Death of John Lennon - Case Study Example

DEATH OF JOHN LENNON Prof In December, 1980, Mark David Chapman killed John Lennon. The evidence all proves this. He was mentally ill and witnesses saw him perform the crime. Some people might cling to conspiracy theories because the random nature of the truth is hard to accept, but the simplest explanation is the true one: Chapman was responsible for Lennon’s murder. On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was killed as he returned to his apartment building near Central Park, New York City, with his wife, Yoko Ono. Lennon was at the height of his solo career and had fans around the world, both as a solo artist and as the intellectual centre of the world’s most popular band, the Beatles. He lived with his wife and children in the Dakota building and that day had been visiting a recording study. That night, as he returned home, he was killed by a twenty-five year old loner named Mark David Chapman who carried a copy of the novel the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back; the musician died a short while later. Thus began the 1980s for many people, with a senseless crime and the death of a cultural icon. There are some who continue to believe that Lennon’s death was part of a plot involving other individuals, who wanted to remove him from the scene because of his political activism, but the truth is that he was killed by delusional fan, Mark David Chapman, and this cause and effect relationship will be proven in the course of this essay. All the evidence points to this indisputable fact. There is no sensible or legitimate evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the crime. To begin with, it is important to find out who Mark David Chapman was. According to one profile: In his first two years of high school, he was a drug user who skipped school and ran away to live on the streets for two weeks. In his last two, he was a born-again Christian who distributed Bible tracts. He could be short-tempered and vengeful. His two brief attempts at college were failures. He was fired from several jobs (McGunagle). This picture of the individual is comprehensive, however, there were others who knew him as a camp counsellor and thought he was a diligent and hard-working employee. More than anything else, the profile that appears when enough information is compiled is that of a mentally troubled individual. The drug use, the religious obsession, the bouts of clinical depression, all these thing point to a delusional and unstable personality, the kind of personality that if left untreated would be likely to explode. He was obsessed with John Lennon and Beatles music, and showed himself to be obsessed with other things as well—namely the novel the Catcher in the Rye about an isolated egomaniac. These were indications of a very unhealthy attitude and of an individual out of touch with reality. But this is hardly the only evidence that Chapman was responsible for Lennon’s murder. Witnesses, including Yoko Ono, saw him do it. Photographers captured hanging around the building earlier that day. Others testified to providing him with the ammunition. After committing the crime he stayed at the scene reading his book and when the police arrived admitted shooting Lennon (who by that time had been rushed to the hospital where he would later die). Chapman admitted and confessed to the crime and was convicted in a court of law for the murder. He is currently still in prison. At a parole hearing last year, Chapman told the board, "I am ashamed . . . I am sorry for what I did. That 25-year-old man, I dont think he appreciated the life he was taking, that this was a human being” (NY Daily News). All the evidence points toward a simple cause and effect relationship between Chapman firing his gun and Lennon and Lennon being killed. However, some people are not satisfied with this explanation. They believe there was a conspiracy and that Chapman didn’t act alone or that he was brainwashed into committing his crime. Many sceptics can be found online. This individual for example blames Reagan and Nixon for the murder and says it wasn’t Chapman who was responsible—instead it was the author Stephen King: I have confronted King for six months in his home town of Bangor, Maine, even stood inches away from him once, even defeated his lawyer in court when he tried to stop me and King has NEVER denied my accusations, not once. I have been endorsed by McCartney, live, at the Berkeley 1990 concert and have played the tape, for proof, to college campus crowds (Lightfoot). As one writer would later say, “All the brutal and finally confounding facts of the killing were examined like runes and held up to the light like talismans, small shards of some awful psychic puzzle” (Cocks). This is a very useful statement as it shows us the propensity of grief-stricken people to come up with myths and fantasies when they have difficult explaining to themselves a meaningless, even random act. The truth is that in cases like this we should turn to Occam’s Razor: The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Detectives use it to deduce whos the likeliest suspect in a murder case -- you know, the butler did it. Doctors ­use it to determine the illness behind a set of symptoms. This line of reasoning is called Occams razor. Its used in a wide variety of ways throughout the world as a means to slice through a problem or situation and eliminate unnecessary elements. When weighing evidence and cause and effect, this is an important principle that can tell us a lot. There is a lot of money and fun to be had making up stories about conspiracies and shadowy groups and injecting political intrigue into everything; the truth is often a lot less interesting. The murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman was a tragedy. It was carried out by a mentally ill and delusional individual who was obsessed by the Beatles and J.D. Salinger. If Chapman had received better mental help before December, 1980, this crime might never have happened. What we know for sure is that he acted alone and there has never been any legitimate evidence to the contrary. The sad truth is that Chapman killed Lennon. Works consulted Clark, Josh.  "How Occams Razor Works."  04 October 2007.  HowStuffWorks.com. http://people.howstuffworks.com/occams-razor.htm Cocks, Jay. “The Last Day in the Life.” Time Magazine. Dec 22, 1980. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924600-2,00.html Bresler, Fenton. Who Killed John Lennon? New York: St. Martins Press, 1990. Lightfoot, Steve. “The Truth about John Lennon’s Murder.” Personal website. 2001. http://www.lennonmurdertruth.com/footnotes.asp?id=67 Lovett, Keith. “Mark David Chapman tells his version of John Lennon slay.” New York Daily News. August 19, 2008. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/08/19/2008-08-19_mark_david_chapman_tells_his_version_of_.html#ixzz0V5254yMc McGunagle, F. “Exorcism at Attica.” Tru Tv Crime Library. 2007. Montgomery, P. “Lennon Murder Suspect Preparing Insanity Defense.” New York Times. February 9, 1981. Read More