Mark Chapman murdered our friend John.
20 years incarceration was our retribution.
He’s been locked up now for more than 40,
Hoping beyond hope for absolution.

Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln long ago in 1865.
The Ford Theatre was the place of his attack.
Eleven days later he was shot and perished.
He tried to set the abolition of slavery back.

Oswald shot JFK but was he put up to the job?
Ruby killed Oswald and was sentenced to death.
His sentence was rescinded but before his re-trial.
A blood clot and cancer triggered his last breath.

James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King
And his civil rights supporters were in tears.
Happily, Doctor King had a vision that lived on.
James Earl Ray was sentenced to 99 years.

These visionaries were taken all too soon.
Why do miscreants like to go to extremes?
How the world might have been different.
We could have fulfilled our ambitious dreams.