WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, just released a new book about his life and met up with WTKR’s Margaret Kavanagh at Bicentennial Park in Williamsburg to discuss his new memoir and the day he tried to kill the former president.
Hinckley, now a free man living in Williamsburg, has just released a book called "John Hinckley Jr.: Who I Really Am" that tells his story from beginning to end.
"It's my memoir. It's called 'Who I Really Am' and it tells my whole story from beginning to end," Hinckley said. "All the good and the bad are in the book."
The book details how he pushed friends and family away in the late 1970s and early 1980s, isolating himself and falling into a deep depression that led to what he describes as delusional behavior.
Watch previous coverage: Hinckley to be released 35 years after Reagan assassination attempt
"By the time 1981 rolled around, I was a very ill man, and I committed that crime," Hinckley said.
He was obsessed with the 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver, where the main character Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro, plots to assassinate a fictional presidential candidate. Hinckley was also infatuated with actress Jodie Foster who played a teenage prostitute in the movie. Foster was 12 when she filmed for her role, Iris.
"In the fall of '80, I went to New Haven seek her out and I talked to her on the phone a few times and I left messages and wrote poems for her and I always signed them so she knew who I was," Hinckley said. "She was saying, 'Look I can't be talking to strangers on the phone and I was always trying to keep her on the phone.'"
To impress the actress, he devised a plan to kill the president similar to the plot in the movie. Hinckley told me what happened on March 30, 1981.
Watch previous coverage of Hinckley's release
"I was staying at a hotel in D.C., and I saw Reagan’s schedule for the day in the newspaper, and I made up my mind what I wanted to do," Hinckley said. "So I wrote a letter to Jodie Foster, and I left it in the hotel room and I took a cab to the Hilton hotel and I saw where the crowd was standing, so I got amongst the crowd and Reagan arrived with his entourage and walked right past me, and it looked like he was waving right at me so it kind of startled me so I just kind of waved back. He went on into the building. He gave his speech and when he came back out. That's when I shot him."
Hinckley shot and wounded four people that day. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity the following year, then remained in a mental hospital before receiving his unconditional release and full freedom in 2022.
"I'm just so sorry for what happened," Hinckley said.
"In 1981, I was depressed, delusional, and that's why I committed my crimes," Hinckley said. "But I'm so far removed from that now. I feel so much better now. And my life now is devoted to music and art."
He creates art that he sells and music that he puts online but says he's had trouble getting music venue owners to allow him to perform live.
"Then the owner of the venue always seems to cancel on me and it's very frustrating because I know I can put on a good show and sing my songs and make the people happy," Hinckley said.
I also spoke with Jason Norman, the ghostwriter who helped Hinckley put the book together.
Watch previous coverage of Hinckley's release
"I just figured there was much more to him than this and there was," Norman said. "There was his music career, his college life, his life on the inside, when he was institutionalized for a while, his relationships. I just felt like this was a full story that needed telling."
Writing the memoir was therapeutic for Hinckley, though emotionally challenging.
“Early on it was hard drudging up all those memories cause I kind of pushed them in the back,” said Hinckley. “I hope people read it and see that I’m not the person I was back in 1981.”
He denounces all political violence and wants peace while continuing to make art and play music, hoping to one day perform live.
"I feel like the public would be attending a good concert if I could just put on the show," Hinckley said.
