The ‘crazy’ gunman used to assassinate President Reagan

Born on May 29, 1955 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, USA, John Warnock Hinckley Jr. had a very normal childhood. Hinckley grew up in Dallas, Texas, in a family whose father was an outstanding businessman in the oil industry.

In fact, Hinckley was so ordinary that it was impossible to impress her classmates. Follow Time, Hinckley’s classmates only remember him as “average average” or “passionately ordinary” and “never accomplished anything outstanding or memorable”.

In 1973, Hinckley entered Texas Tech University, but often missed classes and was not interested in studying. In 1976, he dropped out of school and moved to California, hoping to become a composer.

A year later, Hinckley returned to Texas. Having no friends and living aloof, Hinckley became Nazi, took antidepressants and became obsessed with the movie Taxi Driver that came out a year earlier.

According to the magazine Washingtonian, Hinckley has seen the film 15 times, seemingly empathizing with Travis Bickle, the film’s lone protagonist played by actor Robert De Niro. In the film, Bickle planned to murder a presidential candidate. Hinckley also develops feelings for Jodie Foster, who plays a prostitute in the film.

In September 1980, 18-year-old actress Foster moved to New Haven, Connecticut to attend Yale University and Hinckley followed the idol. He left messages for his idol at the dorm, tried to call her and even told strangers at a New Haven bar that he was Foster’s boyfriend.

Determined to impress his idol, John Hinckley also began thinking about “historical acts” that might attract Foster’s attention. After following President Jimmy Carter, who had lost his re-election campaign in November 1980, Hinckley turned his attention to Ronald Reagan, the newly elected president.

On March 30, 1981, Hinckley arrived in Washington with only one thought in mind: Assassinate President Reagan. Hours before the action, he wrote a letter to Jodie Foster.

“Dear Jodie,” Hinckle wrote at 12:45 p.m. that day. “There’s a chance I’ll be killed in the attempt to assassinate Reagan… I have to do something right now to make you understand… that I’m doing all this for you, Jodie. I ask you to please. feel your heart and at least give me a chance to receive your love and respect, with this historic act.”

At 2:55 p.m., Hinckley took a pistol he bought from a pawn shop in Dallas and went to the Washington Hilton, just a mile from the White House. Standing beside a group of reporters, Hinckley waited for President Reagan. As the president stepped out onto the street, smiling and waving to the crowd, Hinckley took action.

Hinckley fired six shots at the president, with the first five hitting White House press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service Timothy McCarthy. Hinckley’s sixth bullet hit President Reagan’s limo, bounced off and went through his lungs.

“I heard a ‘boom’ sound, like someone blowing up a balloon. Then there was a very brief lull, followed by another five ‘booms’. It was then that I knew. that someone was shooting,” deputy press secretary David Prosperi told Guardian last year.

In the chaotic moment after the shooting, Hinckley was overpowered by Secret Service agents, while the car carrying President Reagan quickly left the scene. At first, Reagan appeared unscathed, but when the president coughed up blood, agents realized he had been hit and rushed him to the hospital.

“Honey, I forgot to bend over,” President Reagan told his wife, first lady Nancy, at George Washington Hospital after the assassination attempt.

There, Reagan was treated for a punctured lung and broken ribs. He was discharged from the hospital after 12 days. But his press secretary, Brady, wasn’t so lucky. Hinckley’s bullet lodged in his skull, forcing Brady to remain in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, the public’s attention was on Hinckley. On June 21, 1982, the 25-year-old gunman was found not guilty because of mental problems. Hinckley was taken to St. Elizabeths in Washington. But his story does not end here.

From 1982 to 2016, John Hinckley lived at St. Elizabeths. During this time, his parents and lawyers began to argue that Hinckley’s mental illness was in remission. Over time, Hinckley was given more freedoms, before a judge granted him “full-time retirement” in 2016.

That September, by order of a judge, Hinckley went to live with his mother. By 2021, the court has announced that all other restrictions on Hinckley will be lifted by June 2022 if he remains mentally stable and adheres to the conditions of his release.

“If he hadn’t tried to assassinate the president, he would have been released unconditionally a long time ago,” the news agency said. AP quoted Judge Paul L. Friedman as saying last year.

In December 2020, Hinckley started her own YouTube channel. Seemingly still suffering from his old dream of becoming a musician, he has posted his compositions and covers on his personal channel.

In April, Hinckley announced he would be touring with songs on his YouTube channel.

“Big news!! I’ll be performing on July 8 at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn, New York,” Hinckley wrote on Twitter on April 8. On April 12, Hinckley announced that the Brooklyn concert was sold out and that he would soon announce the schedule for “John Hinckley’s Redemption Tour”.

Many Twitter users have expressed support for Hinckley’s plan, but the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute has publicly rejected the program.

“We are both saddened and concerned that Hinckley will soon be released unconditionally and intend to pursue a for-profit music career,” the Reagan Foundation wrote on Twitter, noting that press secretary Brady over died in 2014 as a result of an injury caused by Hinckley. “We strongly oppose bringing him back into society, where he is clearly seeking to profit from his disgrace.”

Vu Hoang (Follow ATI)