Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon

by Jack Jones

“From the time he was a teenager, he had people around him insulating and isolating him from the world around him. So when he hit New York, he felt this tremendous sense of freedom, his first since the Beatles era. People always recognized him on every street corner. There would be no street corner that John could stand at waiting for a light to change without people coming up to him, but the vibe was not hysterical.… People wanted to shake hands, say ‘How are you doing? When are the Beatles getting together again?’ But for the most part, it was kind of a blasé, New York vibe. He liked that. He advertised it. In his last interview, the day of his death, he said he felt great that he could walk around New York; that he and Yoko could go anyplace they wanted to go.” If a man like Mark David Chapman was stalking John Lennon “he believed there was really no protection for that,” Mintz said. “When Sean was born, they hired a former FBI agent to provide some low-level security, primarily around Sean. But John and Yoko both loved the idea of walking around freely. “You’ve got to keep in mind that, before 1980, most public figures moved around without a lot of public guard.”