Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 23, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba 14 Winnipeg free press tuesday june Chapman revises plea admits murdering Lennon a photo artist s sketch of Mark David Chapman 26. By Joyce Wadler the Washington Post new York with the belief that he was doing god s Mark David Chapman. 26, yesterday switched his plea on charges of murdering John Lennon from not guilty by reason of insanity to guilty As charged. The plea entered against the advice of his attorney was announced by judge Dennis Edwards in a crowded courtroom in the state supreme court in Manhattan. Chapman faces a sentence of 15 years to life when he is sentenced on aug. 24. Or. Chapman has exercised his constitutional right to Amend plea of not guilty and to plead guilty to the charge of murder in the second Edwards said. Former mental patient there was no comment or statement from Chapman. Pale and Pudgy the former men Tal patient sat quietly beside his lawyer with two guards nearby. His court appointed counsel Jonathan Marks visibly upset asked the court for a re examination of the defendant to determine whether he is competent to do what he did Marks said in the past it had been possible to have a Good working relationship with his client but since Early this month when Chapman believed he was visited twice by god communication had been impossible. The judge however accepted the plea saying the ultimate decision is not that of attorney but of the assistant District attorney Allen Sullivan said the defendant told him shortly before world prosecutors line up witnesses for Atlanta suspect s hearing the plea change was announced that he had decided to kill Lennon because he sought Fame. He wanted to be Lennon 40, who recently had emerged from five years of virtual seclusion was shot to death with a .38-calibre pistol dec. 8 As he and his wife Yoko Ono returned to their apartment at the Dakota an exclusive building on Central Park West in manhat Tan. Lennon wrote Many of the songs recorded by the mop haired beatles before the British quartet broke up in 1970. Hundreds of fans kept a Candle lit Vigil at the Dakota until a 0-minute silent memorial a week after the shooting. Chapman a native of Texas has a history of mental illness. He had worked at a series of jobs from Myca counsellor to Security guard to Printer and reportedly had at tempted suicide twice before his attack on Lennon. He also before travelling from his Home in Honolulu to new York apparently had be come obsessed with the former beatle. Six weeks before the slaying he bought the gun at a shop in Honolulu and checked out of his Job As a Security guard by signing the Book John a few Days later he arrived in new York hanging out with Lennon fans in front of the musician s new York apartment. The after noon of the dec. 8, he asked Lennon for an autograph and received it. Later that Day As Lennon was returning Home Chap Man called his name. When Lennon turned he dropped into a combat stance and shot him repeatedly. When police arrived he was calmly Reading a Book the Catcher in the Rye. I just shot John he said. The Catcher in the Rye was another obsession of Chapman s. Two months after the shooting he sent a Handwritten state ment to the new York times urging that the Book be read. It is my sincere belief that presenting this written statement will not Only stimulate the Reading of j. D. Salinger s the Catcher in the Rye but will also help Many to under stand what has he wrote. Defence lawyer Marks told reporters after court yesterday morning that his client at first had wanted to stand trial Only to promote the Reading of the Book super select vision ism is. Matthews by video tape Atlanta a prosecutors lined up witnesses yesterday for the first hearing for a Young Black Man charged with killing the latest victim in the baffling string of 28 slayings of Young Blacks. Wayne Williams 23, a free Lance photographer was charged sunday with strangling Nathaniel Cater 27, whose nude body was found May 24 in the Chattahoochee River. Williams was scheduled to appear today at a committal hearing before magistrate Albert Thompson. A Deci Sion will be made then whether to bind him Over to a Fulton county grand jury Williams who offered no resistance when arrested at his Home sunday remained in an isolation cell at the Fulton county jail. District attorney Lewis Slaton said jailers were taking special care to protect him. Meanwhile authorities executing a search warrant late yesterday after noon spent four hours in the Home where Williams lived with his parents and removed several bags of Materi Al. Reports circulated yesterday that the decision to arrest Williams was made under pressure from Washington specifically from vice president George Bush. The Atlanta journal reported that top Law enforcement officials met Fri Day for seven hours in the mansion of gov. George Busbee at Bush s re quest. Williams had been under intense surveillance since june 3, when he was questioned in connection with the slay Ings. He was released when authorities said they had insufficient evidence to make an arrest. Pressure denied Slaton denied yesterday that pressure from Washington was the catalyst for the arrest while Bush s press Secretary Peter Teeley denied that Bush had called Busbee. Public safety commissioner Lee Brown who oversees the special police task Force investigating the slayings said the unit has been doing every thing that is humanly possible to investigate the 27 other slayings but refused to say whether Williams was a suspect in any of those cases. Sources close to the investigation have said fibres taken from Williams car and Home in a search june 3 Are similar to those found on several victims. A highly placed investigator who requested anonymity said the decision to arrest Williams on sunday after noon was based in part on a drive he took saturday night. Williams left his Home saturday night and drove to the Homes of Public safety commissioner Brown and at Lanta mayor Maynard Jackson the investigator said the second time in two weeks that Williams had led offi cers to Brown s Home. They did t lose him that night but they were afraid he might do something untre the investigator said. He had eluded them at least three Williams was stopped in the Early morning hours of May 22 by authorities staking out a Bridge Over the Chattahoochee River. Police heard a splash and stopped Williams near the Bridge shortly after wards. Two Days later Cater s body was found several Hundred metres downstream. 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