John Hinckley, the man who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981 because of his obsession with Jodie Foster, will be released

The man who tried to kill the then president Ronald reagan four decades ago you will be able to live your life without restrictions if he maintains good behavior and does not suffer from other mental disorders, a judge determined on Monday. John Hinckley Jr. was released from a hospital in Washington in 2016 and lived in Williamsburg, Virginia, but with certain restrictions, for example you have to see doctors and psychologists regularly and you have to take certain medications.

Federal District Judge Paul L. Friedman to Washington He said in a 9’0 minute hearing that he would make a decision on the matter in the coming days. Between the Other restrictions imposed on Hinckley are the ban on having weapons. You cannot get in touch with the family of Reagan, neither with the other victims nor their families nor with the actress Jodie foster, which he was obsessed with when he tried to kill the president of the United States March 30, 1981.

Friedman I declare that Hinckley, today 66, currently has no symptoms of mental disorders, has not behaved violently and, since 1983, has not shown interest in carrying weapons. “If it hadn’t been for the fact that he tried to kill a president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long time ago.», Declared the magistrate. “But today we are all satisfied, based on the studies, analyzes, interviews and experiences of Mr. Hinckley“He added.

Hinckley -who was 25 at the time of the attack- shot Reagan, as well as the press officer of White House, James brady, to an agent of the Secret Service and a policeman, in front of a hotel Washington DC, in front of the television cameras. Brady died years later, in August 2014, in what the coroner’s office called a homicide as a result of injuries he sustained in the shooting.

Attempt

It was 2:30 p.m. on March 30, 1981, just over forty years ago, and Hinckley – a deranged man – had attempted to assassinate Reagan to dazzle Foster, dazzled as he was by her beauty ever since he had seen her in Taxi driver, the film directed by Martin Scorcese that the young actress had played alongside Robert De Niro.

Hidden in the crowd expecting to see the President leave after a lunch and the usual speech to representatives of the Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations of the United States, Hinckley shot six times in three seconds when Reagan waved to the people, first with the right arm raised and then with the left. The killer used a gun Rom RG-14, 22 caliber, loaded with explosive “Devastator” bullets, which contained small charges of lead azide, an inorganic compound used in detonators to set off secondary explosions: the idea was that these projectiles would cause as much damage as possible.

The first bullet hit Brady’s head. The second hit Thomas Delahanty, the police officer, in the back.. The third bullet went over Reagan and it crashed into a window of one of the buildings in front of the hotel. The fourth shot hit Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy in the lower chest., who reacted as he trained: he put himself in front of the bullets intended for Reagan. The fifth bullet hit one of the armored glasses of the window of the right rear door of the presidential car. The sixth and final bounced off the car, hitting Reagan in the left armpit, hitting a rib and landing on the lung, an inch from the heart.

Or Reagan, and none of the members of the secret service noticed that the president was injured. By the time the car started to head towards the White House, according to the order of the agent Parr, Hinckley it was on the wet floor of T Street. The place was messy. Another of the secret service agents, Dennis mccarthy, without any relationship with the agent Mccarthy wounded in the chest, kept Hinckley down in seconds he was under a human pile trying to stop someone from killing the assailant, while another agent, Robert Wanko wielding an Uzi machine gun that he had taken out of a briefcase: in the photos of the attack, already legendary, we can see Wanko in a silent cry of despair, gun in hand.

Reagan, in the seat of the armored car and with the officer Parr on top and paralyzed with severe pain in his back, he whispered to her: “Looks like you broke my rib. And besides, I think the coast went through my lungs ”. He immediately coughed and a mouthful of foamy blood came out of his mouth. Parr then made the decision that saved the president’s life.: ordered the car to change course and head at full speed towards the George Washington University Hospital.

There, doctors from the trauma team led by the doctor Joseph Giordano They did not even have time to prepare a stretcher: they had been warned that three seriously injured were coming, Brady, in the head, and the agents Delahanty and Mccarthy on the back and chest. And suddenly, ahead of schedule, they saw the presidential limousine arrive, with the flags unfurled on the sides, from which it got out. Reagan hesitating when going to the emergency room.

Doctors saw it pale, panting, hypotensive, with severe pain in chest and back: They thought Reagan had had a heart attack. It was when they took off his clothes that they found a one and a half inch bullet hole in his left side. There was no exit hole. The bullet was still in the president’s chest.

The bullet had to be removed from the body of Reagan. Tubed on the left side of the hemithorax, Reagan continued to drain blood. Doctors wondered if, with the projectile so close to the heart, it was worth the surgery. Wasn’t that too great a risk?

Benjamin aaron, the head of the thoracic surgery department of the hospital decided perform a thoracotomy because Reagan had already lost at least three liters of blood. A catheter determined the exact location of the projectile, almost “felt” the tip of the bullet, and a pleural incision removed it. It passed from the hands of doctors to those of the secret services. Before the anesthesia, the president, who apparently hasn’t lost his good humor, told doctors: “I hope they are all Republicans”. Giordano, the head of trauma at George Washington University Hospital, a staunch Liberal Democrat, replied: “Today we are all Republicans, Mr. President.”

At this time, with the bullet fired from Régan in their possession, the researchers knew that the revolver used by Hinckley had been purchased in Rocky’s pawnshop, to Dallas, Texas. What they didn’t know, and found out later, was what drove Hinckley to attack Reagan.

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