Let Me Take You Down: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman, the Man Who Killed John Lennon
Offers a chilling, tragic, and frightening portrait of the enigmatic young man who murdered John Lennon in December 1980 and answers many lingering questions about Chapman's motives and the killing itself.
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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 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. Publishers Weekly From the title's tasteless allusion to the Lennon song ``Strawberry Fields Forever'' to the excusing treatment of a psychopath, this sensationalistic biography proves repugnant. Jones, noted for being the first reporter to interview ``Son of Sam'' killer David Berkowitz, describes the personality of Mark David Chapman before and after he shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, in New York City. We learn of Chapman's fascination with The Catcher in the Rye protagonist Holden Caulfield; we hear the voices of the evil ``child'' and rational ``adult'' arguing within Chapman as he stalked Lennon; we read of Chapman's ``possession by demons'' after his imprisonment. Jones's introduction claims ``Chapman asked the author to undertake the telling of his story in the hope that it might prevent future tragedy.'' Shamefully, however, this book serves only the ignoble purpose of promoting a criminal's narcissism. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)
ProloguexvPart IThe Catcher Gone AwryChapter 1I Heard Shots3Chapter 2Portrait of a Crazy Man6Chapter 3The Catcher Gone Awry19Chapter 4Did You See Him?24Chapter 5Is That All You Want?33Chapter 6But Where Would I Go?42Part IIAftermathChapter 7Do You Know Who You Are?53Chapter 8After the Fall65Chapter 9Mark's Case74Part IIIThe Little PeopleChapter 10God Saw That87Chapter 11The Little People97Chapter 12Take Me Where the Freaks Are102Chapter 13Toby Tyler on Drugs110Chapter 14God and Todd115Chapter 15Captain Nemo123Part IVHolden in HawallChapter 16Holden in Hawaii135Chapter 17The Caretakers148Chapter 18The Other Side of the Rainbow153Chapter 19With Looking Glass Eyes169Chapter 20The Last Board Meeting182Chapter 21Anyone Could Shoot Anyone188Chapter 22People Aren't Born Like This203Part VHolden in HellChapter 23You Say You Want a Revelation211Chapter 24A Wicked Scene220Chapter 25Fan Mail229Chapter 26All the Lonely People242Chapter 27December 8254Epilogue: Nothing Is Real259Appendix261The Prisoner's Letter263
\ Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly\ From the title's tasteless allusion to the Lennon song ``Strawberry Fields Forever'' to the excusing treatment of a psychopath, this sensationalistic biography proves repugnant. Jones, noted for being the first reporter to interview ``Son of Sam'' killer David Berkowitz, describes the personality of Mark David Chapman before and after he shot and killed former Beatle John Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980, in New York City. We learn of Chapman's fascination with The Catcher in the Rye protagonist Holden Caulfield; we hear the voices of the evil ``child'' and rational ``adult'' arguing within Chapman as he stalked Lennon; we read of Chapman's ``possession by demons'' after his imprisonment. Jones's introduction claims ``Chapman asked the author to undertake the telling of his story in the hope that it might prevent future tragedy.'' Shamefully, however, this book serves only the ignoble purpose of promoting a criminal's narcissism. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalIn 1980, Chapman gunned down ex-Beatle John Lennon in New York City and pled guilty to second-degree murder; he is now an inmate at Attica prison. This account of his life and the obsessive forces that culminated in the death of his former idol is based largely on Chapman's recollections. Jones's book would have been strengthened by a critical analysis of Chapman's pathology (he is variously described as psychopathic, schizophrenic, and narcissistic) but nonetheless it is engrossing reading and far superior to Fenton Breslar's Who Killed John Lennon? ( LJ 8/89). A good addition to the literature about violence directed against celebrities, this book will appeal to students of abnormal psychology and true crime fans. Recommended where interest warrants.-- Gregor Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis\ \
