John Warnock Hinckley Jr. (born May 29, 1955) is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration. Using a revolver, Hinckley wounded Reagan, police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and White House Press Secretary James Brady. Brady was left disabled and died 33 years later from his injuries.

Hinckley believed that the attack would impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had a fixation after watching her in Martin Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and remained under institutional psychiatric care for over three decades. Public outcry over the verdict led state legislatures and Congress to narrow their respective insanity defenses.

In 2016, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley could be released from psychiatric care as he was no longer considered a threat to himself or others, albeit with many conditions. After 2020, a ruling was issued that Hinckley may showcase his artwork, writings, and music publicly under his own name, rather than anonymously as he had in the past. Since then, he has maintained a YouTube channel for his music. His restrictions were unconditionally lifted in June 2022. and moved with his wealthy family to Dallas, Texas, when he was four. Hinckley's father, John Sr. (1925–2008), was the founder, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation. His mother was Jo Ann Hinckley (née Moore; 1925–2021).

John Sr. was a financial supporter of George H.W. Bush in the 1980 election campaign. Bush was Reagan's biggest rival for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Hinckley's older brother, Scott, who became vice president of his father's oil company after graduating from college, was supposed to have dinner at Neil Bush's house the day after the assassination attempt. The connection between the two families has occasionally been used for conspiracy theories, for example by Roger Stone, an author and conservative political consultant

Hinckley grew up in University Park, Texas, and attended Highland Park High School in Dallas County. After he graduated from high school in 1973, his family, owners of the Hinckley oil company, moved to Evergreen, Colorado, where the new company headquarters was located.

In 1975, Hinckley went to Los Angeles in the hope of becoming a songwriter. His efforts were unsuccessful, and Hinckley wrote to his parents with tales of misfortune and pleas for money. Hinckley spoke of a girlfriend, Lynn Collins, who turned out to be a fabrication. In September 1976, he returned to his parents' home in Evergreen.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hinckley began purchasing weapons and practicing with them. He was prescribed antidepressants and tranquilizers to deal with his emotional problems.

When Foster entered Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven, Connecticut, for a short time to stalk her. His parents had given him funds to attend a writing course at Yale. Hinckley never enrolled in the course, but instead used the money to support himself while sending Foster love letters and romantic poems, and repeatedly calling and leaving her messages.

After Nashville, Hinckley flew to Dallas. On October 13, he bought more guns from a Dallas pawn shop. They included the .22 caliber Röhm RG-14 revolver that he used five months later to attempt the assassination of Reagan. The $3,600 from Hinckley's parents was now exhausted and he returned home penniless.

Ronald Reagan assassination attempt

thumb|250px|Ronald Reagan waves just before he is shot. From left are [[advance man Rick Ahearn; Jerry Parr, in a white trench coat, who pushed Reagan into the limousine; press secretary James Brady, who was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the head; Reagan; aide Michael Deaver; an unidentified policeman; policeman Thomas Delahanty, who was shot in the neck; and secret service agent Tim McCarthy, who was shot in the chest.]]

Hinckley arrived in Washington, D.C. on March 29, 1981, after travelling by Greyhound bus from Los Angeles. He spent the night in a hotel. The next morning, he read President Reagan's itinerary in a newspaper and discovered that later that day, Reagan was to be at the Hilton Hotel to address an AFL–CIO conference. Hinckley spent the morning composing a letter to Jodie Foster.

After finishing the letter, he took a taxi to the Hilton Hotel. hit Hinckley in the head and pulled him to the ground. Within two seconds, agent Dennis McCarthy (no relation to agent Timothy McCarthy) dove onto Hinckley, intent on protecting Hinckley, to avoid what happened to Lee Harvey Oswald, who was killed before he could be tried for the assassination of President Kennedy. Another Cleveland-area labor official, Frank J. McNamara, joined Antenucci and started punching Hinckley in the head, striking him so hard he drew blood.

As a result of the shooting, Brady endured a long recuperation period, remaining paralyzed on the left side of his body, until his death on August 4, 2014. Brady's death was ruled a homicide 33 years after the shooting.

Trial

Hinckley was initially held at Marine Corps Base Quantico, where he met his defense lawyer Vincent J. Fuller. Hinckley was quickly moved to Federal Correctional Complex, Butner. For four months, he was interviewed by both prosecution and defense. During his incarceration, he tried to kill himself twice, in May and November 1981, respectively. The trial was chiefly devoted to a battle of the psychiatric experts concerning Hinckley's mental state.

For the defense, William T. Carpenter, who diagnosed Hinckley with schizophrenia, testified for three days, opining that Hinckley had amalgamated various personalities from fiction and real life—including Travis Bickle (from Taxi Driver) and John Lennon. Carpenter concluded that Hinckley could not emotionally appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions because he was consumed by the prospect of a "magical unification with Jodie Foster". David Bear testified that Hinckley's actions followed "the very opposite of logic" and that Hinckley did not exhibit signs of malingering. and that he was preoccupied with being famous. Johnson said that Hinckley's interest in Foster was no different than any young man's interest in a movie star.

The insanity instruction provided to the Hinckley jurors was based on the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code: