he was in l. a., trying to be a songwriter. failing at it. he saw the movie taxi writer, he saw more than a dozen times. remember, she plays a prostitute, an adolescent prostitute in the movie, and he became obsessed with her. robert de niro played the main character, travis a socially awkward taxi driver, who plans to kill a presidential candidate. he identified with him. he thought he was gonna shoot reagan, and she diana hail of bullets. investigators quickly discovered, hinckley considered other options first. like hijacking a plane, and even killing the woman he claimed to love. his plan was to kill jody foster, shoot her, shoot himself, or kill himself in front of her. hinckley s lawyers thought all of this could be the basis of an insanity defense. doctor carpenter was and they hired psych our trust, william carpenter, in hopes he could provide
were you thinking, what would drive john hinckley to try and kill my father? you figure, it s some sort of political motive, or he s just crazy. but, fbi agents who found that letter in hinckley s hotel room we re learning his motives weren t at all political. hinckley was fueled by an obsession with actress, jodie foster. the letter was written to her. dear jody, there s a definite possibility that i will be killed in my attempt to get reagan. it is for this very reason that i m writing you this letter now. retired fbi agent, thomas baker. he explained he was doing this great act of love to impress her, and winner heart. i ve got to do something now to make you understand, in no uncertain terms, then i m doing all of this for your sake. the fbi needed to talk to foster. when agents arrive it yale university, where she was a
from behind the hospital walls. he turned to her and said, will you marry me? secrets from his diary uncovered by dateline. his obsession with actors, jody foster. the letters were sent to and the most controversial question of all, is hinckley really fit to be free? he s a potential k dangerous character. hello, welcome to dateline. he shot a president and shook the country. since that day, more than 40 years ago, gunman, john hinckley jr. has remained an enigma. now, we re about to reveal an extraordinary trove of his most private thoughts and feelings, and provide a firsthand look at his contentious second act as a free man. here s special contributor, troy roberts, with hinckley, diary of a dangerous mind. charming small town,
carpenter concluded that hinckley was legally insane. his official diagnosis the diagnostic clothes that we used, the most suitable one would be schizophrenia. could the defense convince the jury? the prosecution had their own experts and planned to argue hinckley was perfectly sane. he was legally sane because he knew it was wrong. because he knew he was shooting at humans in a way that could harm them. the trial would be us a seven-week battle of the experts over whether hinckley was sane or not. potential answers to that question were buried in a remarkable diary that hinckley wrote, and that dateline uncovered.
the united states over a movie star. john hinckley junior. today, after being institutionalized for more than three decades, he is pretty much a free man. it was a rainy spring monday in washington, d. c., just a few months after ronald reagan was elected president. march 30th, 1981, 70 days into reagan s first term. it s a nothing day. he s giving a speech at the washington hill. and nothing day that was about to turn into a day no one would ever forget. los angeles times reporter interviewed well over 100 people for his book rawhide, the secret service code name for president reagan. we re going to convince the