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SICK ‘REASON’ TO KILL LENNON

He saw John Lennon’s face on the cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album and knew he had to kill him.

In making his fifth futile attempt for parole, Mark David Chapman told state officials last week he was sitting in his Honolulu apartment and feeling like “a big nothing, a nobody” when he picked up the album.

“I perceived [Lennon] at that time, and wrongly judged him to be a phony. It was more about me and not him; I was probably mad at myself for my failures,” Chapman said, according to a transcript of the hearing released yesterday.

“I just saw his face, and it seemed like it all came together, the solution to my problem of being confused and feeling like a nobody.

“And I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be something if I killed this individual?’ That was my thought,” Chapman continued.

On the night of Dec. 8, 1980, Chapman stepped from the shadows and pumped four hollow-point bullets into Lennon’s back as he and his wife, Yoko Ono, returned from a recording studio to their apartment at the Dakota on West 72nd Street.

Lennon died at Roosevelt Hospital shortly afterward.

Chapman, 53, who was 25 at the time and has spent almost 28 years in Attica, said he regrets the slaying.

“I am ashamed, that is my first thought. I am sorry for what I did,” he said.

Chapman said that at the time of the slaying, he felt like a failure because he couldn’t get through college.

“I just had dug a big hole for myself and was feeling like a big nothing and a nobody,” he said.

The hearing was held on Aug. 12. Chapman was immediately denied parole and sent back to Attica.

andy.geller@nypost.com