President Ronald Reagan’s would-be assassin will live full-time outside a mental hospital for the first time in over 35 years, NBC News confirmed.
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John Hinckley is now 61 years old, and as the judge wrote, “suffering from arthritis, high blood pressure, and various other physical ailments like many men his age”.
The court order places dozens of detailed conditions on Hinckley’s “full-time convalescent leave” from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, including a ban on contact with Foster, but said they can be phased out after a year to 18 months if he continues to make progress.
After being held at a psychiatric hospital for over three decades, John W. Hinckley, Jr. will be released, a federal judge ruled today.
Hinckley wounded four people, including Reagan, Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy and police officer Thomas Delahanty when he opened fire outside the Hilton Hotel in downtown Washington on March 30, 1981.
Hinckley suffered from acute psychosis and major depression, and attempted the assassination in a bid to impress the actress Jodie Foster, whom Hinckley stalked after becoming obsessed with the character Foster portrayed in the 1976 film “Taxi Driver”.
According to the ruling, Hinckley will be allowed to live with his 90-year-old mother at her home in Williamsburg, Virginia.
“Since 2006, Mr. Hinckley has successfully completed 80 unsupervised visits with his family in Williamsburg, Virginia, fully complying with the court’s strict conditions, with two minor exceptions”, Friedman wrote in his opinion.
In a statement, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute disagreed with the judge’s decision. Over the years, the court has loosened restrictions on him, and has allowed him to spend consecutive days at his mother’s residence in a gated community south of D.C.
John Hinckley Jr. graduated from Highland Park High School in suburban Dallas in 1973 and started attending Texas Tech University later that year.
Brady was left wheelchair-bound and with brain damage after he was shot in the head.
Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis, has opposed Hinckley Jr’s gradual release. His hobbies include painting, guitar and photography.
Some of his mother’s neighbors in Williamsburg have always been wary of Hinckley. “Him saying I’m doing this to get Jodie Foster with John Hinckley it’s a memory definitely”, Schumacher said.
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He has been volunteering at a church and a local mental hospital.
