Lennon’s killer says he now is ashamed

ALBANY, N.Y. — The man who killed John Lennon told a parole board he feels “more and more shame” every year for gunning down the former Beatle outside his Manhattan apartment in 1980.

“Thirty years ago I couldn’t say I felt shame, and I know what shame is now,” Mark David Chapman said. “It’s where you cover your face, you don’t want to, you know, ask for anything.”

Chapman expressed his enduring remorse for killing Lennon at his 10th parole board hearing in August at Wende Correctional Facility, where he is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence. The board denied his release that month. New York prison officials released a transcript of the hearing Thursday.

Chapman, 63, shot and killed Lennon on the night of Dec. 8, 1980, hours after having the former Beatle autograph an album for him.

Chapman told parole board members he still thinks about how Lennon was “incredible” to him earlier that day. He said he had been going through an internal “tug of war” of whether to go ahead with the shooting.

“I was too far in,” Chapman told the board. “I do remember having the thought of, ‘Hey, you have got the album now. Look at this, he signed it, just go home.’ But there was no way I was just going to go home.”

Chapman claimed he sought notoriety and felt no animosity for Lennon.

Chapman said he left his quest for notoriety behind long ago and is devoted to promoting the transformative power of Jesus.

He said he realizes the pain he caused will linger “even after I die.”

Chapman will be up for parole again in August 2020. Chapman