I’ve got the album, take it home, show my wife, everything will be fine,” he said of his thoughts after receiving the signed album from John. “But I was so compelled to commit that murder that nothing would have dragged me away from the building.”

Chapman can try to request a subsequent parole hearing in two years.

The Associated Press was the first to break this news.