John Lennon (upper left) of The Beatles

30 years ago on December 8, John Lennon of The Beatles autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Mark David Chapman, a former maintenance man from Hawaii.  Chapman then waited for Lennon to return to his Manhattan apartment that evening where he shot him four times in the back.  Rushed to the Roosevelt Hospital, Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival.

Chapman smiled and waited patiently by the sidewalk for police to arrive and arrest him.   He pleading guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years to life.  Chapman, now 55, is up again for parole.  He has been automatically tossed onto the parole board every two years since the second decade of his incarceration.  But like Charles Manson, Chapman will likely continue to rot.

After his death, Time magazine rushed a cover story of Lennon titled The Day The Music Died.