How A Salinger Novel Became Chapman’s ‘Statement’ After He Killed John Lennon
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“Do it, Do it,” a voice ringing over the ears of Mark David Chapman led him to the murder of famous Beatles singer and counterculture icon John Lennon. What made Chapman go and shoot Lennon? Why was the voice directing him to go and commit a murder? All these questions led to one famous classic — “Catcher in the rye”, by JD Salinger, which Chapman was found reading as police came to arrest him. On the front page of the book, Chapman had written “This is my statement…”. From being a classic, the book overnight became a murderer’s manifesto.
John Lennon’s Murder
On the morning of December 8, 1980, Chapman vacated his hotel room, and bought a fresh copy of The Catcher in the Rye. In the book, he inscribed “this is my statement”, and signed it as “Holden Caulfield”. He lingered outside the Dakota apartment building, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono resided, throughout the day.
At 5 pm, as Lennon and Ono were exiting the building, Chapman handed Lennon a copy of his latest album, Double Fantasy, released the previous month. Lennon signed the album and went his way. Around 10:50 pm, Lennon and Ono returned to the Dakota building. As they approached the entrance, Chapman aimed his .38 special revolver and discharged five rounds, striking Lennon in the back four times. John Lennon, aged 40, was declared dead upon arrival at New York’s Roosevelt Hospital.
Mark’s confession was part of an Apple TV+ documentary, “John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial”, released last year in December.
The documentary sheds fresh insight on Chapman, who has faced repeated parole denials for Lennon’s murder and confessed to the crime while incarcerated, stating he shot Lennon because he considered him “a phony”.
During hypnosis, as part of preparations for a trial where he intended to plead insanity, Chapman recounted sitting on the curb, observing a black limousine arriving at the building.
The door opened, and Yoko Ono appeared. He recalled witnessing Lennon coming out next.
“I witnessed a struggle,” he stated, eerily composed. “A part of me hesitated, while another part urged me on. I had a voice in my head repeating, ‘Do it! Do it! Do it!”
Chapman’s Obsession With Salinger’s Classic ‘Catcher In The Rye’
Chapman was fixated with ‘Catcher in the Rye‘, a novel penned by the elusive writer, JD Salinger. The central character in the book, Holden Caufield, an unsettled adolescent from an affluent background back home after being kicked out of a boarding school, creates chaos in Manhattan while denouncing “phonies”.
Chapman also maintained that assassinating the rock star, as he revealed during questioning, would somehow transform him into Holden Caulfield, the central character in The Catcher in the Rye, according to what the documentary showed.
Notably, Chapman made no attempt to flee the crime scene, and he offered no resistance when NYPD officers arrested him just a short distance from Lennon’s lifeless body. He was discovered leaning against a wall, engrossed in JD Salinger’s novel. Reflecting on the incident, one investigator speculated that Chapman could have easily vanished into the crowded surroundings and evaded capture. Chapman’s mental state appeared evidently disturbed.
When asked why he targeted Lennon, Chapman offered a bizarre response during the hypnosis session, referencing Caufield’s “phony” remark.
“Do you ever hear Lennon say that all you need is love? Here is what I say to that,” he remarked on tape.
“All you need is love and $250 million. He was the biggest, most insincere person that ever lived. I wasn’t going to allow the world to tolerate another decade of his nonsense,” Chapman stated.
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Catcher In The Rye
Holden Caulfield despised everyone. Slainger in his classic ‘Catcher in the rye’ refers to everyone as “phonies“. It is similar to the concept of “fraudulent paradox”, which David Foster Wallace in one of his short stories ‘Good Old Neon’ speaks about. The paradox, as per Wallace, is how some people spend more time and effort trying to appear impressive or attractive to other people however less impressive or attractive they feel inside — in short, they all are frauds. And in the case of Slainger’s novel, “phonies”. It is with this particular word that Chapman was obsessed with, as he called John Lennon a “phony“.
Not only that, Salinger with his protagonist “Holden” also wanted to slay the phonies. The only difference is that he did it on paper, and it was what Haulden always wanted to do as he hated everyone. However, in the case of Chapman, he went a step ahead and actually shot Lennon dead.
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