This Historical Deed: The Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan

This Historical Deed: The Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan

This article relates to Playworld

Adam Ross's novel Playworld takes place between 1980 and 1981, during which time the characters follow with interest the election, presidency, and attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

The attempted assassination of Reagan took place in March 1981, just a few months after he was inaugurated for his first term. The would-be assassin was 25-year-old John Hinckley, Jr., who opened fire as the president was leaving a hotel in Washington, DC. Three of his bullets hit other men who were with Reagan, and one ricocheted off the president's limo and hit him underneath his armpit. A Secret Service agent got him into the limo and drove off, only realizing later that Reagan had been hit. He was in the hospital for twelve days, lost over half his blood, and had to have surgery to remove the bullet, which was just an inch away from his heart.

Perhaps the most famous aspect of this assassination attempt, though, is Hinckley, Jr.'s motivation: he did it to try to impress the actor Jodie Foster, with whom he became obsessed after seeing the movie Taxi Driver. He was living in Los Angeles when the film came out—an aspiring singer-songwriter who idolized John Lennon, he was trying to make it in the music industry, but he wasn't getting anywhere and was listless and depressed. He saw the movie, he estimates, 15 times in theaters, strongly identifying with Travis Bickle, the troubled protagonist played by Robert De Niro. He started dressing and acting like Bickle, and was fixated on Foster, whom he later followed to New Haven when she began studying at Yale, calling her on the phone and leaving her notes. It's worth noting that Foster was 12 years old when she filmed Taxi Driver and 18 in March of 1981.

The day of the assassination attempt, Hinckley, Jr. wrote a final letter to Foster and left it in his hotel room. "By sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change your mind about me," it read. "Jodie, I'm asking you to please look into your heart and at least give the chance, with this historical deed, to gain your love and respect." Hinckley, Jr. had no known political motivation for attacking President Reagan, he simply felt that Foster might be more interested in him if he were famous.

Hinckley, Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity (the defense argued that there was strong evidence he was schizophrenic). In September 2016—35 years after the crime—he was released from the psychiatric hospital on a few conditions: he was not allowed to speak to the media, and he was not allowed to release music for public consumption, even anonymously, without approval. (He had continued to play music over the years for his psychiatric treatment.)

In 2022, these conditions were lifted, and Hinckley took to Twitter, posting "After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!" He started releasing music and promoting gigs, but while a number of shows sold out, venues started canceling after a wave of backlash. "I'm basically a struggling musician," he told the New York Times.

"People have different definitions of redemption," Hinckley, Jr. added. "My definition of redemption is to make amends for all the negativity that I created in 1981. I'm trying to redeem myself through positive music, through a thing that people really like—as opposed to the things they really hated about me, in 1981."

Ronald Reagan just before assassination attempt, courtesy of Humanities Texas

Filed under Cultural Curiosities

This article relates to Playworld. It first ran in the January 15, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.