Reagan assassination attempt

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Chaos outside the Washington Hilton Hotel after the assassination attempt on President Reagan on March 30, 1981

The Reagan assassination attempt occurred on March 30, 1981, just 70 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan. While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr., who had previously stalked President Jimmy Carter and had a history of mental illness.

[edit] Motivation

John Hinckley identified heavily with Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro.

The motivation behind Hinckley's attack was an obsession with actress Jodie Foster. While living in Hollywood in the late 1970s, he saw the film Taxi Driver at least 15 times, apparently identifying strongly with Travis Bickle, the lead character played by Robert De Niro.^[1][2] The arc of the story involves Bickle's protection of a 12-year-old prostitute, played by Foster, with a violent climatic scene in which he kills her pimps and a john. Over the following years, Hinckley trailed Foster around the country, going so far as to enroll in a writing course at Yale University in 1980 when he learned that she was a student there after reading an article in People magazine.^[3] He wrote numerous letters and notes to her in the fall of 1980.^[4] He called her twice and refused to give up when she indicated that she wasn't interested in him.^[2] Convinced that a grand, sweeping gesture would be needed to gain her attention, Hinckley began to stalk then-President Jimmy Carter — his decision to target Presidents was also likely inspired by Taxi Driver.^[5] He wrote three or four more notes to her in early March 1981. Foster gave these notes to her dean, who gave them to the Yale police department, which sought to track him down but failed.^[6][7]

[edit] Ambush outside hotel

[edit] Speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel

Hinckley arrived in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 29, getting off a Greyhound bus^[8] and checking into the Park Central Hotel.^[3] The morning prior to the assassination attempt, Hinckley wrote a letter to Foster, saying that he hoped to impress her with the magnitude of his action.^[9]

On March 30, 1981, Reagan delivered a luncheon address to AFL-CIO representatives at the Washington Hilton Hotel. He entered the building around 1:45 pm, waving to a crowd which included news media, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, a number of other foreign dignitaries, and Hinckley. Hinckley waved back, and decided to wait to make his move.

[edit] The shooting

Shortly before 2:30 pm EST, as Reagan walked out of the hotel's T Street NW exit toward his waiting car, Hinckley emerged from the crowd and fired a Rohm RG-14 .22 cal. blue steel revolver six times in three seconds.^[10] The gun, a Saturday night special that cost US$25, was manufactured by Rohm Gesellschaft, a West German company, and assembled in Miami by its American subsidiary, R.G. Industries, Inc.^[11] ATF agents found in 16 minutes after the assassination attempt that the gun was purchased at Rocky's Pawn Shop in Dallas, Texas.^[12] It was loaded with six Devastator bullets, designed to explode on impact, though all failed to do so.^[13]

The first bullet hit White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head.^[14][15] The second hit District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delehanty in the back.^{[14][16][15][17]} The third overshot the President and hit the window of a building across the street.^[14] The fourth hit Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy in the abdomen.^[16][15][14] The fifth hit the bullet-proof glass of the window on the open side door of the President's limousine.^[14] The sixth and final bullet ricocheted off the side of the President's limousine and hit the President under his left arm.^[14]

The entire incident, including the apprehension of Hinckley by the Secret Service, was captured on video by several television reporters. Upon his arrest, Hinckley famously asked the officers whether that night's Academy Awards ceremony would be postponed due to the shooting, and indeed it was — it aired the next evening.^[5]

[edit] Reagan taken to George Washington University Hospital

President Reagan with Mrs. Reagan inside George Washington University Hospital four days after the shooting

Moments after the shooting began, Reagan was whisked away by the Secret Service agents in the presidential limousine. At first, there was no realization that the President had been wounded; the bullet which hit him entered under his armpit. However, when they realized he was injured, they diverted to nearby George Washington University Hospital, where an emergency surgery was performed. Shortly before surgery to remove the bullet, which barely missed his heart, Reagan remarked to the surgical team, "Please tell me you're all Republicans." The head surgeon, liberal Democrat Joseph Giordano, replied, "Mr. President, today we are all Republicans."^[18] He recovered quickly, despite being 70 years old, and was able to continue his presidential duties.

Later when Reagan's wife, First Lady Nancy Reagan, arrived at GWU Hospital, he jokingly explained, "Honey, I forgot to duck" (borrowing Jack Dempsey's line to his wife the night he was beaten by Gene Tunney for the 1926 heavyweight championship).^[18] Reagan had been scheduled to visit Philadelphia on the day of the shooting. He told a nurse, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia," a reference to the W.C. Fields's tagline (which was itself a reference to an old vaudeville joke among comedians: "I would rather be dead than play Philadelphia").^[18]

[edit] "I'm in control here"

Reagan's Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, was criticized shortly after the attack, when Reagan was undergoing surgery, for saying before reporters at a hastily-arranged White House press conference, "I'm in control here" as a result of Reagan's incapacitation.^[19][20]

Haig was accused of mishandling the situation and of misinterpreting the presidential line of succession (according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947), since the Secretary of State is not in control when a President is incapacitated; this duty devolves to the Vice President of the United States (at that time, this was George H.W. Bush). However, Haig and his supporters maintain that the comment he made during the press conference, which in reality was "I'm in control here, now." merely asserted his control over the situation until the Vice President could be contacted aboard Air Force Two.

[edit] Aftermath

The two law enforcement officers recovered from their wounds. However, the attack seriously wounded the President's Press Secretary, James Brady, who sustained a very serious head wound and became permanently disabled. Brady remained as Press Secretary for the remainder of Reagan's administration, but this was primarily a titular role.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21, 1982. The defense psychiatric reports had found him to be insane^[21] while the prosecution reports declared him legally sane.^[22][23] He declined to take the stand in his own defense.^[24] Hinckley was confined at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he was still being held as of April 2007.^[3] After his trial, he wrote that the shooting was "the greatest love offering in the history of the world," and did not indicate any regrets.^[25]

The not guilty verdict led to widespread dismay,^[26][27] and, as a result, the U.S. Congress, and a number of states, rewrote the law regarding the insanity defense. ^[28] The old McNaughten test was replaced by the Federal Test that shifts the burden of proof of insanity from the prosecution to the defendant. Three states have abolished the defense altogether.^[28]

Later, Brady and his wife, Sarah, became leading advocates of gun control and other actions to reduce the amount of gun violence in the United States. They also became active in the lobbying organization that would eventually be renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and they founded the non-profit Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.^[29] The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was passed in 1993 as a result of their work.^[30] Jodie Foster was hounded relentlessly by the media during the spring of 1981 because she was Hinckley's target of obsession. She never commented on Hinckley with the exception of an article she wrote in 1982,^[31] and has ended several interviews after the event was mentioned.^[32]

[edit] See also

• Curse of Tippecanoe
• List of United States Presidential assassination attempts

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• The Trial of John Hinckley Jr. University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School
• The American Experience - John Hinckley Jr. by Julie Wolf.
• Crime Library - The John Hinckley Case by Denise Noe.
• Reagan's reflections on the assassination attempt
• Unedited footage of assassination attempt on Reagan
• CNN interrupts normal programming to report attempted assassination of President Reagan. (Quicktime)