Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [132]
“Are you continuing to”: Interview with Stetson Orchard.
Secret Service agent was getting: Interview with John Magaw, the agent who heard this report over his radio earpiece.
Ed Pollard, who unclipped: Interview with Ed Pollard.
“Oh, no,” said Bush: Interview with Pollard.
“Mr. Vice President”: Haig, Caveat, p. 152. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for this record from the George Bush Presidential Library. Although it was published in the former secretary of state’s memoir and a subsequent message from Bush to the White House was released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the National Archives considers this message to be classified.
His first concern, of course: Transcript of interview of Bush aboard Air Force Two by Chase Untermeyer. This record was provided by Untermeyer but is held at the GBPL.
three congressmen: Untermeyer diary entry; trip briefing book. The three members of Congress were Jim Wright, the Democratic House majority leader, and two Texas Republicans, William R. Archer Jr. and James M. Collins.
on a couch and crowded around: Photos from flight, GBPL.
whenever the pilots: Interview with Untermeyer.
“Mr. Reagan was not hit”: ABC News broadcast.
Dr. Benjamin Aaron, head: Interview with Aaron; Aaron reflection; The Saving of the President.
Except for a short nap: Aaron reflection; interviews with Aaron and Dr. Kathleen Cheyney, who assisted Aaron in the earlier surgeries.
Aaron didn’t look: Interview with Aaron; Aaron reflection.
Aaron could see that: Interviews with Giordano and Aaron.
“He’s responding”: The Saving of the President.
1.2 liters: Aaron reflection.
As Aaron surveyed the situation: Interview with Aaron; Aaron reflection; The Saving of the President.
He looked up and exchanged: Interview with Gens.
That meant it: Interview with Aaron.
Since the president was: Interview with Aaron.
Gens asked him what had: Interview with Gens; Gens diary.
Again Gens leaned close: Tape-recorded interview of Gens by John Pekkanen in 1981, which was provided to the author by Gens.
Once the gurney had: Gens diary; interview with Gens; interview with Dr. Bradley Bennett.
X-ray image of Reagan’s: Interviews with Aaron and Dr. David Rockoff; Aaron and Rockoff, “The Shooting of President Reagan: A Radiologic Chronology of His Medical Care,” Radiographics 15, no. 2 (March 1995): 407–18.
Dr. David Rockoff had closely: Interview with Rockoff.
that it was a .38: Interviews with Rockoff, Aaron, and Gens. This is an astounding blunder. A Secret Service agent seized Hinckley’s weapon at the scene and gave it to the FBI, which kept it in a room at the Hilton while authorities collected other evidence and questioned witnesses. So why was there so much confusion about the type of gun Hinckley used? When the shots rang out, a U.S. Park Police motorcycle officer ran to help tackle Hinckley and dropped his .38-caliber revolver on the ground, right next to Brady’s head. He eventually retrieved the revolver but not before the gun was “mistaken for the weapon used” by Hinckley, according to the Treasury report.
Nancy Reagan had been politely: Interview with Opfer; Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6.
The hospital’s acting chief of surgery: Giordano narrative; interview with Theodore Tsangaris.
For one thing, they hadn’t completed: Interview with Giordano; Giordano narrative.
When Mrs. Reagan entered: Interview with Opfer; Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6.
Laxalt, beside her, saw a frightened: Laxalt, Nevada’s Paul Laxalt: A Memoir, p. 331.
“Honey,” the president said: Gens diary; Giordano narrative; Lyn Nofziger notes, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Nofziger’s notes were provided by Supriya Wronkiewicz, an archivist at Hoover who graciously spared me a cross-country flight or the expense of hiring a researcher to obtain them.
“Please, don’t try to talk”: Nancy Reagan, My Turn, p. 6.
As he considered his options: Interview with Aaron.
“Mr. President, there is a lot”: The Saving of the President.