John Lennon's killer up for parole/John Lennon's tooth still hanging around

 Mark David Chapman, 57, will be granted a parole hearing this week. This will be the seventh parole hearing he has had.  That being said, obviously he will be denied and go back to being a waste of space in a prison cell.  It wasn't until a few months ago that I visited the actual place (the Dakota building across from "Strawberry Fields" in Central park) where it happened.  The story is still pretty chilling looking back.  There are a few facts that a lot of people don't know...






Mark David Chapman kind of looked like Dwight from the office when he was arrested.

Chapman had originally flown to NY in October of that year(1980) to kill Lennon, but reconsidered and went back home, returning again in December. 

On the day before the murder, Chapman accosted James Taylor in the subway at 72nd street.  James Taylor had this semi-incoherent babble to say about the incident: "The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and this stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon."

Lennon had met Chapman outside of his apartment on that same afternoon and autographed his Double Vision record for him.  After handing him back the autographed cd, Lennon asked "Is that all you want?" in which Chapman nodded.

The first bullet Chapman fired, actually missed Lennon and went through a window in the building.

Chapman named the book "The Catcher In the Rye" as his inspiration in the murder, and carried a copy of the book on him at the time.

The moment Lennon was pronounced dead, the Beatles song "All My Loving" coincidentally came on over the hospitals sound system.

The iconic photograph from the Rolling Stone cover pictured above was taken by Annie Leibovitz at Lennons apartment just after 2pm on the day Lennon's death.

Yoko chose to not have a funeral for John.


In other John Lennon related news, it appears one of his molars is still floating around and had been auctioned off for just over $32,000. The winning bidder, a dentist from Alberta Canada gave a fragment of the tooth to his sister to include it in a sculpture she's making of Lennon.  This is very weird, but kind of neat?  Lennon's DNA is still around! That is cool to think about.
I wonder what the dentist is going to do with the rest of the tooth? That'd be a pretty amazing dental implant to have, despite the fact that it's disgusting looking and must smell horrendous.

Sculptor Kirsten Zuk of Edmonton.

Lennon's tooth