Many of our younger Perezcious readers may not be too familiar with this story, but the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan just had a new update 35 years later.
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Friedman of the US District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that Hinckley no longer poses a danger to himself or others.
Thanks to a judge’s order Wednesday, he’ll be able to live there full time, starting as early as August 5.
Hinckley, now 61, has gotten to know Williamsburg over the past decade, since Friedman began allowing him to take increasingly long furloughs from a government psychiatric hospital in Washington to his mother’s home.
Officials at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington joined Hinckley’s request to be set free and treated as an outpatient, with conditions.
Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy was also wounded when he shielded Reagan from the gunman but fully recovered and is a police chief in IL.
Reagan was shot during the March 30, 1981 assassination attempt in Washington, D.C. and underwent immediate surgery.
He had shot the president in an apparent bid to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had an obsession and whom he had subjected to what would now be termed stalking.
In 2014 Hinckley’s visits were extended to 17 days, and he was allowed to spend more time unsupervised, outside of Kingsmill.
Hinckley, Jr. also had a history of stalking Foster and even bombarded her with letters and phone calls in 1980, when she was a student at Yale University in CT.
After Hinckley’s attack the US Secret Service significantly tightened its protocols for presidential security.
Hinckley must remain within 50 miles of his mother’s home, and can not travel to any area where a current or former president, vice president or member of Congress is known to be.
Even though his victims, Reagan and White House press secretary James Brady, have died, Hinckley remains a threat.
Laura Kaplan, a 23-year-old a bookkeeper, said the town would likely be a good place for someone with Hinckley’s history to put his past behind him.
However, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation condemned the release.
After an eight-week trial, a federal jury in Washington found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in June 1982 of all 13-counts against him, setting off a sharp public backlash. Two other men were hit by the six bullets Hinckley fired that day – one struck a police officer, the other a secret service agent.
“Mr. Hinckley, by all accounts, has shown no signs of psychotic symptoms, delusional thinking, or any violent tendencies”, Friedman wrote.
In a statement to ABC News, Barry Levine, Hinckley’s attorney, said in part that they are “gratified” by the decision.
Doctors responsible for treating Hinckley urged a year ago to grant him a form of permanent leave from the psychiatric facility.
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“Mr. Hinckley recognizes that what he did was horrific. It was an act caused by mental illness, an illness from which he no longer suffers”.
