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John Lennon’s tragic death still shakes the music world decades later. His friend and fellow Brit-turned-New-Yorker, David Bowie — who mourned his death and went into seclusion thereafter — was actually the other target of John Lennon’s killer.
Mark David Chapman had been a fan of both Lennon and Bowie, but he had convinced himself that Lennon needed to die because, according to him, he was hypocrite. Chapman himself later stated, “He (Lennon) told us to imagine no possessions and there he was with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies.”
He referred to Lennon as a “phony,” but he also convinced himself that if he killed either Lennon or Bowie — two people he told his wife that he could kill — then he would be famous in their place. He told Barbara Walters in a 1992 television interview, “I thought by killing him (Lennon) I would acquire his fame.”
On Monday night December 8, 1980, Chapman waited in front of the Dakota apartment building in New York City for Lennon. It was the second time that day he waited for him. When he spotted him, he asked for his autograph. Lennon gave it to him and then Chapman shot him multiple times, killing him. Chapman remained on the scene, was arrested, and has been in prison ever since.
The news was first revealed during that night’s telecast of Monday Night Football.
Incredibly, in 1977, Chapman attempted to commit suicide by way of carbon monoxide poisoning. Sitting in his car, he had connected a hose to the exhaust pipe but the hose had melted and his attempt failed. He was soon treated for clinical depression.
Chapman, living in Hawaii with his wife, had visited New York City in October of 1980 with intent to kill Lennon, but changed his mind and flew back. However, he then returned a couple months later, on December 6. His wife never told authorities about her husband’s statements, but didn’t believe them, either.
Chapman bought a front row ticket to see the Broadway play The Elephant Man which, at the time, was famously starring David Bowie. The ticket was for the Tuesday night showing, one night after Chapman murdered John Lennon — but there is another twist to this story.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono also had front row tickets to see David Bowie in The Elephant Man that Tuesday night.
In extreme emotional distress over the death of his friend, David Bowie had to decide if he should perform in that night’s showing.
Bowie decided that the show must go on despite New York City detectives telling him that day that they found a playbill of The Elephant Man in Mark David Chapman’s hotel room with Bowie’s name circled, and with a front row ticket for that night’s performance. They determined that if he didn’t see Lennon the night before, that it’s highly likely that he would have attempted to kill Bowie that Tuesday night — perhaps even both him and Lennon. Chapman later confirmed Bowie was his second target.
Bowie opened up about that performance during one of his interviews with Redbeard from In The Studio. Bowie said, “Chapman had a front row ticket to The Elephant Man the next night. John and Yoko were supposed to sit front row for that show, too. So the night after John was killed there were three empty seats in the front row. I can’t tell you how difficult it was to go on. I almost didn’t make it through the performance.”
In 1980, Bowie had released his Scary Monsters album and was preparing a major 1981 tour. He agreed to play the lead of The Elephant Man until at least January 1981.
When his Broadway run ended one month after Lennon’s murder, he refused to renew his contract, temporarily became a recluse, cancelled his planned tour completely, and got out of New York for a while as he moved to Switzerland. Several months later he recorded “Under Pressure” with Queen and slowly returned to the spotlight.
One other bizarre coincidence in the story is that on Sunday December 7, Mark David Chapman randomly spotted musician James Taylor on a subway platform. Taylor literally lived across the street from the Dakota, and was leaving the subway to return home. Chapman approached him and rambled to Taylor about music. Taylor felt somewhat unnerved, and politely said he was in a hurry.
James Taylor told this story to Howard Stern in 2015. He also added that the next night, while on the phone with his friend, he heard five gunshots across the street. The view from his apartment didn’t allow him to see the entranceway of the Dakota. Later that night he learned those were the shots fired by Mark David Chapman.