Rawhide Down_ The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan - Del Quentin Wilber [148]
I was stunned. Why was the gun that had nearly killed a president of the United States being stored in an FBI agent’s desk drawer instead of a museum?
Intrigued by these two chance encounters with a dramatic day in American history, I soon paid a visit to the D.C. public library, looking for books about the assassination attempt and its aftermath. I found exactly two—one that focused on the Twenty-fifth Amendment and another about Hinckley’s trial and the insanity defense. This greatly surprised me, especially since numerous books had been written about our fortieth president; later, I decided that most scholars were probably not interested in the events of that day because Reagan had survived his wound, gone on to serve two terms, and ultimately become one of the most significant presidents of the twentieth century. By now, though, I was curious to learn more about what happened that day and I began reading everything I could find about the assassination attempt—in newspaper and magazine archives, in government publications, and in medical journals. Then I began calling former federal agents, former White House aides, and a number of doctors who had treated Reagan after he was shot, all of whom provided me with their recollections.
Looking back, I now realize it was those interviews that opened my eyes to the possibility of writing a book about the shooting and its aftermath, and for that I owe a great debt to those who took the time to talk with someone who at that early stage had a limited understanding of how to research and write a book. First, I must thank former Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, who spent countless hours answering my questions (even while on vacation in Europe), helping me track down other agents and then answering even more questions. Other Secret Service and FBI agents were also extremely helpful, and without their assistance I could never have told the full story of the assassination attempt. In particular, I thank John Simpson, Ray Shaddick, Mary Ann Gordon, Drew Unrue, Bill Green, Russell Miller, Stephen T. Colo, and George Chmiel. I was also aided by former Secret Service agents Ernest Kun, Paul Kelly, and Larry Dominguez, who do not appear by name in the narrative of this book but without whom I could not have achieved a comprehensive understanding of the history of the Secret Service.
This endeavor also owes much to the many doctors and nurses who took so much time to explain Reagan’s care, describe his medical procedures, and translate emergency and operating room jargon into English. For this, I must first thank several former nurses at George Washington University Hospital who spent a great deal of time with me and are too often not given sufficient credit for their extraordinary work that day. They include Kathy Paul (Stevens), Judith Whinerey (Goss), Wendy Koenig, Marisa Mize, Denise Sullivan, and Cathy Edmondson. I am also grateful to a number of GW’s doctors: David Gens, Benjamin Aaron, Joseph Giordano, and Jack Zimmerman, among many others, spoke to me for hours in person and by telephone.
I must also thank Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Zeno and Margaret McCabe, a paralegal, in the District of Columbia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. At my request and while juggling the demands of a busy job, McCabe dug through dusty and poorly labeled files and boxes in search of records, transcripts, and trial exhibits. She almost always returned with a trove of useful documents. Without McCabe’s help, I would not have been able to tell Hinckley’s story in such detail. I also must thank the clerks of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia—and Bryant Johnson, in particular—for tracking down Hinckley’s long-missing trial transcript, even after I had sadly