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

Jones, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0812991702 ISBN 13: 9780812991703

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2000

Synopsis

A top crime journalist reveals precisely how the world-shattering murder of John Lennon happened—and why

In Let Me Take You Down, Jack Jones penetrates the borderline world of dangerous fantasy in which Mark David Chapman stalked and killed Lennon:

Mark David Chapman rose early on the morning of December 8 to make final preparations. . . . Chapman had neatly arranged and left behind a curious assortment of personal items on top of the hotel dresser. In an orderly semicircle, he had laid out his passport, an eight-track tape of the music of Todd Rundgren, his little Bible, open to The Gospel According to John (Lennon). He left a letter from a former YMCA supervisor at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where five years earlier, he had worked with refugees from the Vietnam War. Beside the letter were two photographs of himself surrounded by laughing Vietnamese children. At the center of the arrangement of personal effects, he had placed the small Wizard of Oz poster of Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion.

“I woke up knowing, somehow, that when I left that room, that was the last time I would see the room again,” Chapman recalled. “I truly felt it in my bones. I don’t know how. I had never seen John Lennon up to that point. I only knew that he was in the Dakota. But I somehow knew that it was it, this was the day. So I laid out on the dresser at the hotel room . . . just a tableau of everything that was important in my life. So it would say, ‘Look, this is me. Probably, this is the real me. This is my past and I’m going, gone to another place.’

“I practiced what it was going to look like when police officers came into the room. It was like I was going through a door and I knew I was going to go through a door, the poet’s door, William Blake’s door, Jim Morrison’s door. . . . I was leaving what I was, going into a future of uncertainty.”

Praise for Let Me Take You Down

“Jack Jones has written a beautiful book, rare in its attention to the social context giving rise to stalkers and assassins of celebrities . . . celebrity worship is ambivalent—admiration shares the altar with envy. When the worshipped disappoints, a ‘nobody’ can become a ‘somebody’ by killing the pop culture idol. Let Me Take You Down is both fascinating and brilliant.”—Ladd Wheeler, Professor of Psychology, University of Rochester, Former President of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology

About this title

About the Author:

Jack Jones, recipient of numerous journalist awards, conducted the first prison interviews with David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

CHAPTER ONE
 
I HEARD SHOTS
 
INVESTIGATION:     HOMICIDE OF JOHN LENNON (12/8/80)
SUBJECT:     INTERVIEW OF JACK HENDERSON (WITNESS)
 
 ... I was out for the evening and returned at approximately 10:45 (2245). I heard the shots—don’t remember how many. I ran down the stairs and found Joseph (Hastings) and Yoko. Hastings had Lennon in the back office. Yoko said “Please, someone get a doctor.” I called our office and told the person there to get an ambulance here as quickly as possible. I never saw the person that shot him. After shots, maybe 15 to 20 seconds and I was at the office....
—Detective R. Hoffman
 
INVESTIGATION:     HOMICIDE OF JOHN LENNON M/W/40
SUBJECT:     INTERVIEW OF MAURY SOLOMON (WITNESS)
 
On 12/8/80, while at the scene of occurrence, I interviewed one Maury Solomon.... Mr. Solomon was about to go to bed when he heard five shots being fired in rapid succession. He brought it to the attention of his mother and informed her he was going downstairs to investigate. After running down the stairs he entered the front office and as he entered he heard Jose the doorman shout something.... Then he exited the office and as he was coming out he noticed for the first time that there were holes in the glass on the door. He began to go out to the street and as he did he observed a male white on the west side of the enclosed entrance. The man appeared to have a smile on his face and was just turning around....
—Detective William Lundon
 
INVESTIGATION:     HOMICIDE OF JOHN LENNON
SUBJECT:     INTERVIEW OF FRANKLYN WELSH (WITNESS)
 
1. On 12/8/80 at about 2330 hours I interviewed the above named subject at the Dakota, One West 72nd St. Statement as follows:
 
I pulled up in a taxicab to visit my friend in the Dakota at about 11 P.M. I saw a gray limo double parked in front. I recognized John Lennon and Yoko getting out of the limo (I’ve seen them several times before during other visits) and went into the building. I was paying the cab fare when I heard four gunshots coming from the courtyard. I ran to the gate and saw Jose, the doorman, and another man inside. I also saw a gun on the ground which Jose kicked to the rear of the courtyard. I then ran across the street to the Majestic to have someone call the police. When I returned the police had arrived and had the suspect in custody.
—Detective E. Regan
 
INVESTIGATION:     HOMICIDE (GUN) JOHN LENNON
SUBJECT:     INTERVIEW OF RICHARD PETERSON (CAB DRIVER)
 
On 12/9/80 at about 0020 hours I interviewed at the 20th Police Detective Unit office one Richard Peterson ... employed as a taxi driver for Valeria Cab Corp. He stated that on the day of the occurrence he had picked up two passengers in Soho and that they were going to the Dakota. As he reached 72nd Street and Central Park West he was behind John Lennon’s limo. As the limo stopped in front of the Dakota he pulled up behind it. At this time the passengers in his taxi stated, “There is John Lennon and Yoko.” Yoko was in front and John Lennon behind her. The doorman and perpetrator were standing at the entrance to the Dakota. The perpetrator was wearing a black, three-quarter-length coat and a black fur hat. At this time he pointed the gun at Lennon. The perpetrator stood in a three-point stance and fired the gun three or four times. He then threw the gun to the ground and walked around. He takes off his coat and hat and puts a red book in his hand.
—Detective Allen Militz
 
HOMICIDE:     JOHN LENNON
SUBJECT:     INTERVIEW OF JOSEPH MANY (ELEVATOR OPERATOR)
 
I saw the perpetrator hanging out in front of the building for the past two or three days. When I arrived at work at 3:30 P.M., I saw him standing in front of the building talking to a female named Jerri (F/W/22,4′8″, 160 lbs., blond hair, lives in Brooklyn). At 9:30 P.M. to 10 P.M., I saw him still outside the building. I said, “Why are you still hanging around here, you already got his autograph?” I went downstairs and stayed there until I relieved the clerk in the office, so he could use the men’s room. This was about 10:45 P.M. He came back about five minutes later and I went downstairs again. I was downstairs approximately 5 to 10 minutes when I heard three shots. I got my coat and went upstairs with Victor Cruz and Joe Grezik, who are employees. I saw Jose who was motioning toward the gun and saying “Get this out of here.” I picked up the gun and brought it downstairs. I hid the gun in the bottom draw of an armoire, which was in the storage closet. Approximately five minutes later I took the police officers down to the storage room and opened the draw where I put the gun. I lifted up a few pictures I put on top of the gun and Officer Blake removed it.
—Officer R. Clark
 
INVESTIGATION:     HOMICIDE OF JOHN LENNON M/W/40 YRS
CONTENTS:     INTERVIEW OF MRS. LENNON
 
[At 5:45 P.M. on December 18, ten days after Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon, New York City Police investigators interviewed Yoko Ono. The following account of the interview is reprinted verbatim from the handwritten notes of police:]
 
“We had a radio program which had to do it was about 4:30 to 5 P.M. We went by limousine to Record Plant—asked for ride by people who had limo. John was signing autographs. He got in. Went to Record Plant. Stayed until about 10:30. We wanted to go to restaurant but did not. We came back. We normally go into the gate but did not. Got out walked past gate. John was walking past the door, he was walking faster. I heard shots. I heard shots. He walked to door upstairs. Said “I’m shot.” I followed him. He was standing but staggering. I told him to lay down. Sometimes he was ahead sometimes I was. I saw a male by the watchman’s box. It was dark and night. He nodded at me—dark grayish clothing. Male/White. He was not small....”
—Detective Peter Mangicavallo
 

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0812991702
• ISBN 13: 9780812991703
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 308