Mark David Chapman is the alleged killer of John Lennon. I doubt that he did that, and further doubt that he is in jail. Think about it – how easy would we be to fool in that regard? Once jailed, a person is out of sight and mind. Fake-jailing a person would be easy – just have him show up on occasion for a fake parole hearing or interview.

First I will run three pictures of Chapman here, all supposedly taken in prison.

This first one is odd, his original “mug shot.” Keep in mind, there are important pieces of information that prison officials want from a mug shot – height, scars, facial features, date of arrest, prisoner number. For that reason, mug shots are taken with bright lights in front of a camera that slides up and down so as to shoot straight at the face. When the photo is taken, the top of the skull is precisely even with the correct height line. Notice on this mug shot there is no height scale, and that Chapman’s face and neck are shadowed. That is because this is not a mug shot (even as someone is holding up a NYPD prisoner number in the lower left, not seen here). This is a portrait shot of Chapman, not taken in jail. We were easy to fool in 1981, so it worked.

Next we have what I call “Chapman 72,” a man six feet tall. I have scrolled the number 72 on each side of his forehead for reasons that will be clear later. Make no mistake, this man and the young man up above line up nicely, and are very close in appearance. In fact, I would say they match up perfectly, even as the one on the right is in his middle years, while the one above is in his twenties.

Next we have “Chapman 70.” He is two inches shorter than the one above. You might think it trivial that there is a two-inch difference in height between these two, and indeed that could be the case. Even though prisons try to do their best work, they cannot always be perfect, so it could be that camera angles were not working properly, and that these are the same man. But I doubt it. This man also has a narrower face. But I will do side-by-side comparisons down below.

Finally, we have old Chapman. Again, trust me on this, as this man, Mark David Chapman 72, is the same man as seen above with the numbers “72” on his forehead, and the same man as the young man showing at the beginning of this piece.

I was certain that all photos with “72” were the same man, as you can see at the left … we get perfect alignment of features.

And again, the young man and the old man, perfect alignment.

Now it begins to get a little murkier. This is Chapman 72 and Chapman 70. If it were a mere matter of camera angles, they would match up after the pupil distance is adjusted. And at first glance, they do line up. But look closer … 72 has a much lower ear, and the eye is lower. However, the mouth and nose align perfectly. I would guess here that we are dealing with identical twins, neither of whom is in jail.

Here I have done my best to align the features of Chapman 70 and young Chapman, but they are off just slightly, as with 72 and 70 immediately above. While I can get nose and eyes (mostly), the mouths are off, and the chins and ears do not match up.

My conclusion is that there have been two Mark David Chapman’s over the years, and since neither shot John Lennon (who was alive last I saw in 2008), both have been on call to make public appearance for photographs, interviews and parole hearings. They are identical twins, but as tends to happen, over time they changed in appearance enough that on close scrutiny, we can tell the difference.

As we can see with the McCartney twins, and will see in the near future with Elvis Presley twins (thank you Miles Mathis), intelligence services love twins. It gives them flexibility.

We are completing a circuit from our home to Montana and through Yellowstone country, and back. On the way up last week we stopped at Subway in Casper, Wyoming. Later that day I realized I was missing my money clip, and by mentally backtracking supposed I had left it at that Subway. As I said to my wife, “Well it’s a bad day for me, but a good day for someone else!” I thought the clip had about $160 in it.

I assumed it was lost forever, as it had no name on it, and, well, frankly, Wyoming seems like an impoverished place. We only see the highway dives, but it has a trailer court feel about it. But stopping by Subway again today, I asked if they had a lost and found. The young gal asked if I had found something, and I said no. I had lost a money clip. Her eyes lit up and she was excited, said someone had turned it in. My lucky day!

They had to summon the manager, as the clip was in the safe, so we went for coffee. On returning, we learned that someone pretending to be my wife had come in the following day and asked if anyone had found a money clip containing $137. She said that her husband had lost it and was just sick. They turned it over to her. The Subway manager really was just sick that they had been scammed, but that is the end of the story. We kindly thanked her and her staff for their effort, and we left.

What we know now is what we knew before – there is desperation in Wyoming. Such trouble to what … split $137? Further, the fact that the woman claiming to be my wife knew the clip had $137 in it means that someone inside that store worked the con with her. How many people know exactly how much money they have on them at any time? This will be a fatal error, I am afraid, as the manager intends to get to the bottom of it. Not for our sake, of course. She thinks she has a bad apple on staff, but did not say that.

I am like most people … Losing $137 is painful, but not earth shattering. And I was so pleased at the attitude of they Subway staff – they were all (except one) honest, and the person who found it and turned it in was too. That pleases me, and does not surprise me.

Later, driving down the highway, we were talking about the incident. The manager is going to review her surveillance tapes to get a look the woman who claimed to be my wife. My real wife laughed, threw up her arms and said “You know what? The tape will be erased!”

Yes. There will be an eighteen minute gap.