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John Hinckley Jr. breaks his silence after four decades.
He changed history with six shots. Now he’s rewriting his own.
As shots rang out on March 30, 1981, outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan and three others lay seriously wounded. Just two months after Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president, John Hinckley Jr. shocked the world with his obsession with a movie star.
What followed was chaos. America learned of the deep psychosis that led to Hinckley’s obsession with actress Jodie Foster, and how, in his mind, he did it all for her. His trial gripped the nation. Many expected a guilty verdict, but his acquittal on grounds of insanity sparked outrage and forever changed how the law viewed mental illness.
Now, for the first time, Hinckley tells his own story. He takes us through an early life of unfulfilled dreams, a music career, and a college degree that slipped away, as well as the descent into a mind overcome by delusion. He recounts the years spent in confinement at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the slow climb toward recovery, and the people who helped him find his way back.
A life defined by a single, horrific act becomes something more: a story of mental illness, redemption, and the long road to understanding the man behind one of America’s most infamous moments.
About John Hinckley Jr.
After being found not guilty by reason of insanity for his attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in March of 1981, John Hinckley Jr. spent decades in psychiatric confinement before being unconditionally released in 2022. He currently lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, still hoping to start a music career.
