Word: hinckleys
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Tears, anger and remorse at the trial of John Hinckley...
Through the first two weeks of his trial for the shooting of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr., 26, was a model of calm, impassive silence. That self-control was shattered last week when the jury was shown the videotaped testimony of Jodie Foster, 19, the actress turned college student whose 1976 film Taxi Driver sparked Hinckley's obsession with her and, according to his lawyers, drove him to shoot the President.* Hinckley, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, fidgeted throughout her testimony until Foster was asked, "How would you describe your...
...Hinckley's agitation was in especially sharp contrast to his icy calm only hours earlier when his father, John Hinckley Sr., who founded a Denver-based oil and gas exploration firm, broke down on the witness stand. The elder Hinckley described an agonizing meeting with his "wiped out" prodigal son at the Denver airport just three weeks before the shooting. John Sr. said that on advice from the family psychiatrist he refused to let his son come home and suggested he stay at the Y.M.C.A. When John said he did not want to do that, his father told...
...Hinckley's well-to-do family in Colorado tried to help him but without success. His mother Jo Ann testified to years of anguish, noting that her son's depressed condition had worsened dramatically in the fall of 1980. In October the family considered placing him in a mental hospital; a psychiatrist said no, urging the Hinckleys to persuade their son to accept responsibility for himself. John's parents gave him an ultimatum: by March 1, 1981, he was to have a job. Instead, he left home; a week later he called from New York, incoherent...
...week before the assassination attempt, Mrs. Hinckley drove her son to the Denver airport to catch a flight to California. Getting out of the car, he told her: "Well, Mom, I want to thank you for everything you've done for me." Mrs. Hinckley told the court: "He looked so bad and so sad and so absolutely in despair, and I was frightened and I didn't know what to do. I said, 'You're very welcome,' and I said it so coldly." That was the last she heard of John, she said, until...