Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan, 1981

On March 28, 1981, John Hinkley had arrived in Washington, DC by bus with the intention of going onto New Haven, Connecticut to infatuate the famed actress, Jodie Foster.  The Washington Star had published the upcoming schedule of President Ronald Reagan so Hinkley decided he would stay in DC and assassinate the president in an attempt to impress the actress.  In an unsent letter to Foster, Hinkley declared, "I would abandon the idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you."

On the morning of the attempted assassination, President Reagan had delivered a speech to members of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton.  The venue for this speech was chosen because since the early 1970s, the Washington Hilton was considered the safest place in DC because of the enclosed passageway known as the President's Walk.  This passageway was built in 1963 after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Interestingly is that on any given day, the Secret Service required President Reagan to wear a bulletproof vest, but because the only public exposure that day was the 30 foot walk from the hotel to the limousine the vest was not required.  The Secret Service too were not wearing bulletproof vests that day.  There were witnesses outside reporting of a bystander acting fidgety and agitated and for that reason the Secret Service was monitoring this person.  The tragic part, aside from the shooting is that the person being monitored was not John Hinkley.

At first, it seemed like Hinkley missed the President while wounding Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy, and DC Police Officer Thomas Delahanty.  Brady was the first to be hit as the bullet hit him in the head just above the left eye and passing underneath his brain.  His brain cavity was shattered.  Delahanty recognized the shot to Brady and immediately went after Hinkley.  When he did, he would receive the second shot hitting him in the back of the neck resulting in his falling onto Brady and yelling, "I am hit!"  As the President was rushed into the limousine, not knowing that the third shot had hit him, Secret Service Agent McCarthy took the fourth bullet as he made himself a human shield between Reagan and Hinkley. McCarthy was hit in the lower abdomen where the bullet traversed his right lung diaphragm and right lobe of the liver.

When the President was in the car, he told his agent, Jerry Parr that he thought that he had broken a rib and asked to get off of him.  Just then, Reagan coughed up blood and the limousine was redirected to George Washington Hospital.  President Reagan had walked into the Emergency Room and then his knees turned to rubber.  The president of the United States had lost half of his blood and was closer to dying than what was let on.  Still keeping his sense of human; as he was being taken to surgery the President quipped to the First Lady, "Honey, I forgot to duck."  And still keeping with the famous one liners as he was ready for surgery President Reagan joked to the doctors; "I hope that you're all Republicans."  The doctor responded by saying, "Mr. President, today we're all Republicans."

Back at the White House chaos was high.  Vice President George Bush was not to be found and forgetting the 25th Amendment to the Constitution; Secretary of State Alexander Haig declared on national radio and television that he was now in charge.

In the end, President Reagan made a full recovery to wounds that just 100 years and 80 years earlier killed his predecessors; James A. Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901.  Reagan would break a curse known as the Curse of Tippecanoe and served two full terms as President. 

James Brady would survive his wounds, but be brain damaged and paralyzed for the rest of his life.  He and his wife; Sarah would spend the next decade lobbying for stronger gun control laws resulting in President Bill Clinton signing the Brady Bill into law in 1993.  When Mr. Brady died in 2014; Hinkley was then charged with homicide.

John Hinkley was found not guilty in 1981 on reasons of insanity.  As stated before; when Jim Brady died in 2014 Hinkley was charged with homicide.  John Hinkley was released from custody in June 2022 after 41 years as he was deemed no longer a threat to society. He even, decades earlier was forgiven by President Reagan.