So this is the creeper of the hour. Hinckley grew up in Texas and moved to Colorado with his parents as a teenager. After he graduated high school he tried college, gave up, and moved to Hollywood to become a songwriter. Apparently that didn't work out to well, because in letters he wrote to his parents he was always asking for money. He also mentioned a girlfriend whom he was in love with. So cute right? Well, she didn't actually exist. Creeper! Sooner or later he gave up on the whole musician thing. He came home and watched a movie with Jodie Foster in it. The movie was Taxi Driver and he fell in love with her, I guess...
Who is Jodie Foster? Well in the movie she played a preteen girl who um... well, had a rather scandalous occupation. I won't go into it. But a little more recently she's been in movies like Silence of the Lambs, Panic Room, and Nim's Island. She's won quite a number of awards, and apparently caught the eye of our creeper. *shudder*Obsessed with Foster, he moved to Connecticut when he learned she attending Yale. He'd slip her notes and poems under her dorm room door and called her numerous times. Unfortunately for him, the relationship wasn't really going where he wanted it. Especially when she reported him to the dean and police were investigating him. But well, his love for her burn with the passion of five million white suns.So he schemed to gain her attention in several different ways... He thought about hijacking an airplane. Well, that didn't really pan out. Then he though about committing suicide right in front of her. There were several flaws in that plan. Kinda hard to be together when you're dead... you know? He researched. In the movie Taxi driver the main character tried protecting Jodie's character by trying to assassinate a Senator running for president. Well, he figured, she's famous for acting, maybe I could be famous for killing a really important guy! Then we could be equal and together forever!... Creeper. He considered Lee Harvey Oswald his idol and strove to be just like him. He started stocking the then-president Jimmy Carter. When Ronald Reagan became president, he made his move...On March 30, 1981, Hinckley wrote a final letter (but did not mail it) to Foster saying that he hoped he impressed her with what he did. He realized he probably wouldn't survive the attack. They were in Washington, D.C. and Reagan was giving a lil speechy at the Washington Hilton Hotel. As Reagan was leaving the building and getting into his limousine, our little creeper we've grown to know and love worked his way through the crowd and shot off six bullets within three seconds with his pistol.The bullets pretty much went everywhere and the sixth one was the only one that actually hit the president. The only reason it did, was because it ricocheted off the limo door. What I'm trying to say is, wow... This guy is a terrible shot.The bullet hit Reagan under the armpit and traveled through his chest, nicked a rib, and got lodged in his lung. He was rushed to the hospital and did indeed survive. He was the first president to survive getting shot in office.
Reagan stayed in the hospital for about two more weeks. Considering all he went through, he actually made some pretty good recovery.In 1982, John Hinckley, Jr. was tried for attempting to murder Ronald Reagan. He was found innocent on the terms that he was legally insane. While I do believe that he was crazy, creepy, and generally messed up, I don't believe it's a good enough reason not to be tried to the fullest extent of the law. Several states apparently agreed with me, because after the trial's outcome was learned Idaho, Kansas, Montana, and Utah decided to get rid of that defense. Go them!So overall, what I learned this week was that people are creepers. But I already knew that. So I guess not much was gained. Ha! But I thought was happened was interesting, though very disturbing. OH! And in case any of you were wondering, Jodie Foster was NOT impressed by the assassination attempt. And Hinckley was very disappointed. Le sigh...
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