John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, is to be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live full-time with his mother, a federal judge ordered Wednesday.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that Hinckley was ready to live in the community and would be allowed to leave the hospital to live full-time at his mother’s home in Virginia.
Weeks later, on March 30, Hinckley would step out of a crowd outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., and open fire with a six-shot revolver as the president left a speaking engagement. He was eventually allowed to have supervised visits with family members and has recently been spending 17 days a month with his 90-year-old mother at her home.
According to Friedman’s ruling, Hinckley is barred from contacting his victims and their families.
Other Facts: Stalked actress Jodie Foster for a time and says he was trying to impress her with the Reagan assassination attempt. After the proposed visits, St. Elizabeths requests the authority to decide whether Hinckley could be released on “convalescent leave”, which would make him a permanent outpatient.
The court believes John Hinckley is no longer the threat he once was and that custodial care in a psychiatric facility is no longer necessary nor helpful.
While outside the hospital, Hinckley has had to comply with a series of restrictions, and some of those will continue now that he will be living full time in the community.
Then President Reagan was shot in the chest, and then press secretary James Brady took a head shot.
Hinckley’s mother lives in Williamsburg, about 130 miles south of Washington. “Reagan himself talked about how the law was too easy on criminals and this played right into that”. Hinckley, according to the documents, expressed tremendous remorse for his actions in 1981, and felt especially guilty for what he’d done to Brady, whose eventual death in 2014 shook him. In addition, he must stay away from a former Washington police officer and a former Secret Service agent who were injured in the assassination attempt, as well as a former St. Elizabeths employee who accused him of harassing her in the 1990s.
Hinckley’s hobbies include painting, photography, and playing the guitar.
He has spent time volunteering at a church as well as a local mental hospital.
Advertisement
As part of his release, Hinckley must complete a daily log of his activities while on leave that detail any of his work or volunteer hours, plus social interactions and treatments, and any errands or recreational activities.
