I asked him in July how he responded to people who say he should have been executed. He added that he is very thankful that he has been allowed to live, even in a place like Attica prison. That realization, he said, makes him even more remorseful when he realizes that he robbed another human being of that opportunity. At the age of 25, Chapman was probably an emotional 15 year-old. There is a phenomenon in the literature of fictional personalities.
Some people come to believe that they are another fictional personage.
Mark, when he turned away from Christianity, believed that the Catcher in the Rye was his bible. His decision to go from Honolulu to New York City, to hang around in Central Park, to hire a prostitute, to get a gun, was a twisted re-enactment of Holden Caulfield's coming of age in New York City. He believed in some way that by killing Lennon he could stop the rock star from leading astray another generation of innocent youth. A friend of mine, to whom I dedicated my book, Harold Steele, introduce me to Chapman, who initially became alarmed when I told him I was a newspaper reporter. We had minor contact exchanging a few letters, visits and phone calls until 1990.