The new Apple TV+ documentary series John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial includes new eyewitness interviews with those who had a front-row seat to an unspeakable tragedy back in December 1980: the fatal shooting of John Lennon in New York City.
One of those people was Mark Snyder, a cab driver who happened to pick up the Beatles legend’s eventual shooter, Mark David Chapman, and recalled explicit details about the notorious passenger.
“The first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m a producer for The Rolling Stones. I just got back from a recording session with The Beatles. They all got back together again,’” Snyder remembers of Chapman’s bizarre behavior in a clip from the three-part series, premiering exclusively on Billboard below. “What am I gonna say to that? ‘OK, yeah, sure.’”
Snyder also remembered Chapman carrying a duffel bag and furiously flipping through pages in his backseat. “It was a notebook, and I looked in the rearview mirror and there was nothing but empty pages.”
But the most chilling part of Snyder’s remembrance is when the ride came to an end and Chapman came around to the driver’s-side window to pay his fare.
“He said, ‘My name is Mark David Chapman,’” Snyder recalls. “‘You’ll remember my name.’”
In the upcoming series — which premieres globally Wednesday (Dec. 6) on Apple TV+ and is narrated by Kiefer Sutherland — Snyder is one of many new interviews, including Elliot Mintz, a confidant of Lennon and wife Yoko Ono’s; Jay Hastings, a doorman at Lennon’s building who heard his last words; David Suggs, Chapman’s defense attorney; Dr. Naomi Goldstein, a psychiatrist who first assessed Chapman; and Richard Peterson, another NYC taxi driver who witnessed the shooting.
Watch the exclusive clip below, and tune in to the series starting Wednesday on Apple TV+.
