John Hinckley

His father was John Warnock Hinckley (1925–2008), founder, chairman, chief executive and president of the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation.

His mother was Jo Ann Hinckley (née Moore; 1925–2021).

Hinckley grew up in University Park, Texas, and attended Highland Park High School in Dallas County.

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. (born May 29, 1955) is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration.

Using a revolver, Hinckley wounded Reagan, the police officer Thomas Delahanty, the Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and the White House Press Secretary, James Brady.

Brady was left disabled and eventually died from his injuries.

Hinckley was reportedly seeking fame to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had a fixation.

He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remained under institutional psychiatric care for over three decades.

Public outcry over the verdict led state legislatures and Congress to narrow their respective insanity defenses.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hinckley began purchasing weapons and practicing with them.

He was prescribed antidepressants and tranquilizers to deal with his emotional problems.

After Hinckley graduated from high school in 1973, his family, owners of the Hinckley oil company, moved to Evergreen, Colorado, where the new company headquarters was located.

He was an off-and-on student at Texas Tech University from 1974 to 1980 but eventually dropped out.

In 1975, he went to Los Angeles in the hope of becoming a songwriter.

His efforts were unsuccessful, and he wrote to his parents with tales of misfortune and pleas for money.

He also spoke of a girlfriend, Lynn Collins, who turned out to be a fabrication.

In September 1976, he returned to his parents' home in Evergreen.

Hinckley became obsessed with the 1976 film Taxi Driver, in which disturbed protagonist Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) plots to assassinate a presidential candidate.

Bickle was partly based on the diaries of Arthur Bremer, who attempted to assassinate George Wallace.

Hinckley developed an infatuation with Jodie Foster, who played Iris Steensma, a sexually trafficked 12-year-old child, in the film.

When Foster entered Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven, Connecticut, for a short time to stalk her.

He sent Foster love letters and romantic poems, and repeatedly called and left her messages.

Failing to develop any meaningful contact with Foster, Hinckley fantasized about conducting an aircraft hijacking or killing himself in front of her to get her attention.

Eventually, he settled on a scheme to impress her by assassinating the president, thinking that by achieving a place in history, he would appeal to her as an equal.

Hinckley trailed President Jimmy Carter from state to state, and was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, on a firearms charge.

Penniless, he returned home.

Despite psychiatric treatment for depression, his mental health did not improve.

He began to target the newly elected president Ronald Reagan in 1981.

For this purpose, he collected material on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Hinckley wrote to Foster just before his attempt on Reagan's life:

"Over the past seven months I've left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. ... The reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I cannot wait any longer to impress you."

On March 30, 1981, at 2:27 p.m. EST, Hinckley shot a .22 caliber Röhm RG-14 revolver six times at Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., after the president addressed an AFL–CIO conference.

Hinckley wounded police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and critically wounded press secretary James Brady.

Though Hinckley did not hit Reagan directly, the president was seriously wounded when a bullet ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the chest.

Alfred Antenucci, a Cleveland, Ohio labor official who stood near Hinckley and saw him firing, hit Hinckley in the head and pulled him to the ground.

In 2016, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley could be released from psychiatric care as he was no longer considered a threat to himself or others, albeit with many conditions.

After 2020, a ruling was issued that Hinckley may showcase his artwork, writings, and music publicly under his own name, rather than anonymously as he had in the past.

Since then, he has maintained a YouTube channel for his music.

His restrictions were unconditionally lifted in June 2022, over 40 years after the assassination attempt.

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and moved with his wealthy family to Dallas, Texas at the age of four.