{"id":207380,"date":"2021-03-21T00:32:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T21:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/inside-john-hinckley-jr-s-attempt-to-assassinate-ronald-reagan\/"},"modified":"2021-03-21T00:32:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T21:32:51","slug":"inside-john-hinckley-jr-s-attempt-to-assassinate-ronald-reagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-john-hinckley-jr-s-attempt-to-assassinate-ronald-reagan\/","title":{"rendered":"#Inside John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Inside John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

When\u00a0Ronald Reagan stepped out of the Washington, DC, Hilton on March 30, 1981, he still carried himself like the Hollywood star he once was: A big grin stretched across his face as he raised his hand high and waved to the crowd of journalists corralled behind a rope-like barrier.<\/p>\n

The new president had just finished speaking before AFL-CIO leaders, but the press was hoping to get a quote about rising tensions with Russia before Reagan stepped into his bulletproof limousine.<\/p>\n

Among the ranks was Associated Press reporter Michael Putzel. \u201cI took a position near the right rear wheel of the limo,\u201d Putzel told The Post. \u201cIt was the best place from which to shout a question.\u201d His tape recorder running, Putzel called out: \u201cMr. President! Mr. President!\u201d<\/p>\n

Reagan turned to him. \u201cI was right at the end of saying, \u2018Mr. President\u2019 when there came\u00a0pop<\/em>,\u00a0pop<\/em>,\u201d Putzel recalled. Photos show \u201cthe smile washing from the president. His hand came down. [Secret Service agent] Jerry Parr pushed him toward the limo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Press secretary James Brady stepped toward the rope and was shot in the head. A second bullet hit police officer Thomas Delahanty in the back. A third went high, while a fourth might have hit Reagan had Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy not moved in and taken it himself. The fifth shot landed in the car\u2019s bulletproof window. One last shot went off as Parr pushed Reagan into the backseat, hitting a rear panel.<\/p>\n

Within 1.7 seconds of the first shot, a baby-faced spectator in the crowd, soon identified as John W. Hinckley Jr., had emptied the chamber of his .22 caliber R\u00f6hm revolver.<\/p>\n

\"Chaos
Chaos outside the Washington Hilton moments after the assassination attempt. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Almost immedia<\/a>tely, he found himself under Secret Service agents. One, standing and brandishing an Uzi, protected the pile-up.<\/p>\n

The limo sped toward the White House as Parr felt under Reagan\u2019s clothing for signs of a bullet strike. The agent\u2019s hands emerged clean. Then he noticed blood at the president\u2019s mouth. Reagan figured that he had bit his lip. He dabbed it with a napkin. Parr saw more blood \u2014 now frothy.<\/p>\n

\u201cParr knew that frothy blood comes from the lungs,\u201d Del Quentin Wilber, author of \u201cRawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan,\u201d<\/a> told The Post. \u201cIf it was a cut lip and [Parr] took Reagan to the hospital and that caused the stock market to dive, he would be blamed. But he also knew that it would be worse if the president died.<\/p>\n

\u201dParr shouted for the driver to reroute to George Washington University Hospital. As Reagan hobbled out of the car \u2014 insisting on walking unaided \u2014 his blood pressure was so low that nurses could not get a reading. Upon hitting the limo, the last bullet had compressed to the size of a dime and ricocheted through a small gap in the door \u2014 hitting Reagan, who hadn\u2019t realized it at first.<\/p>\n

\u201cParr saved Reagan\u2019s life twice in one day,\u201d said Wilber. \u201cFirst, he got Reagan into the limo and out of Hinckley\u2019s line of fire .\u2009.\u2009. And had they not gone to the hospital, Reagan would have died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, back at the Hilton, paramedics tended to the other three victims. Struck in the head, Brady sustained a brain injury. Delahanty had a bullet lodged near his spine. McCarthy\u2019s right lung and diaphragm had been pierced by a bullet that ended up in his liver.<\/p>\n

Hinckley was handcuffed and arrested. \u201cThere was never any question about who shot Reagan,\u201d said Putzel. \u201cBut the first question was whether or not he acted alone. The second question was whether or not he was sane.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sane\u00a0or not, Hinckley, 25 years old and acting solo when he tried to kill President Reagan, was a madman on a mission: to impress actress Jodie Foster.<\/p>\n

He was a product of privilege, the youngest of three kids raised near Dallas by an oil-man father and a doting mother. A college dropout, he had failed to get music and writing careers in motion but hungered for fame.<\/p>\n

Hinckley was staying in a dive motel in Denver, Colo., where, according to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz, who interviewed him some eight times, \u201chis mother brought him money while his father tried to provide tough love.\u201d In his room, Hinckley obsessed over the 1976 movie \u201cTaxi Driver\u201d and the 12-year-old prostitute played by Jodie Foster.<\/p>\n

Dietz said that socially isolated, awkward Hinckley thought he had a chance with Foster because she was \u201capp<\/a>roachable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actress had begun attending Yale University in September 1980. That month, Hinckley travel<\/a>ed to New Haven, Conn., where he slipped notes and greeting cards under Foster\u2019s dorm-room door. Dressed in a dirty fatigue jacket, he informed a bartender that he was in town to see his girlfriend and showed magazine pictures of Foster.The bartender later described him as \u201cticking\u201d \u2014 presumably, like a time bomb.<\/p>\n

Hinckley managed to somehow get Foster\u2019s phone number. During his first call, he introduced himself as \u201cthe person who\u2019s been leaving notes in your box.\u201d In a later exchange, recorded by Hinckley, she said, \u201cOh, seriously, this is really starting to bother me. Do you mind if I hang up?\u201d His response: \u201cJodie, please.\u201d<\/p>\n

On another call, after Foster told Hinckley that it is \u201cdangerous\u201d to talk to strangers, he responded, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Foster was only part of his plan. \u201cHis goal was to get on the cover of Time magazine; the Jodie Foster thing was real; but if it was not her, it would have been somebody else,\u201d said Dietz. \u201cHe considered what would make him more famous: skyjacking, assassination of a president, mass murder, murder\/suicide with Foster, kidnapping [her].\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1984, I interviewed Hinckley, by mail, for Oui magazine and asked him what he felt when he pulled the trigger. \u201cLove, hate, despair,\u201d the failed killer responded.<\/p>\n

Prior to Reagan being elected, Hinckley attended two Jimmy Carter campaign rallies \u2014 including one in Nashville, where he was arrested at the airport for possession of a concealed weapon. Three guns were confiscated and he was fined $62.50.\u00a0He had on him a ticket to New York, the next stop on Carter\u2019s tour.<\/p>\n

Asked why he trailed Carter, Hinckley told me: \u201cFor some crazy reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

After John Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman on Dec. 8, 1980, Beatles-loving Hinckley went to New York City and mingled with mourners outside the Dakota apartment building. \u201cHe learned [about getting famous via a high-profile murder] from Chapman,\u201d said Dietz. \u201cHe hit the street to find a 12-year-old prostitute. I don\u2019t remember if he found one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per Wilber, Hinckley was en route to New Haven in March 1981 when he made a stop in DC. \u201cHe planned on killing himself or Foster or both,\u201d said the author.\u00a0\u201cHe wrote a note to Foster\u201d \u2014 which said that he\u2019d be assassinating Reagan to impress her \u2014 \u201cand left it in his room .\u2009.\u2009. He thought he would go down in a hail of gunfire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After\u00a0the shooting, Reagan was taken to an emergency-room bay, where a tube was inserted into his chest. Dr. Benjamin Aaron, who was overseeing the situation, told The Post that an X-ray showed \u201ca metal fragment at the margin of his heart. It was prime time to explore his chest and get the bleeding stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reagan lost some 40 percent of his body\u2019s blood and received infusions to stabilize his pressure. A distraught Nancy Reagan came quickly to her husband\u2019s bedside. He told her: \u201cHoney, I forgot to duck.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an old line cribbed from the boxer Jack Dempsey after a lost match. But \u201cwho cracks a frigging joke [after being shot]?\u201d asked Wilber. \u201cThe nurses never saw anything like that \u2026 He was so cognizant of keeping people calm and keeping Nancy OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Before going into surgery, Reagan quipped to the staff, \u201cI hope you are all Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Joseph Giordano, head of the trauma team and a fifth-generation Democrat, replied, \u201cMr. President, for today, we are all Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the bullet was removed, the first non-family member to see Reagan was Speaker of the House Tip O\u2019Neill, a Democrat. \u201cThey cried and prayed together, reciting the 23rd Psalm,\u201d Wilber said. \u201cHe kissed the President\u2019s head.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 11 days, Reagan was back at the White House. Others were less lucky. Delahanty had a bullet removed from near his spine and suffered enduring nerve damage. Brady spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. McCarthy made a full recovery and last year retired as the Orland Park, Ill., chief of police.<\/p>\n

According to \u201cDateline,\u201d Reagan forgave Hinckley.<\/p>\n

And the would-be assassin later told Dietz, \u201cI got everything I was going for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was just business: Make me famous,\u201d Dietz said. \u201cOne of [Hinckley\u2019s] favorite things was being transported in a helicopter [for questioning]. He said he was being treated like the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Sherrill, author of the book \u201cBreaking Points,\u201d<\/a> written with Hinckley\u2019s parents, told The Post, \u201cThey thought he lost his mind. [Hinckley\u2019s father\u2019s] reaction was to wade in with all the power that money could buy. They got a bunch of lawyers and John was acquitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, he was acquitted for reasons of insanity. This shocked Dietz, who thought Hinckley \u201cwas not impulsive\u201d and should have been found guilty. But he recalls that the defendant did not get everything: \u201cFor trial, [Foster] testified by video, which really ticked Hinckley off. He threw a pencil at the screen. What\u2019s the point of doing this if you\u2019re not even going to get her in the same room with you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I\u2019m the person who\u2019s been leaving notes in your box.<\/p>\n

John Hinckley Jr. to actress Jodie Foster, whom he had been stalking, when he called her Yale dorm room<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Hinckley spent 34 years in St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC, where he had a relationship \u2014 even getting engaged \u2014 with fellow inmate Leslie deVeau, who had murdered her 10-year-old daughter. Hinckley also counted Ted Bundy as a pen pal. (\u201cI think we\u2019ve got something going .\u2009.\u2009. It\u2019s always a pleasure to find somebody I feel comfortable writing,\u201d the serial killer penned to Hinckley in one letter).<\/p>\n

In 2016, Hinckley was released to the Williamsburg, Va., home of his then-90-year-old mother \u2014 a place on the 13th hole of an exclusive golf course where former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have teed up. Hinckley, according to Wilber, volunteers at a church and sells antiques at a flea market. In 2019, his lawyer said that Hinckley was interested in moving to California to pursue a music career; prosecutors said this would give the government \u201cgreat pause.\u201d Hinckley and deVeau broke up, and he has a new girlfriend, according to a report on \u201cDateline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since his release, Hinckley has not shown public remorse. But in 1984, when I interviewed him for Oui, he told me, \u201cI cried for Nancy .\u2009.\u2009. I regret the shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Inside John Hinckley Jr.’s attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan” When\u00a0Ronald Reagan stepped out of the Washington, DC, Hilton on March 30, 1981, he still carried himself like the Hollywood star he once was: A big grin stretched across his face as he raised his hand high and waved to the crowd of journalists corralled behind…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/To-Kill-A-President-John-Hinkley-Jr-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[82159,98725,81041,98726,48554],"class_list":["post-207380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-assassinations","tag-james-brady","tag-jodie-foster","tag-john-hinckley-jr","tag-ronald-reagan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}