Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [131]
Spriggs patted: Spriggs testimony. Spriggs’s previous employment provided one of the few lighthearted moments in Hinckley’s trial. Before joining the Secret Service, Spriggs was a defensive back for the Dallas Cowboys professional football team from 1972 to 1974. This fact was elicited by a prosecutor when he asked whether Spriggs had ever been exposed to stressful situations before his career in law enforcement (Spriggs served as a police officer in New Mexico before joining the service in 1976). Vincent Fuller, Hinckley’s lawyer, snapped to attention. “What years did you play for the Dallas Cowboys?” Fuller asked.
“1972 through 1974,” Spriggs said.
“Did you beat the Redskins?”
“Now just a second,” said the judge as the courtroom filled with laughter. Anyone who has lived in Washington will understand the town’s obsession with the Redskins and will appreciate Fuller’s tongue-in-cheek effort to impeach the witness.
Spriggs retreated to a small: Interview with Spriggs.
homicide office was eerily empty: Interview with Myers.
his silver badge clipped to the lapel: FBI photo provided by Myers.
“Watch out for my wrist”: Myers testimony. Hinckley’s wrists were not injured in the arrest.
“I’m not sure”: In writing this section about Hinckley’s questioning by Myers, I relied on interviews with the former detective, his trial testimony, and his extensive testimony at an evidence suppression hearing, as well as an interview of Myers by the prosecution’s psychiatrists that was included in the government psychiatric report.
Myers was floored: Interview with Myers.
10: “My God. The President Was Hit?”
Hospital personnel continued: Interviews with doctors and nurses; review of Secret Service reports. Agents tried—sometimes in vain—to keep away medical students and other onlookers. They grew increasingly aggressive at screening people and once even momentarily prevented Michael Deaver from entering the trauma area, according to a Secret Service report.
blood pressure had risen: Gens tape-recorded narrative; Gens diary.
more than half a liter: Gens diary; Giordano narrative.
Joe Giordano and David Gens: Interviews with Giordano and Gens; Gens diary.
“We better get a chest X-ray”: The Saving of the President.
over a liter of blood: narratives and diaries of various doctors.
more than 15 percent: The average person contains about 5 liters of blood. Blood is about 7 percent of body weight. Reagan weighed 196 pounds, which is 89.1 kg, so his blood volume was about 6.2 liters. Most journalists have used the 5-liter average, falsely inflating Reagan’s estimated blood loss. I used the more precise “7 percent” estimate after speaking to trauma surgeons and reviewing emergency room textbooks and literature. I also consulted with outside experts to arrive at this figure. Adam Myers, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the Georgetown University Medical School, was particularly helpful.
Giordano was running out: Interview with Giordano.
Speaking as much to: The Saving of the President.
Not wanting to stoke panic: Interview with Woody Goldberg.
and he’d long suspected: Interview with Goldberg.
Upon their arrival: Interviews with Goldberg, Allen, and Tutwiler.
His square jaw clenched: Interviews with Tutwiler and Allen.
“How do we do that?”: Interview with Goldberg.
When the White House: Interviews with Goldberg, Allen, and Tutwiler. This conversation has been drawn from Bush’s memoirs and Haig’s memoirs, as well as Ken Khachigian’s detailed handwritten notes of Haig’s end of the conversation, RRPL.
set could potentially listen: In fact, this occurred. Two University of Alabama graduate students—Stewart Stogel and Carl Kappresser—spent the afternoon listening to conversations between Air Force Two and the White House on a shortwave radio set. They even taped the conversations. After a search in 2010, Stogel said he was unable to locate these tapes.
Until now, the vice president’s: Vice President Bush’s briefing