| Reagan assassination attempt | |
|---|---|
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Date | March 30, 1981 2:27 p.m. (Eastern Time) |
| Target | Ronald Reagan |
| Weapon(s) | Röhm RG-14 .22 cal. |
| Deaths | None |
| Injured | 4; James Brady, Timothy McCarthy, Thomas Delahanty, Ronald Reagan |
| Perpetrator(s) | John Hinckley, Jr. |
The Reagan assassination attempt occurred on Monday, March 30, 1981, just 69 days into the presidency of Ronald Reagan. While leaving a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and three others were shot and wounded by John Hinckley, Jr. Reagan suffered a punctured lung, but prompt medical attention allowed him to recover quickly. No formal invocation of presidential succession took place, although Secretary of State Alexander Haig controversially stated that he was "in control here" while Vice President George H. W. Bush returned to Washington. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remains confined to a psychiatric facility.
Contents |
Hinckley's motivation behind the attack was from his obsession with actress Jodie Foster due to erotomania. While living in Hollywood in the late 1970s, he saw the film Taxi Driver at least 15 times, apparently identifying strongly with Travis Bickle, the lead character.[1][2][3] The arc of the story involves Bickle's attempts to protect a 12-year-old child prostitute, played by Foster; toward the end of the film, Bickle attempts to assassinate a United States Senator who is running for president. Over the following years, Hinckley trailed Foster around the country, going so far as to enroll in a writing course at Yale University in 1980 after reading in People magazine that she was a student there .[4] He wrote numerous letters and notes to her in late 1980.[5] He called her twice and refused to give up when she indicated that she was not interested in him.[2]
Convinced that by becoming a national figure he would be Foster's equal, Hinckley decided to emulate Bickle and began to stalk President Jimmy Carter. He was surprised at how easy it was to get close to the president—only one foot away at one event—but was arrested in October 1980 at Nashville International Airport for illegal possession of firearms;[6]:70,251 though Carter made a campaign stop there, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not connect this arrest to the President and did not notify the United States Secret Service.[7] His parents briefly put him under the treatment of a psychiatrist. Subsequently, Hinckley turned his attention to Ronald Reagan whose election, he told his parents, would be good for the country.[6]:71,251 He wrote three or four more notes to Foster in early March 1981. Foster gave these notes to her dean, who gave them to the Yale police department, which sought to track Hinckley down but failed.[8][9]
On March 21, 1981, Ronald Reagan, the new President of the United States, visited Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. with his wife Nancy for a fundraising event. He recalled, "I looked up at the presidential box above the stage where Abe Lincoln had been sitting the night he was shot and felt a curious sensation... I thought that even with all the Secret Service protection we now had, it was probably still possible for someone who had enough determination to get close enough to a president to shoot him."[10][11]
Hinckley arrived in Washington on Sunday, March 29 on a Greyhound Lines bus[12] and checked into the Park Central Hotel.[4] While eating breakfast at McDonald's the next morning, he noticed Reagan's schedule on page A4 of the Washington Star, and decided it was time to act.[13] Knowing that he might not survive shooting the president, Hinckley wrote but did not mail a letter to Foster about two hours prior to the assassination attempt, saying that he hoped to impress her with the magnitude of his action and that he would "abandon the idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you."[14][6]:58
On March 30, Reagan delivered a luncheon address to AFL-CIO representatives at the Washington Hilton Hotel;[15][16] he had done well among blue-collar workers in the election, and the administration hoped to build support among "Reagan Democrats".[6]:58 He entered the building around 1:45, waving to a crowd of news media and citizens. While the Secret Service had made Reagan wear a bulletproof vest for some events, he did not wear one for the speech as Reagan's only public exposure would be the 30 feet between the hotel and his limousine,[10] and the agency did not require vests for its agents that day.[17] No one saw Hinckley behave in an unusual way; witnesses who reported him as "fidgety" and "agitated" apparently confused Hinckley with another person there that the Secret Service was monitoring.[17]
At 2:27 p.m. Eastern Time,[6]:82 as Reagan walked out of the hotel's T Street NW exit toward his waiting limousine, Hinckley waited within the crowd of admirers. While the Secret Service extensively screened those attending the president's speech, in a "colossal mistake" the agency allowed an unscreened group to stand within 15 feet of him, behind a rope line.[6]:80-81,225 Unexpectedly, Reagan passed right in front of Hinckley. Knowing he would never get a better chance,[6]:81 Hinckley fired a Röhm RG-14 .22 cal.[18] blue steel revolver six times in 1.7 seconds,[6]:82[15] missing the president with all six shots.[19][17] The first bullet hit White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head. The second hit District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty in the back of his neck as he turned to protect Reagan.[6]:82[20][21][22][23] Hinckley now had a clear shot at the president,[6]:81 but the third overshot him and hit the window of a building across the street. As Special Agent In Charge Jerry Parr quickly pushed Reagan into the limousine, the fourth hit Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy in the abdomen[20][21] as he spread his body over Reagan to make himself a target.[6]:81[10] The fifth hit the bullet-resistant glass of the window on the open side door of the limousine. The sixth and final bullet ricocheted off the armored side of the limousine and hit the president in his left underarm, grazing a rib and lodging in his lung, stopping nearly an inch from his heart;[24][10][13] had Parr hesitated for a moment, the president would likely have been hit in the head.[6]:224
After the shooting, Alfred Antenucci, a Cleveland, Ohio labor official who stood by Hinckley, was the first to respond.[17] He saw the gun and hit Hinckley in the head, pulling the shooter down to the ground.[25] Within two seconds agent Dennis McCarthy (no relation to agent Timothy McCarthy) dove onto the shooter as others threw him to the ground; intent on protecting Hinckley to avoid what happened to Lee Harvey Oswald,[6]:84 McCarthy had to "strike two citizens" to force them to release him.[17] Agent Robert Wanko took an Uzi from a briefcase to cover the President's evacuation and to deter a potential group attack.[26]
Sixteen minutes after the assassination attempt, the ATF found that the gun had been purchased at Rocky's Pawn Shop in Dallas, Texas.[27] It had been loaded with six "Devastator"-brand cartridges which contained small aluminum and lead azide explosive charges designed to explode on contact; the bullet that hit Brady likely exploded in his skull. On April 2, after learning that the others could explode at any time, volunteer doctors wearing bulletproof vests removed the bullet from Delahanty's neck.[23][6]:223
The Secret Service first announced "shots fired" over its radio network at 2:27 p.m. Reagan—codename "Rawhide"—was taken away by the agents in the limousine ("Stagecoach").[28][6]:66 At first, no one knew that he had been shot, and Parr stated that "Rawhide is OK...we're going to Crown" (the White House), as he preferred its medical facilities to an unsecured hospital.[29][28]
In great pain from the bullet hitting a rib, the president believed that the rib had cracked when Parr pushed him into the limousine. When the agent checked him for gunshot wounds, however, Reagan coughed up bright, frothy blood.[24] Although the president believed that he had cut his lip,[29] Parr believed that the cracked rib had punctured Reagan's lung and ordered the motorcade to divert to nearby George Washington University Hospital, which the Secret Service periodically inspected for use.[17] The limousine arrived there less than four minutes after leaving the hotel, while other agents took Hinckley to a District of Columbia jail, and Nancy Reagan ("Rainbow") left the White House for the hospital.[30][29][28]
Although Parr had requested a stretcher,[28] none was ready at the hospital, and it did not normally keep a stretcher at the emergency room's entrance. Reagan exited the limousine and insisted on walking. While he entered the hospital unassisted, once inside the president complained of difficulty breathing, his knees buckled, and he went down on one knee; Parr and others assisted him into the emergency room.[17] The Physician to the President, Daniel Ruge, arrived with Reagan; believing that the president might have had a heart attack, he insisted that the hospital's trauma team, and not he himself or specialists from elsewhere, operate on him as it would treat any other patient.[31][6]:106-107 When a hospital employee asked Reagan aide Michael Deaver for the patient's name and address, only when Deaver stated "1600 Pennsylvania" did the worker realize that the President of the United States was in the emergency room.[6]:107-108
The team, led by Joseph Giordano, cut off their patient's "thousand dollar" custom-made suit[32] to examine him, angering Reagan.[33] Military officers, including the one who carried the nuclear football, unsuccessfully tried to prevent FBI agents from confiscating the suit, Reagan's wallet, and other possessions as evidence; the Gold Codes card was in the wallet, and the FBI did not return it until two days later.[32] The medical personnel found that Reagan's systolic blood pressure was 60 versus the normal 140, indicating that he was in shock, and knew that most 70 years-olds in the president's condition did not survive;[6]:108 Reagan was in excellent physical health, however, with "a physique like a 30-year-old muscle builder".[33] They treated him with intravenous fluids, oxygen, tetanus toxoid, and chest tubes,[30] and surprised Parr—who still believed that he had cracked the president's rib—by finding the entrance gunshot wound. Brady and the wounded agent McCarthy were operated on near the president;[17] when his wife arrived in the emergency room, Reagan remarked to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck", borrowing boxer Jack Dempsey's line to his wife the night he was beaten by Gene Tunney.[10] While intubated, he scribbled to a nurse, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia", borrowing W. C. Fields' line.[30][10] Although Reagan came close to death, the team's quick action—and Parr's decision to drive to the hospital instead of the White House—likely saved the president's life, and within 30 minutes Reagan left the emergency room for surgery with a normal blood pressure.[24]
The chief of thoracic surgery, Benjamin L. Aaron, decided to operate because the bleeding persisted. Ultimately, Reagan lost over half of his blood volume in the emergency room and during surgery,[30] which removed the bullet; the operating staff did not know the round was explosive or that it could have gone off at any time.[23] In the operating room, Reagan removed his oxygen mask to joke, "I hope you are all Republicans." The doctors and nurses laughed, and Giordano, a liberal Democrat, replied, "Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans."[6]:147[34][10] The operation lasted about three hours. His post-operative course was complicated by fever, which was treated with multiple antibiotics.[30] Reagan "entertained his nurses all night with jokes" instead of resting, annoying his doctors.[33]
A few days before the shooting, Vice President George H. W. Bush received the assignment of running crisis management in case of emergency despite Secretary of State Alexander Haig's objection.[35] When the White House learned of the assassination attempt, however, Bush was over Texas aboard Air Force Two, which did not have secure voice communications,[24] and his discussions with the White House were intercepted and given to the press.[33] White House Counsel Fred Fielding immediately prepared for a transfer of presidential powers under the 25th Amendment,[36] and Chief of Staff James A. Baker and Counselor to the President Edwin Meese went to Reagan's hospital.[35]
Members of the Cabinet and others, including Haig, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, and National Security Advisor Richard Allen, met in the White House Situation Room to discuss various issues, including the location of the nuclear football, the apparent presence of more than the usual number of Soviet submarines unusually close off the Atlantic coast, a possible Soviet invasion of Poland against the Solidarity movement, and the presidential line of succession. Although normally no tape recorders are allowed in the Situation Room these meetings were recorded with the participants' knowledge by Allen, and the tapes have since been made public.[36][35][37]
The group obtained a duplicate nuclear football and Gold Codes card, and kept it in the situation room. (Reagan's football was still with the officer at the hospital, and Bush also had a card and football.)[6]:155 The participants discussed whether to raise the military's alert status, and the importance of doing so without changing the DEFCON level,[35] although the number of Soviet submarines proved to be normal.[24] Upon learning that Reagan was in surgery, Haig declared, "the helm is right here. And that means right in this chair for now, constitutionally, until the vice president gets here."[36] The Secretary of State is not second in the line of succession but fourth, after the Vice President, Speaker of the House (Tip O'Neill), and the President pro tempore of the Senate (J. Strom Thurmond). O'Neill and Thurmond would have been required under 3 U.S.C. § 19 to resign their positions in order for either of them to become Acting President. Although others in the room knew that Haig's statement was constitutionally incorrect, they did not object at the time to avoid a confrontation.[35]
At the same time, a press conference was underway in the White House. CBS reporter Lesley Stahl asked deputy press secretary Larry Speakes who was running the government, to which Speakes responded, "I cannot answer that question at this time." Upon hearing Speakes' remark, Haig scribbled out a note which was passed to Speakes, ordering him to leave the dais immediately.[6]:171-173 Moments later, Haig himself entered the briefing room, where he made the following controversial statement:
Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to the vice president, he will do so. As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the vice president and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.[36]
Those in the situation room reportedly laughed when they heard him say "I am in control here".[33] Haig's statement reflected political reality, if not necessarily legal reality. He later said,
I wasn't talking about transition. I was talking about the executive branch, who is running the government. That was the question asked. It was not "Who is in line should the President die?"[36]
Although Haig stated in the briefing room that "There are absolutely no alert measures that are necessary at this time or contemplated", while he spoke Weinberger raised the military's alert level.[36] After Haig returned to the Situation Room, he objected to Weinberger doing so as it made him appear a liar.[35] Weinberger and others accused Haig of exceeding his authority with his "I am in control" statement,[38][39] while Haig defended himself by advising the others to "read the Constitution", saying that his comments did not involve "succession" and that he knew the "pecking order".[35]
"Despite brief flare-ups and distractions," Allen recalled, "the crisis management team in the Situation Room worked well together. The congressional leadership was kept informed, and governments around the world were notified and reassured."[35] Reagan's surgery ended at 6:20 p.m., although he did not regain consciousness until 7:30 p.m.,[30] so could not invoke Section 3 of the 25th Amendment to make Bush Acting President. The vice president arrived at the White House at 7:00 p.m., and did not invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.[24] He stated on national television at 8:20 p.m.:[40]
I can reassure this nation and a watching world that the American government is functioning fully and effectively. We've had full and complete communications throughout the day.[40]
The assassination attempt was captured on video by several cameras, including those belonging to the Big Three television networks; ABC began airing footage at 2:42 p.m. All three networks erroneously reported that Brady had died. While the Cable News Network did not have a camera of its own at the shooting it was able to use NBC's pool feed,[41] and by staying on the story for 48 hours the network, less than a year old, built a reputation for thoroughness.[42] Shocked Americans gathered around television sets in homes and shopping centers.[43] Some cited the alleged Curse of Tippecanoe, and others recalled the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr..[44] Newspapers printed extra editions[45] and used gigantic headlines;[46] the United States Senate adjourned, interrupting debate of Reagan's economic proposals; and churches held prayer services.[43]
Hinckley asked the arresting officers whether that night's Academy Awards ceremony would be postponed due to the shooting, and it was; the ceremony—for which former actor Reagan had taped a message—occurred the next evening.[3][47] Because the president survived surgery with a good prognosis, the 1981 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament championship game that day was not postponed, although the audience of 18,000 in Philadelphia held a moment of silence before the game.[48] The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined due to the shooting before the New York Stock Exchange closed early, but the index rose the next day as Reagan recovered.[49] Beyond having to postpone its Academy Awards broadcast, ABC temporarily renamed the lead character of The Greatest American Hero from "Ralph Hinkley" to "Hanley",[50] and NBC postponed a forthcoming episode of Walking Tall titled "Hit Man".[51]
Reagan was the first serving U.S. President to survive being shot in an assassination attempt.[52] The members of his staff were anxious for the president to appear to be recovering quickly,[30] and the morning after his operation he saw visitors and signed a piece of legislation.[26] Reagan left the hospital on the 13th day. Initially, he worked two hours a day in the White House's residential quarters, with meetings held there instead of the Oval Office.[33] Reagan did not lead a Cabinet meeting until day 26, did not leave Washington until day 49, and did not hold a press conference until day 79. Ruge thought recovery was not complete until October.[30] Reagan's plans for the month after the shooting were canceled, including a visit to the Mission Control Center at Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in April 1981 during STS-1, the first flight of the Space Shuttle. Vice President Bush instead called the orbiting astronauts during their mission. Reagan would visit Mission Control during STS-2 that November.
The attempt had great influence on Reagan's popularity; polls indicated his approval rating to be around 73%.[53] Reagan believed that God had spared his life so that he might go on to fulfill a greater purpose[33] and, although not a Catholic, meetings with Mother Teresa, Cardinal Terence Cooke, and fellow shooting survivor Pope John Paul II reinforced this belief.[54] Agent Parr came to believe that God had directed his life to save Reagan, and became a pastor.[6]:224
Reagan returned to the Oval Office on April 25, receiving a standing ovation from staff and Cabinet members; referring to their teamwork in his absence, he insisted, "I should be applauding you."[55] His first public appearance was an April 28 speech before the joint houses of Congress to introduce his planned spending cuts, a campaign promise. He received "two thunderous standing ovations", which the New York Times deemed "a salute to his good health" as well as his programs, which the president introduced using a medical recovery theme.[56] Reagan installed a gym in the White House and began regularly exercising there, gaining so much muscle that he had to buy new suits. The shooting caused Nancy Reagan to be afraid for her husband's safety, however. She asked him to not run for reelection in 1984, and due to her fears began consulting astrologer Joan Quigley.[33]
The two law enforcement officers recovered from their wounds, although Delahanty was forced to retire due to his injuries. The attack seriously wounded the President's Press Secretary, James Brady, who sustained a serious head wound and became permanently disabled. Brady remained as Press Secretary for the remainder of Reagan's administration, but this was primarily a titular role. Later, Brady and his wife Sarah became leading advocates of gun control and other actions to reduce the amount of gun violence in the United States. They also became active in the lobbying organization Handgun Control, Inc. – which would eventually be renamed the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence – and founded the non-profit Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.[57] The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was passed in 1993 as a result of their work.[58]
The shooting of Reagan widened a debate on gun control in the U.S. that the death of John Lennon in December 1980 had started. Reagan expressed opposition to increased handgun control following Lennon's death and re-iterated his opposition after his own shooting. However in a speech at an event marking the assassination attempt's 10th anniversary,[59] Reagan endorsed the Brady Act:
"Anniversary" is a word we usually associate with happy events that we like to remember: birthdays, weddings, the first job. March 30, however, marks an anniversary I would just as soon forget, but cannot... four lives were changed forever, and all by a Saturday-night special – a cheaply made .22 caliber pistol – purchased in a Dallas pawnshop by a young man with a history of mental disturbance. This nightmare might never have happened if legislation that is before Congress now – the Brady bill – had been law back in 1981... If the passage of the Brady bill were to result in a reduction of only 10 or 15 percent of those numbers (and it could be a good deal greater), it would be well worth making it the law of the land. And there would be a lot fewer families facing anniversaries such as the Bradys, Delahantys, McCarthys and Reagans face every March 30.[60]
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21, 1982. The defense psychiatric reports had found him to be insane[61] while the prosecution reports declared him legally sane.[62][63] Following his lawyers' advice, he declined to take the stand in his own defense.[64] Hinckley was confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he is still being held.[4] After his trial, he wrote that the shooting was "the greatest love offering in the history of the world", and did not indicate any regrets.[65]
The not-guilty verdict led to widespread dismay,[66][67] and, as a result, the U.S. Congress and a number of states rewrote laws regarding the insanity defense.[68] The old Model Penal Code test was replaced by a test that shifts the burden of proof of insanity from the prosecution to the defendant. Three states have abolished the defense altogether.[68]
Jodie Foster was hounded relentlessly by the media in early 1981 because she was Hinckley's target of obsession. She commented on Hinckley on three occasions: a press conference a few days after the attack, an article she wrote in 1982,[69] and during an interview with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes II;[70] she has otherwise ended several interviews after the event was mentioned.[71]
The assassination attempt was portrayed in the 2001 film The Day Reagan Was Shot. James Brady's recovery was dramatized in the 1991 made-for-television film Without Warning: The James Brady Story, with Beau Bridges as Brady.
Alfred Antenucci almost had a heart attack and was hospitalized soon after the shooting.[72] He had a private meeting with Reagan,[73][74] who gave him cufflinks with the Presidential Seal and a Presidential Honor, and his hometown of Garfield Heights, Ohio named a street Antenucci Drive.[72] In 1984, Antenucci died of a heart attack in his home.[25] The Garfield Heights Historical Society has the cufflinks on display.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||