AFTER 34 YEARS IN JAIL, JOHN LENNON killer TESTIMONY ABOUT THE MURDER IS REVEALED..

Arm-in-arm: Devoted wife Gloria stands proudly by her husband Mark Chapman in front of a prison mural, 34 years after he was jailed for killing Beatle John Lennon








Chilling: Lennon gives Mark Chapman his autograph on December 8, 1980. Just hours later, Chapman would shoot him dead

During his time at Attica Correctional Facility in Texas, in 1994, Mark Chapman wrote a concise and remorseful testimony about the murder, in a bid to convert other inmates to Christianity.

Revealed for the first time by his wife Gloria, it offers a rare insight into his troubled state of mind at the time, revealing that while he was not drug-crazed he had become a true psychopath.

He also reveals his first words after the killing and states, for the first time, his belief that he was a coward for shooting Lennon in the back. Here are those words in full:

‘Across the street, the long white limousine had turned and pulled up to the Dakota. John Lennon got out, carrying cassette tapes of the recent recording session he and Yoko Ono, his wife, had just returned from. They had planned to go out to a restaurant, but had changed their minds.‘Now they were coming up the walkway... and I was ready. John walked past me. I believe he recognised me as the man who earlier had approached him and had asked for his autograph. He had been very patient with me.

‘Now, as he walked toward the door of the security office, I withdrew from my pocket a .38 Special revolver and fired it at his back. Such a coward I was. He stumbled into the office. Yoko right behind.

‘As John Lennon lay dying, the doorman came up to me and grabbed my wrist, shaking the gun from my hand. As it fell to the asphalt, he kicked it across the driveway and told me to leave. I turned to him and said, “But where would I go?”

Simply put, the death of John Lennon was no one’s fault but my own. I wasn’t on drugs; I wasn’t the crazed fan some people tried to label me in an effort to understand.

‘I had become so lost inside myself, so self-deluded, so desperate for an answer, that when I saw an opportunity to become what I thought would be a “somebody” – however misguided or perverse – I decided to end the life of a man I did not even know. I had become a true psychopath; I did this coldly and without thought for others.

‘Today, I am not the same Mark David Chapman. I am not perfect, but I am close to the Lord now. I now understand why I did what I did, and the grief it caused.

‘No, I’m not “copping out” or trying to gain sympathy. What I did was horrible, something never to be forgiven – except perhaps by God.

‘I feel I have understood His forgiveness in my own life. I think He loves me for reasons of His own, and I accept them. I deeply regret taking this man’s life.

‘When the doorman asked me to leave the building, I remember that I had said, “But where would I go?”

‘I now know. I have the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all I need in here, in prison, in life, in anything. If only I had turned to Him then. He is the one friend who will never leave you, or fail you. I know.

‘He will FORGIVE you. I know.’

Daily Mail