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JOHN HINCKLEY, WHO tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, is to be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live full-time with his mother, a federal judge ordered today.
Hinckley, who was declared not guilty of the attempted assassination by reason of insanity, said after shooting the president outside a Washington hotel that he wanted to kill Reagan to impress the actor Jodie Foster, with whom he became obsessed after viewing the film Taxi Driver.
The court order places dozens of detailed conditions on Hinckley’s “full-time convalescent leave” from St Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, including a ban on contact with Foster, but said they can be phased out after a year to 18 months if he continues to make progress.
US District Judge Paul Friedman wrote that Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a threat to himself or others.
He will be freed as soon as 5 August to live with his 90-year-old mother in her gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The attack badly wounded three other men, including Reagan’s press secretary James Brady.
Following a two-month trial in 1982, a federal jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity. The widely criticised verdict led many states to tighten the laws on insanity defenses.
Since the 1990s, Hinckley has been permitted gradually longer supervised home visits with his mother, lately lasting up to 17 days. Secret Service agents have tracked him during each such foray.
Members of Reagan’s family have consistently opposed Hinckley’s release. Daughter Patti Reagan Davis wrote on her website in 2015:
I hope the doctors are right when they say that John Hinckley isn’t a danger to anyone, but something in me feels they are wrong.
One thing troubling her, she said, was that while at St Elizabeths, Hinckley had written to mass murderers Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
But Hinckley’s attorney Barry Levine has argued since 2003 that evaluations by the hospital’s officials showed that he no longer posed any threat.
The attempt on Reagan’s life sparked intense debate over gun violence and the treatment of the mentally ill. Brady, though left paralysed, became a leading gun-control advocate.
A medical examiner attributed Brady’s death in 2014 to the injuries received 33 years earlier, but no additional charges were filed against Hinckley.
The 1981 attack also badly wounded US Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and local police officer Thomas Delahanty.
The conditions on Hinckley’s release include a ban on contact with survivors of any of the victims, as well as with Foster.
Hinckley must remain within 50 miles of his mother’s home, and cannot travel to any area where a current or former president, vice president or member of Congress is known to be.
He must return to St Elizabeths for monthly monitoring and must notify the Secret Service in advance about his intended route of travel.
He cannot post any writings or memorabilia on the Internet or display them in person without authorisation.
The detailed conditions even include a requirement for monthly music therapy sessions with a board-certified music therapist.
St Elizabeths, Hinckley’s home for most of the past 35 years, opened in 1855, the first federally run psychiatric hospital. Though it once housed as many as 8,000 patients – many of them indigent – the aging facility is being phased out and now holds only a few hundred.
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“Amazingly the pilot finished the flight” , wtf was he supposed to do get out and walk off ?.
Put the plane down at the nearest suitable and safe landing strip, would be the preferred option. Not continuing on and finishing the full scheduled route with a damaged aircraft and probable damage to its radar systems located in the nose cone
@Wayne
The problem is the pilot did not receive authorisation to divert or land at the nearest airport
Larissa, and that’s where the “amazing” part comes in, the pilot managed to complete a flight with a badly damaged aircraft, and most likely a damaged radar. It was a response to a comment not the story
@Wayne
Okay, there was a slight misunderstanding then :)
But it just goes to show, that it’s probably the safest option to keep your seatbelt fastened at all times, I’m surprised no-one got injured by hitting the overhead lockers
The Chinese ATC were a bunch of pr!cks for not letting the plane fly around the storm, they also endangered the people on the plane.
Yeah but you wont hear much condemnation around here from the pro commies
An emergency landing in North Korea. That would be fun.
All crew and passengers would be arrested on the spot and used by Kim Jong Un as hostages to lift the sanctions off North Korea, or executed on the spot for being spies
Why all the red thumbs? Anything is possible in North Korea considering one of the Generals was killed not so long ago with an anti-aircraft gun, don’t underestimate the power of an underfed brainwashed country
A country that would be left to starve and rot if the US was to withdraw food aid.
It’ll probably cost them more to get the smell of $hit out of the aircraft than it’ll take to replace the nose!!
I’d be most worried about the engines … They also got hit just as much as the nose ….
Never unbuckle seat belt incase of a sudden draft wind
747′s are a serious plane. They have an amazing safety record. I’m not surprised this one carried on. It’s a real shame these planes won’t be around much longer.
Why won’t they be around much longer? Boeing are full for orders for 2 years?
Yup- but not for for 747s -
There’s always the 800s coming off the production line.
They are on the way to being extinct. All the big 747 airlines are retiring their fleets and replacing with more fuel efficient 777 dreamliners and the like. Even the Airbus a380s are now under threat. Planes with 4 engines are a big no no now. Boeing predict that the only 747s they will manufacture in the future will be for the president of the USA. A sad future prediction for probably the greatest aircraft ever manufactured
Unfortunately the majority are freighters and not passenger planes.
That’s not the point. Boeing have oodles of orders for jumbos. Doesn’t matter to them if they are passenger or freighters. We will have 747s in the air for all of our lifetimes.
Yes for 747s mark.
Yes but you or I may never be on one ever again Cian, unless someone mails you in a box to China. Also alot of those orders are up in the air. Airlines are changing their minds everyday. Google search ‘end of the jumbo’ and you will find lots of articles. Interesting reading.
There are only 30 of the newer variant passenger plane flying today Cian. I’m pretty sure they won’t make a nice or any profit off those numbers.
I’d say that was fun for the passengers…not!
A sheep on here called someone else brainwashed.
Only on the journal.
have your say