Attempted Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. freed from court oversight
Would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley, Jr. was unconditionally released from court oversight Wednesday, four decades after his failed hit on former President Ronald Reagan.
“After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!” Hinckley, 67, wrote on Twitter after decades in a Washington D.C. mental hospital and in a Virginia community under court supervision.
Hinckley, 67, was planning to celebrate his newfound freedom with a singing and guitar performance at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn, but the venue announced Wednesday it had scrapped the bizarre gig even as it defended booking the gunman-turned-musician.
Market Hotel said in an Instagram post that hosting “provocative happenings for its own sake is valid, and should be part of any venue’s reason to exist,” adding the “tour” sent a message that people can recover and atone for their pasts.
“There was a time when a place could host a thing like this, maybe a little offensive, and the reaction would be ‘it’s just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt – it’s a free country.’” the post said. “We aren’t living in that kind of free country anymore, for better or for worse.”
Hinckley attacked Reagan outside the Washington, DC Hilton on March 30, 1981, when he opened fire with a .22 and wounded the 40th president, his press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim MCarthy.
Reagan recovered from his injuries, but Brady spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair while Delahanty suffered nerve damage. A 1993 gun control bill named the Brady Bill set background checks and a five-day waiting period to buy handguns.
The gunman, then 25 years old, was reportedly was inspired to shoot Reagan in the dawn of his first term in office in a deranged attempt to impress “Taxi Driver” actress Jodi Foster.
He was committed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in DC after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. Since 2016, he was under supervision living with his mother in Williamsburg, Va. His mother died last year, but Hinckley was allowed to continue living in the gated community with restrictions.
US District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman said he’d lift any remaining restrictions on Hinckley by Wednesday if the would-be assassin remained mentally stable, according to the Associated Press.
His pending release drew criticisms, including from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, but others stood up for the decision.
“If he hadn’t attempted to kill President Reagan, this guy would have been released years ago,” University of Pennsylvania law and psychiatry professor Stephen J. Morse told the AP last year.
With Post wires