John Hinckley Jr., 71, disclosed that former President Ronald Reagan wanted to visit him at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital after the 1981 shooting, but hospital officials blocked the meeting.
Hinckley, then 25, opened fire on Reagan outside a Washington, D.C. hotel on March 30, 1981.
The revelation came during a recent appearance on The Mark Joseph Show podcast.
Mark Joseph, who produced the Reagan film starring Dennis Quaid, conducted the interview.
Speaking during the recent podcast appearance, Hinckley Jr., now 71, opened up about the attempt that occurred when he was 25 years old.
During the conversation, Joseph told Hinckley what he had learned from St. Elizabeth’s leadership about the would-be meeting.
“I heard that he wanted to meet me… have a meeting with me at the hospital, but the staff at the hospital turned it down, which I wish they hadn’t done,” Hinckley said on the podcast.
Joseph said he had spoken to the head of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital during his research for the Reagan film.
The hospital official told Joseph he had advised Reagan, “please don’t do that” when the president asked about seeing Hinckley.
Hinckley expressed regret over the blocked meeting and warmth toward the former president. “I think it would have been a good meeting. It would have gone very well. I never disliked Reagan. Even on the day I did what I did. I liked him.”
The would-be assassin said he felt confident the encounter would have proceeded respectfully. “If I had a meeting with him, I’m sure it would have gone very well. I would have been very respectful of him.”
Hinckley added that he had long harbored no ill will toward Reagan. “I never had any animus at all towards President Reagan.”
Joseph described Hinckley as appearing “rational, logical and very subdued” during their recent interview. The filmmaker drew a parallel to another act of presidential forgiveness that may have inspired Reagan.
Joseph noted that
Pope John Paul II visited Mehmet Ali Agca in prison and forgave him for the shooting
after Agca attempted to assassinate the pontiff. Joseph theorized that Reagan was moved by that gesture of reconciliation and “wanted to do the same thing with Hinckley.”
Hinckley spent more than three decades in a psychiatric facility before being released in 2022.
He loves music, he writes and sings songs, and he would like to be able to share them with others.
Hinckley has a cat who is the frequent subject of his paintings, which can be purchased on his artist website or his eBay page.
In the viral moment that set the stage for this latest disclosure,
on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel and fired six shots from a.22-caliber revolver.
Hinckley, who had positioned himself among a group of reporters and photographers covering the departure, began shooting at the President.
Reagan was wounded when one of the bullets ricocheted off of the limousine, striking him under the left armpit.
Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy, and policeman Thomas Delahanty were also wounded during the shooting.
James Brady, who nearly died after being shot in the eye, suffered permanent brain damage.
Hinckley became infatuated with Foster after watching her in the 1976 film Taxi Driver, leading him to stalk her while she attended Yale University.
In June 1982, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
In his recent podcast appearance, Hinckley addressed Foster directly for the first time in years.
“I just wish Jodie Foster well, you know,” Hinckley said. “I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well.”
When asked what he hoped to achieve with the assassination, Hinckley was candid about his delusional thinking at the time.
“I wanted to have a union with Jodie Foster and live the rest of my life with her and all these things that, of course, were delusional,” he said.
He elaborated on what he believed would happen after the attack.
“I thought she would, you know, after things settled down, join me wherever I was,” Hinckley added. “I had this notion that she was gonna join me wherever I was.”
According to Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive preview, Hinckley continued: “I don’t really see her movies, but I wish her well, and I know she’s doing quite well. And that’s all I can say is just, I wish Jodie well, and I hope she has a good life.”
Joseph’s Reagan film continues to draw audiences despite mixed critical reception.
As of the time of this reporting, the “Reagan” film on Rotten Tomatoes maintains a massive disparity between the dismal critics’ score of 17% versus the wildly popular audience-rated score of 98%.
The film is headed back to theaters soon.
Plans are for limited group screenings in more than a dozen cities on July 4, with a wide release in about 600 theaters in September, and the theatrical run will include an additional 10 minutes of unreleased footage.
A director’s cut will hit the theaters on September 25.