known for more than a decade. look how happy he looks. he s handsome, happy, and looks great. there s john. they met hinckley in the 60s, and bonded over sports and music. he was a very well liked guy. we would go to record shops, music stores, places that burger. at home, john hinckley was the youngest of three. his father, jack, the owner of an oil and gas business. his friends say, the family seemed perfect. straight out of the tv classic, leave it to beaver. i would spend the night over there and it was a great family. his dad was more like warden. what s changed for the kid who grew up with everything? back in washington, the fbi was wondering the same thing. that night, agents were at the park central hotel, where hinckley had been saying.
we now have an announcement from the white house. the president was not hit. inside the presidential limo, a different story was playing out. reagan s increasingly right here. it really hurts. he pulls a napkin out of his right coat pocket, taken from the hilton, david s lips, look out, and there s bright blood. president reagan had been shot and his life was in danger. wilbur explains exactly how he was wounded. we re watching the slow motion replay of the shooting. right around here, boom. look how close he is. look at the gun. the way to reagan is clear, and right here, the bullet hits right there and gets through that little gap. through the tiny gap created by the open door of the bulletproof car, hitting the president. an incredible fluke. it was hinckley s sixth, and final shot.
it for 14 months, up to and through his trial. uncovered by dateline, the diary is a remarkable insight into hinckley s troubled mind. i have such an empty, sad feeling. where are you, jody? hinckley titled it, the diary of a person we all know. at times, it s a chronicle of despair. why go on? i m in mortally infamous, equal to john wilkes-barre with. but i ve had enough. days after that entry, hinckley tried to commit suicide. his second attempt. after he recovered, he seemed to have a moment of clarity about the shooting. there are many times were i thoroughly regret the incident, and in many times where i think about whatever accomplished, and feel satisfied. by the spring of 1982, hinckley seemed ready, almost giddy for the nation to hear his story.
it certainly compatible with an unhappy, and lonely life. hinckley s poem, guns are fun, they re foreshadowing the shooting. if i wish, the president will fall on the world will look at me in disbelief. by the end of his evaluation, 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 battle of the experts over whether hinckley was sane or not.
perfect stage for his story. jody, jody, everyone in the whole wide world knows about us. i think that it was worth it. in the courtroom, prosecutors argue that hinckley knew exactly what he was doing when he shot the president. that it was a premeditated plan, months in the making. originally, the different target. he had actually been stalking the previous president, jimmy carter. in the fall of 1980, hinckley bought guns, one target shooting and followed carter on the campaign trail. we recovered news footage of carter at different rallies in the fall. during the election, hank leads in the crowd. john hinckley had plans to kill president jimmy carter? yes. and it never worked out for him, so he switched his attention to president reagan, after he became president. when it was the defense teams turn, they told jurors that hinckley did not understand his violent actions