DALLAS — “I’m John Hinckley, I shot the President of the United States,” the Dallas-area native who shot and wounded former President Ronald Reagan in 1981 confesses in the opening of the trailer for a new documentary about his life.
The documentary “Hinckley” tells the story of the infamous shooter more than 40 years after he fired six shots at Reagan and his staff as they were getting into the presidential limousine after an AFL-CIO event at the Washington Hilton in March of 1981.
Reagan, his press secretary, James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and police officer Thomas Delahanty were all wounded in the shooting. Brady later died from his injuries in 2014, but the others recovered.
Hinckley, who was born in Ardmore, Okla., and graduated from Highland Park High School, was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and the movie “Taxi Driver” in which Robert De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, plots to kill a presidential candidate. Foster attended Yale University, and Hinckley moved to New Haven, Conn., for a period of time to stalk her. He also wrote her love letters and poems in an effort to gain her affection.
The 1981 shooting involving Reagan came after he’d previously also stalked former President Jimmy Carter and was arrested in Tennessee on a weapons charge.
Hinckley, now 69, was acquitted of charges in connection with the shooting by reason of insanity, but lived under the supervision of mental hospitals for 35 years before his release in 2016.
He was supervised at his home in Virginia until U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman released Hinckley from court oversight in 2022.
The 92-minute documentary by Australian director Neil McGregor “examines the dark side of the American Dream, as Hinckley now seeks redemption through his art and music and grapples with his past in a nation deeply divided by politics and gripped by gun violence.”
The documentary’s release comes just over a month after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
After that shooting, Hinckley posted: "Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance."
The documentary is slated for streaming release beginning Aug. 27 on the movie’s website. ahead of its official release Friday.
