{"id":1519247,"date":"2022-06-16T15:35:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T19:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1519247"},"modified":"2022-06-16T15:35:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T19:35:18","slug":"john-hinckley-jr-the-now-free-man-who-tried-to-assassinate-president-ronald-reagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-hinckley-jr-the-now-free-man-who-tried-to-assassinate-president-ronald-reagan\/","title":{"rendered":"John Hinckley Jr.: The Now-Free Man Who Tried To Assassinate President Ronald Reagan"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjohn-hinckley-jr-the-now-free-man-who-tried-to-assassinate-president-ronald-reagan%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1519247&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>March 30, 1981, should have been just another day for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/ronald-reagan\">President Ronald Reagan<\/a>. Just 69 days after his inauguration, the president was giving a speech to about 5,000 members of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton Hotel in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/washington\">Washington, D.C.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>At around 2:30 p.m., Reagan left the hotel, waving to supporters as security walked him to his limousine. Waiting in the crowd, however, was John Hinckley Jr., a mentally ill young man with a .22 revolver and an intent to murder.<\/p>\n<p>Hinckley, who was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1955, suffered from emotional problems and was prescribed anti-depressants and tranquilizers. In 1976, Hinckley saw the movie \u201cTaxi Driver,\u201d starring Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, a mentally disturbed taxi driver who becomes obsessed with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd), who volunteers on the presidential campaign of Charles Palantine (Leonard Harris). Bickle repulses Betsy when he takes her to a porn theater on a date, and his attempts to apologize are rejected. Distraught by her rejection, Bickle has violent fantasies and begins buying guns. He also starts attending Palantine\u2019s rallies to learn about his security, with the intent of assassinating the candidate. When Bickle finally makes his move, he\u2019s stopped by Secret Service agents as he draws his gun. While all this is going on, Bickle is also attempting to save a child prostitute, played by Jodie Foster.<\/p>\n<p>Hinckley became obsessed with Foster after watching the movie, and even moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to stalk her when she began attending Yale University. He took a Yale writing course and left love letters and poems in her mailbox. He also repeatedly called her and managed to speak with her twice, reportedly telling her he wasn\u2019t a \u201cdangerous person,\u201d according to Hinckley\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/law2.umkc.edu\/faculty\/projects\/ftrials\/hinckley\/HBIO.HTM\">biography<\/a> at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Foster steered clear of the stalker who would one day make history.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Foster, Hinckley was also obsessed with the idea of assassination. After being rejected by Foster, he began thinking that if he could become a household name by assassinating the president of the United States, he may prove that he was worthy of her \u201crespect and love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reagan was not Hinckley\u2019s first potential target. In 1980, Jimmy Carter was still president, so Hinckley began stalking him on the campaign trail. Hinckley was arrested by airport security in Nashville after they found handguns in his suitcases. The guns were confiscated, and he was fined $62.50.<\/p>\n<p>Hinckley was not deterred. He purchased two new guns but began seeing a psychiatrist in the fall of 1980 after his parents insisted. Hinckley\u2019s parents owned an oil company and were quite wealthy, and his new psychiatrist believed that the best way to help their son overcome what was believed to be emotional immaturity was to cut him off financially.<\/p>\n<p>Hinckley was unable to find work and eventually made his way to Washington, D.C. on March 29, 1981. The next day, he wrote Foster <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20110108054234\/http:\/www.law.umkc.edu\/faculty\/projects\/ftrials\/hinckley\/jfostercommun.HTM\">a letter<\/a> detailing his plan to assassinate Reagan, who was inaugurated at the end of January that year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will admit to you that the reason I\u2019m going ahead with this attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress you,\u201d Hinckley wrote. \u201cI\u2019ve got to do something now to make you understand, in no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On March 30, Hinckley stepped out from a crowd of reporters outside the Hilton Hotel and fired six shots at Reagan and his security team. One bullet ricocheted off of Reagan\u2019s limousine and struck the president under his left arm, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reaganlibrary.gov\/permanent-exhibits\/assassination-attempt\">according<\/a> to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. It was initially thought that Hinckley missed Reagan, until the president began coughing up blood and was taken to the hospital. It was later discovered that the bullet grazed one of the president\u2019s ribs and became lodged in his rib just one inch from his heart. The injury left Reagan with a punctured lung and internal bleeding, resulting in a 12-day hospital stay.<\/p>\n<p>Also injured in the attack were Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and policeman Thomas Delahanty. Brady was hit in the head and became permanently disabled, requiring a wheelchair for the rest of his life and affecting his speech. He died on August 4, 2014, with a medical examiner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2014\/08\/08\/338949267\/james-brady-s-death-is-ruled-a-homicide\">ruling his death a homicide<\/a> resulting from Hinckley\u2019s gunshot 33 years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Delahanty was struck in the back of his neck trying to protect Reagan, while McCarthy was struck in the abdomen. Both men survived and fully recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and confined to St. Elizabeth\u2019s Hospital in Washington, D.C. One of his attorneys, Greg Craig, went on to become assistant to the President and White House special counsel under Bill Clinton and White House counsel under President Barack Obama. In 2019,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 30, 1981, should have been just another day for President Ronald Reagan. Just 69 days after his inauguration, the president was giving a speech to about 5,000 members of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. At around 2:30 p.m., Reagan left the hotel, waving to supporters as security walked him &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":1519342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1519247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1519342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1519247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1519247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1519247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}