Within a fortnight he will be free. American justice has given the green light to the release of John Hinckley, who had attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. After several decades of internment in a psychiatric hospital, then a very strict sentence adjustment, the magistrates consider that he has overcome his mental disorders and can return to a normal life.
On this day, March 30, 1981, at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, Ronald Reagan gave a speech to 5,000 members of the American Federation of Labor, the main labor union in the United States.
John Hinckley waits for the US President to exit the building and fires six revolver bullets in his direction. Ronald Reagan is hit under the left armpit: a broken rib, a punctured lung. Victim of internal bleeding, he arrives unconscious at the hospital and will be resuscitated just in the emergency room.
Controlled by an onlooker, Hincley will be deemed irresponsible by the courts because of his psychiatric disorders and placed in solitary confinement in a specialized establishment for more than twenty years.
The investigation showed that John Hinckley had developed a romantic passion for actress Jodie Foster, after seeing her play in a film, and that he had decided to kill Ronald Reagan to impress her.
In 2016, the magistrates had already authorized him to live confined with his mother in Virginia. Today, the judges consider that he is cured and that he no longer poses any danger to society. John Hinckley says he’s going into music and his YouTube channel already has 30,000 subscribers.
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