On the evening of 8 December 1980, English musician John Lennon, was shot and fatally wounded in the archway of the Dakota, his residence in New York City.
The killer was Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan who was jealous and enraged by Lennon's rich lifestyle, alongside his 1966 comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus".
Chapman said he was inspired by the fictional character Holden Caulfield from J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, a "phony-killer" who loathes hypocrisy.
Chapman remained at the scene reading The Catcher in the Rye until he was arrested by the police.
Mark David Chapman, a 25-year-old former security guard from Honolulu, Hawaii, was a fan of the Beatles with no prior criminal convictions.
J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye had taken on great personal significance for Chapman, to the extent that he wished to model his life after the novel's protagonist, Holden Caulfield.
One of the novel's main themes is Caulfield's rage against adult hypocrisy and "phonies". Chapman claimed that he had been enraged by Lennon's infamous, much-publicised remark in 1966 that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus", and by the lyrics of Lennon's songs "God", in which Lennon states that he does not believe in the Beatles, God or Jesus, and "Imagine", where Lennon states "imagine no possessions", yet had a lavish lifestyle as depicted in Anthony Fawcett's 1976 book John Lennon: One Day at a Time, making Lennon a "phony"
