John Lennon's killer denied parole

Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon, was denied parole on Tuesday (October 10th), for the fourth time. Chapman, who is now 51, is currently serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in New York's Attica Correctional Facility, for killing Lennon outside the musician's New York City apartment on December 8th, 1980.

The Associated Press reported that the Division of Parole's three-member panel met with Chapman for a total of 16 minutes. A one-page decision was later issued saying, "The panel remains concerned about the bizarre nature of this premeditated and violent crime. While the panel notes your satisfactory institutional adjustment, due to the extremely violent nature of the offense, your release would not be in the best interest of the community." Chapman is eligible for parole again in October 2008.

Chapman, who was living in Hawaii at the time of the murder, stalked Lennon for days, and even briefly met Lennon's then-5-year-old son Sean outside the apartment building the day he gunned Lennon down.

A movie based on the days leading up to Chapman's murder of Lennon, titled Chapter 27, will be released next year, starring Jared Leto as Chapman and Lindsay Lohan as a fan who befriended Chapman.

The film gets its name from the "missing" chapter from J.D. Salinger's novel A Catcher In The Rye, which Chapman was obsessed with in the months before the murder. In an early '90s jailhouse interview, Chapman reportedly admitted to fantasizing about writing the missing chapter in Lennon's blood.