On August 24, 1981, Mark David Chapman (above) was sentenced
to 20 years to life for the murder of John Lennon, a founding
member of The Beatles, one of the most successful bands in the
history of popular music.    

On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot and killed the 40-year-old
singer, songwriter and peace activist, outside Lennon’s New
York City apartment building, the Dakota, where he lived with
his wife Yoko Ono and their young son Sean.

John Lennon (left) and Chapman minutes before the shooting.

John Joseph Gotti Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002)

Mafia boss John Gotti (above), who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don”
after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is
sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts
of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after
his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds 
of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building along with smashing
and overturned cars before being forced back by police officers.

On this day in 1931, one of the most famous gangsters of all time Al Capone
is sentenced to eleven years in Federal prison for tax evasion. He is also
fined $80,000. This is the beginning of the end for Capone and his criminal
empire, that in the 1920s and 1930s, had virtually run the city of Chicago
and its environs.

    
Cell 181 in Alcatraz where Capone was imprisoned. 
       
    

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947)       
        .

Capone was released early from Alcatraz in 1939 for good behavior,
after spending his final year in a prison hospital, suffering from
syphilis. He died in 1947 at age 48 at his home in Palm Island,
Florida.

On August 24, 1981, Mark David Chapman was sentenced to 20 years to
life for the murder of John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles.

On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot and killed the 40-year-old singer,
songwriter, outside Lennon’s New York City apartment building, the
Dakota, where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono and their young son
Sean.

John Lennon signs an autograph for Mark Chapman (right) – his murderer. December 8, 1980.

Mark David Chapman turned 64 in May.

Chapman’s requests for parole have all been
denied and he continues to serve time in a 
New York prison.