How Did Lennon Influenced My Life

Lennon had been a huge idol to Chapman growing up, so it was a little surprising that he would target the former Beatle. Chapman worshipped Lennon, until the singer had been quoted saying that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus Christ now”. This one phrase angered Chapman, who was a devout Christian, and may have first influenced his decision to kill Lennon (Mark Chapman: The Assassination of John). Chapman also claimed that after reading J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, he connected with the main character, Holden Caulfield, and was influenced by him as well. Even when he was arrested, Chapman was found on the steps to Lennon’s apartment, reading a copy of The Catcher in the Rye (John Lennon, Former Beatle, Slain by Gunman in New York; Ex-Mental Patient Charged). Although the Beatles had been broken up for many years by the time this incident occurred, it still affected all kinds of people in all different ways. Pfeiffer compares her reaction to the

news of Lennon’s death, to that of those around her.
“At home, they all thought I was nuts. They were like ‘Cindy, he’s a 43 year old man, living in New York City, with his wife’. In their eyes, he had his prime in the 60’s and 70’s and now here we are, early 80’s, he was just kind of old news. But for me, he was new news, I was just really starting to enjoy him. So at home, not a lot of sympathy, they just thought I was over dramatic. But at school, I had some friends who were like, ‘Okay, well, I’m going to go back listening to the Go-Go’s now. I’m going to listen to the current groups’. And then I had my other friends that we all kind of found each other and had our time” (Pfeiffer).
Chapman claimed that he initially thought about killing Lennon after reading a book about the Beatles as a child. However, the officer who arrested Chapman said letters sent to him by the assassin showed that Lennon wasn’t always his main target. Apparently, Chapman had a hit list, including people such as former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Marlon Brando, George C. Scott, and news anchor for CBS, Walter Cronkite (Duke). It is believed to be Chapman’s early influence and his hatred of Lennon that led him to choose the former Beatle as his target. Chapman said that one of his reasons for killing Lennon was the fact that he wanted to be famous, but later admitted that he “chose the wrong way to glory” (Duke). Unfortunately, Chapman’s glory attempt affected many people’s lives in ways he will never imagine, as explained by Pfeiffer.
“It was one of those things where, up until that point in my life, and granted I did not know John Lennon, but it was somebody like I said, I was becoming really fascinated with the group and him.

For whatever reason, I really did like him a lot more than the other three at the time. And it hit at such a precise time in my life, where it was very impressionable. And I had never dealt with death. I don’t think I had anybody else in my life up to that point, had passed away. It just really affected me at that time. He was there, and he had all this promise of this brand new solo album and the albums were sounding great. I was really liking the different songs, and then he’s gone. This genius of a songwriter and musician, now he’s gone, what are going to do? After his death I became very focused on the Beatles, to where I started collecting Beatles things and Beatles albums and making artwork. It has changed me and helped form me into the person I am now, in some way, I can’t really pinpoint”

(Pfeiffer).
Around the time of his death, Lennon had started working on his solo career again and had just recently come out with a new album. Things were starting to look up for him again, when his life was taken from him. Lennon did a lot of drugs during his life, but he got lucky at first: many other celebrities had died of drug overdoses during his time, just for him to be murdered in cold blood in front of his home and family (Gilmore). According to Pfeiffer, this was part of what made the whole situation so much more gut-wrenching for fans.
“He was coming out and showing that he still could write wonderful songs and meaningful songs that could be hits on the radio. I know that there were assassinations on presidents and political figures, and yes, he was his own type of political figure because he was all about ‘make love, not war’. He wanted the United States out of Vietnam, so he was always a champion of peace. And to think that this man, who was always talking about peace, love, and understanding, that someone would walk up to him, outside of his home, and just shoot him in the street. People were kind of shocked and amazed like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. Didn’t he have bodyguards?’ No, he didn’t, that was a time before everybody had a bodyguard. He might have had a driver, but it wasn’t like it is now. I think that his death kind of had a lot of celebrities going, ‘Whoa, whoa, wait a second. We need to rethink things. We need to change the way we do things and change the way we deal with people on the street and such’. I think they were taking threats more seriously because it really shocked people. Honestly, he did a lot of drugs. Late 60’s, early 70’s, he freely admitted that he did hallucinogens and such. So if he had died of an overdose, I don’t think anybody would have been very surprised. But when he died because somebody walked up to him asked him for his autograph, and then shot him, that just kind of blew people’s minds. It was very shocking” (Pfeiffer).