John Chapman had been a student at Cambridge University. He claimed to have learned magic by studying a book by Sir Isaac Newton, but his friend Patrick Gale thought that Chapman had been taught by his uncle.[1]
Chapman was part of the Paternoster Society and came in contact with archaeologists Camilla Turner.[2]
John wrote a story that Richard Williams and Gabriel Tate later turned into a film script.[3]
John Chapman later moved to the USA, and worked as a teacher at the John Carroll University in Cleveland. He was accidentally shot to death by American police, under semi-suspicious forms.[4]