Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [120]
A number of commentators: Nancy Reagan’s struggles are well documented, and I relied on various books, newspaper stories, and magazine accounts to describe her first few weeks in the White House. Particularly helpful were: “First Lady Has Gotten Rid of Gun,” AP, March 5, 1981; Melinda Beck, “Nancy: Searching for a Role,” Newsweek, February 2, 1981; and “A Chat with Nancy Reagan,” Newsweek, March 9, 1981.
Still, she was where she wanted: Details of the Reagans’ courtship were drawn from Where’s the Rest of Me? and My Turn.
Much later, it was revealed: The San Jose Mercury News, which obtained Reagan’s FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act, documented Reagan’s role as an informant in an August 25, 1985, story by Scott Herhold.
Now she was first lady: Hall, “First Lady and Barbara Bush Meet the Arts Volunteers.”
4: “I’m Not Dangerous”
John Hinckley pulled: Trial testimony; government psychiatric report; photos of note, USAO.
“Dear Jodie”: Photocopy of letter introduced at Hinckley’s trial, as well as photos of letter, USAO.
Foster seemed so: Government psychiatric report.
He told his parents: Trial testimony; government psychiatric report; Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, pp. 102–6.
left her a dozen: Transcript of testimony by Jodie Foster; Johnson testified that Hinckley told her that he had left Foster his best poems and letters.
In a series of halting conversations: Transcript of calls introduced at Hinckley’s trial.
Hinckley was devastated: Carpenter and other psychiatrists described Hinckley’s response to Foster’s rejection. “And his reaction at the end of that effort was that he had been a total failure, had no ability—I mean he was there, had an opportunity to do this, had blown it, was unable to establish it,” Carpenter testified, adding that Hinckley “was totally incompetent in making contact. So his reaction was one of despair and depression and fury with himself.”
By late October: After being rejected by Foster, Hinckley traveled across the country. Among the cities he visited during this monthlong period: Washington, D.C.; Dayton, Ohio; Lincoln, Nebraska; and finally Nashville. He purchased two handguns in Texas on September 26 and two more on October 13 from a Texas pawnshop. He finally returned home late in October. He was stalking President Carter during this time frame.
a doctor had diagnosed him: Government psychiatric report; testimony of Dr. Baruch Rosen.
his writing had grown increasingly dark: I read many of Hinckley’s letters, essays, poems, and short stories, most of which were introduced at trial. Federal prosecutors contended the writings were simply fantasies. “They are fiction,” prosecutor Roger Adelman told jurors. “If you tried to diagnose somebody based on writings, you would fill the mental institutions in our country with some of our best writers.” Hinckley’s attorneys countered that the writings provided insights into his troubled mind. “I think it’s an insult to our intelligence to suggest that all poetry is fiction,” Vincent Fuller, a defense lawyer, said at trial. “For some it may be. For others it’s a way of expressing their innermost thoughts and that is the case of this defendant.”
Hinckley made a halfhearted attempt: Hinckley tried to overdose on twenty to twenty-five antidepressants, according to trial testimony. Though he succeeded in making himself sick to his stomach, it was enough to spur his parents to send him to a Denver-area psychiatrist.
In late November: Carpenter testimony; copy of threatening note introduced at trial.
“Your prodigal son”: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 131.
His approaches to Foster: Copies of notes introduced at trial, USAO.
With that, he neatly folded the letter into thirds: Photographs of the letter and the envelope, USAO. In describing from which bag Hinckley