My life with the man who killed John Lennon
Gloria’s friends urged her to divorce him. The killer himself even told her to leave. But, by now deeply religious, she refused, citing the vows they exchanged when married on June 2, 1979. Speaking through her church, former travel agent Gloria said: “I admit when I got lonely and depressed in that first year of being apart from him, I thought maybe divorce was the right thing to do.
“Ultimately, I prayed and searched the Bible to read what God says about divorce. Finally, in the book of Malachi, I read, ‘I hate divorce,’ says the Lord God of Israel.’ That settled it and I closed my Bible. From that point on, I decided I would wait for Mark.”
Gloria’s devotion to killer Chapman comes despite admitting she was violently abused during their one year of marriage. And he cut her off entirely for a year, while not allowing her to see him in jail for almost four. The couple met in early 1978 in Hawaii. She was 26 and, like Chapman, dedicated her life to the church and hospitals.
He was 22 and a maintenance worker at Castle Medical Center in Kailua.
A year earlier, he had travelled to Hawaii on a one-way ticket before trying to gas himself inside his car. But the vacuum cleaner hose he had used melted in the exhaust and the attempt failed.
Chapman was admitted to the hospital where he worked but made what his psychiatrist and the unit’s staff perceived as a rapid recovery.
Gloria told how their love grew after Yoko at Lennon death that first meeting. She said: “As I was a travel agent, he wanted my help to plan a vacation around the world. My love for Mark began and grew with each postcard I received. When Mark returned, I met him at the airport.
“We started dating the following night. By the end of that year, Mark and I felt as though we had known each other forever.
“We talked about everything, including his mental illness and how he had come to Hawaii to kill himself and ended up at a local hospital’s psychiatric ward.
“He explained that he had gotten well enough to get a job at the hospital as a housekeeper. It seemed to me his mental illness was behind him.”
But Gloria said her husband soon started to change. Speaking to The Alliance, a “Christian-centred global movement”, she added: “First, Mark lost his new job at the hospital after a run-in with a nursing supervisor. He got angry with me more easily and on a couple of occasions he hurt me physically. He started drinking and came home drunk. But I took our vows seriously. I said I will love Mark ‘for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, so long as we both shall live.’”
For the past 25 years, Gloria and Chapman have only been allowed to spend 44 hours each year together during conjugal visits, holed up in the caravan. She said they spend their time making pizzas, watching Wheel of Fortune on TV and making love.
Chapman’s parole hearing is due to be held the week starting August 20.
And Gloria hopes, despite objections from Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono, her wait to have him home is a few weeks from ending. Recently, the New York State parole board have been more willing to place heavier emphasis on an inmate’s behaviour behind bars than focus on the severity of the crime. As a result, several police killers and other notorious murderers who had been long denied parole have been set free.
Gloria has been praying for Chapman’s release. He was denied freedom at the last hearing in 2016 after officials said he would reoffend. But they commended his “acceptance” that his crime was “premeditated and evil”.
And Chapman has told his wife to have faith in his freedom. Gloria said: “Mark often says, ‘All I need is Jesus.’ And it’s true.”
GLORIA ON HUSBAND’S CHANGING PERSONALITY