On Thursday, October 26th, Apple TV announced the release of a new three-part series on Beatles singer John Lennon. Titled John Lennon: Murder Without A Trial, the series will follow the case of his death. It will outline the day that Marc Chapman shot and killed John Lennon on December 8th, 1980. Following the incident, Chapman did plead guilty, his sentence being twenty years in prison. As a result of his premeditated crime, Chapman remains incarcerated at the Green Haven Correctional Facility to this day. According to Apple TV, the case is “the most thoroughly researched examination of John Lennon’s 1980 murder.”
Apple TV notes the series was “granted extensive Freedom of Information Act requests from the New York City Police Department, the Board of Parole and the District Attorney’s office.” Its narrator is none other than Kiefer Sutherland. The series will feature interviews from Lennon’s friends, as well as Chapman’s defense lawyers, psychiatrist, prosecutors and detectives.
This is not the first retelling of Lennon’s murder. The 2005 movie, Chapter 27, was a dramatization of Chapman’s crimes. According to The Guardian, “Chapman admitted to feeling conflicted about committing the murder on the day.” He was “so compelled to commit that murder.” Nothing would have dragged him away from Lennon’s building, especially given the fact that he traveled all the way from Hawaii to shoot the singer. With Chapman up for parole in 2024, it will be interesting to see his story again. The series has no scheduled release date yet, so fans will have to wait to see the whole story—the story of how one troubled man decided to kill one of the most famous artists in the world.
