John Hinckley Jr. Shares New Message to Jodie Foster, 45 Years After Trying to Assassinate Ronald Reagan to Impress Her: ‘I Wish Her Well’
John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in a bid to impress actress Jodie Foster, has issued a fresh message of goodwill towards her, 45 years after the attack. Speaking on the "Mark Joseph Show" podcast, Hinckley said he wished Foster well and hoped she was living a good life, despite not following her recent films. The remarks add a new coda to one of the most notorious cases of celebrity stalking turned political violence in American history.
Hinckley, then 25, had become obsessed with Foster, then 18, after watching her in "Taxi Driver", and had previously stalked her at Yale. On 30 March 1981, he shot President Reagan and several bystanders outside a Washington hotel using a revolver, later telling the host he had believed, delusionally, that the attack would lead to a "union" with Foster. He was found not guilty of all charges by reason of insanity and has since spoken publicly about the incident on several occasions.
- Hinckley shares new message wishing Jodie Foster well, 45 years on
- He shot Reagan in 1981 to try to impress the actress
- Was found not guilty by reason of insanity
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John Hinckley Jr. became fixated on the actress Jodie Foster in the late 1970s, after seeing her performance in the film "Taxi Driver". He followed her to Yale University, where she was a student, and later decided that a dramatic act would force her to notice him.
That act came on 30 March 1981, when Hinckley shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan and three other people outside a hotel in Washington, D.C. He was arrested at the scene and later found not guilty of all charges by reason of insanity, a verdict that meant he was committed to psychiatric care rather than prison, and which prompted several US states to tighten their insanity defence laws.
Hinckley was released from institutional care in 2016 and has since lived under court-monitored conditions before those restrictions were eventually lifted. He has periodically spoken in public, including through music and interviews, revisiting the case that made him one of the best-known figures in American criminal history, while Foster has continued her acting and directing career largely without commenting on him.
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