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” after Hinckley saw the schedule in the paper. “He denies really thinking about doing this prior to seeing the schedule, I mean as I have described he thought about doing it in the past, but he denied having any specific plan when he first got up that morning,” Johnson testified. “He said it was not until he read the schedule in the paper that the idea resurfaced. He said that at that point in time he showered and while in the shower thought about the idea and then when he came out of the shower he said that, using his words, his mind ‘was starting to turn,’ and he took some Valium to calm himself down.”

In the government psychiatric report, the assailant was quoted as saying: “I guess it was in the shower or getting toweled off that I debated whether to ‘detour to the Hilton’ or to ‘go up to New Haven.’ I was thinking should I go over to the Hilton and take my little pistol, and see how close I could—well, see what the scene was like.… Maybe I can get close enough that I could end this madness.”

Born in 1955: Government psychiatric report; trial testimony; FBI reports.

Hinckleys moved to Dallas in 1958: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 44.

But in junior high school: Government psychiatric report and testimony from various psychiatrists at trial.

Later, his mother: Government psychiatric report.

“College isn’t all that important for a musician”: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 51.

enrolled at Texas Tech: Hinckley’s college transcripts were introduced at trial; government psychiatric report; trial testimony; Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 53.

After completing his freshman year: Hinckley’s college transcripts.

His new roommate was black: Undated autobiographical essay by Hinckley seized by the FBI.

In the fall semester: The government psychiatric report and various newspaper stories described Hinckley’s college life. Carpenter testified that Hinckley “lived off campus in an apartment that he rented and at that point was not attending classes with any regularity and not having any relationship, acquaintanceship with other college students, so that he was spending this time, virtually, entirely alone with the exception of those occasions when he would go to classes, and he had no social network that he built up.” Johnson also testified that Hinckley lived alone in apartments.

The following spring: Government psychiatric report; trial testimony; Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, pp. 66–83.

One film in particular: There was extensive trial testimony about Hinckley’s interest in Taxi Driver.

Travis Bickle, an angry: Taxi Driver, and its screenplay by Paul Schrader. The movie’s most memorable scene comes as De Niro stands in front of a mirror—armed with a gun that slides out from his left sleeve—and imagines a conversation with another man: “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking—You talking to me? Well, I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

Directed by Martin Scorsese: Newspaper critics lauded the movie, especially the performance by De Niro and the directing of Scorsese. One reviewer described the movie as “a vivid, galvanizing portrait of a character so particular that you may be astonished that he makes consistent dramatic sense” (Vincent Canby, “Flamboyant Taxi Driver by Scorsese,” NYT, February 9, 1976, p. 35).

one reason the movie rang true: Gregg Kilday, “‘Taxi Driver’—Up from the Dark Side of Schrader’s L.A.,” LAT, May 14, 1976, p. V32; Alethia Knight and Neil Henry, “Love Letter Offers Clue to Motive in Shooting,” WP, April 1, 1981, p. A1.

Hinckley was all but hypnotized: Government psychiatric report. Hinckley told government psychiatrists that he “identified totally” with Bickle. The government report also said that Hinckley felt “he was hypnotized by the music and he identified with Travis because Travis was living alone the way he had been living and Travis was also trying to accomplish something. He said that Travis was totally alienated and hated