Reagan shooter out after 35 years
John Hinckley Jr, who tried to assassinate US president Ronald Reagan 35 years ago, was released from a psychiatric hospital last night.
The shooting – prompted by a deranged obsession with actress Jodie Foster – took place outside a hotel in Washington in March 1981.
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a trial the following year.
He was diagnosed with depression and psychosis, both of which are now in remission, according to his doctors.
In July, a judge ordered Hinckley’s release from St Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, finding he no longer posed a danger to himself or others.
Hinckley, 61, will move into his mother’s house in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The shooting, just weeks after Reagan became president, shocked the world. He was shot in the lung but recovered.
His press secretary James Brady was shot in the head, suf fered brain damage and was left permanently disabled.
As a 25-year- old college dropout, Hinckley became obsessed with Foster and Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver, in which she played a teen prostitute.
Inspired by the main character, who plots to kill a presidential candidate, Hinckley opened f ire on Reagan in a misguided effort to win Foster’s affections.
The Reagan family issued a statement in July strongly opposing Hinckley’s release.