For nothing is more dangerous than desire when it's wrong

May 26, 2016 11:17 AM

How John Hinckley Lives Now: He drives a Toyota. He eats fro-yo. He shops at PetSmart. You just might run into him.
posted by item (49 comments total)

I wonder if any members of the Hinckley family still occasionally dine with the Bushes? [Warning: conspiracy website]
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:31 AM on May 26, 2016

A big big mess he was all mixed up in a big mess.
posted by octobersurprise at 11:40 AM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I’m an artist, I’m a musician. Nobody knows that. They just see me as the guy who tried to kill Reagan.

"Do they call me Hinckley the bridge builder? Hinckley the cat-feeder? But you shoot just ONE President...."

All through the article, all I could think of was how many 17-day-per-month visits someone whose family isn't (dwindlingly) filthy rich would get?
posted by chimaera at 11:40 AM on May 26, 2016 [52 favorites]

There's something wrong in my brain that consistently sees John Hinckley and thinks Mark Chapman. It's not that I don't know instinctively who they are, but for some reason...
I guess they vaguely look alike in that late 70's/early 80's kind-of-way. Maybe because I don't really remember either incident personally (I was six). I dunno.
Anyway, it's an interesting article, one that I wouldn't have stumbled on myself. He seems... not unhinged in a way that Chapman usually does.
posted by ApathyGirl at 11:41 AM on May 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

one part of me echoes chimaera's comment a lot - we live in a country where summary execution for traffic stops/not putting out cigarettes/playing with toy guns is a reality for people of color and here is a guy who literally tried to kill the president who isnt even confined over half the time. . .

but then he starts talking about how the trips outside the facility and visits to his moms home have made him feel more human and im like "who would have thought that letting people out of confinement was good for them? really?"
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 11:44 AM on May 26, 2016 [17 favorites]

but then he starts talking about how the trips outside the facility and visits to his moms home have made him feel more human and im like "who would have thought that letting people out of confinement was good for them? really?"

My real point of the comment is that this sort of thing, where physicians feel that a person doesn't represent a risk and being at home for some portion of the time is good for their treatment, shouldn't be limited to families who have sold off oil companies.
posted by chimaera at 11:49 AM on May 26, 2016 [31 favorites]

I favorited this post for the title alone. Thanks for the spudley chuckle, Item.

But damn, never thought Hinckley would grow up to look so much like Jeb Bush!
posted by Trinity-Gehenna at 11:50 AM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

nevercalm, I think you might be confusing Williamsburg, NY with Williamsburg, VA. It's an easy mistake to make; both places feature artisans in strange clothing, but only one has men with guns screaming HUZZAH!
posted by infinitewindow at 11:51 AM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'll bite. Which one?
posted by phooky at 11:53 AM on May 26, 2016 [18 favorites]

But damn, never thought Hinckley would grow up to look so much like Jeb Bush!

"Please clap"
posted by mcstayinskool at 11:53 AM on May 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

Sorry infinitewindow, forgot "/hamburger"
posted by nevercalm at 11:54 AM on May 26, 2016

Williamsburg. Fucking hipster.

Hinckley is so over. I'm all about Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated a president you've probably never heard of.
posted by dr_dank at 12:00 PM on May 26, 2016 [25 favorites]

Hinckley is so over. I'm all about Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated a president you've probably never heard of.

I think he's halfway well-known now, if only because of T.R.'s memetic status on the Internet plus Sondheim giving him a song.

Real hipsters are into Charles Giteau. He even had a beard!
posted by kewb at 12:06 PM on May 26, 2016 [11 favorites]

There's something wrong in my brain that consistently sees John Hinckley and thinks Mark Chapman.

I do the same thing. The shootings of Lennon and Reagan were only a couple months apart and I was only ten. In fact, when I read this post I had to remember which one Hinkley was. Both were a bit unhinged, both were obsessed with things (Jody Foster, Catcher in the Rye) and I think there's a few other similarities.
posted by bondcliff at 12:08 PM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Sorry infinitewindow, forgot "/hamburger"

no you didn't
posted by thelonius at 12:17 PM on May 26, 2016

Real hipsters are into Charles Giteau. He even had a beard!

I was into Charlotte Corday before she went mainstream.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:21 PM on May 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

I used to know him. Not super well or anything, but we had mutual acquaintances and would say hi when we saw each other. I was just a kid at the time--I'm about ten years younger than him--but I remember just sort of thinking of him as pathetic. Our main shared acquaintances were a local band/artist group, and he just always sort of seemed to be hovering around their periphery.

He creeped me out a little bit too, but mostly he just struck me as sort of a pathetic, immature schlump looking for some kind of attention, the same way he strikes me now.

Like I said, I didn't know him very well at the time or anything, but there is nothing about his reported behavior right now that strikes me as wildly different from back then.
posted by ernielundquist at 12:24 PM on May 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

But do you think he shot Buckwheat?
posted by uberchet at 12:27 PM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNrytt7D2Lo
posted by AJaffe at 12:28 PM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

... mostly he just struck me as sort of a pathetic, immature schlump looking for some kind of attention, the same way he strikes me now.

I'm all for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, but this right here is why I think John Hinkley (and other attention-whores like Ted Kaczynski or Mark Chapman) should remain behind bars for life. Otherwise, you have stories like this that show how Hinkley is getting everything he ever wanted: his own security entourage! dozens of therapists and psychologists who hang on his every word! fame and notoriety! For a narcissist like Hinkley, how is this not a win?

(I haven't quite worked out in my mind how we can handle this from a legal or moral standpoint. I just don't like Hinkley still being famous for over thirty years.)
posted by math at 12:32 PM on May 26, 2016 [11 favorites]

never thought Hinckley would grow up to look so much like Jeb Bush!

Look—Hinkley today—Jeb today; Hinkley then; Jeb then.

Yes, that is kind of ... weird ...

"Then there’s the matter of the band that Hinckley has repeatedly told his clinicians he’d like to start with “Ms. L,” a woman he knows from NAMI meetings who suffers from bipolar disorder. The two rehearse in his bedroom. “She sings some of my songs and plays bass on my songs as I guide her,” he has explained. Next, they’re in the market for a drummer."

I dug this. And also the part where's he's "more into heartfelt, uplifting stuff" these days. It's like some Wes Anderson meets Oliver Stone flick. If they don't cover "The Air That I Breathe" they're missing a trick.
posted by octobersurprise at 12:32 PM on May 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

All through the article, all I could think of was how many 17-day-per-month visits someone whose family isn't (dwindlingly) filthy rich would get?

Nowhere near enough. Though I don't think Hinkley getting less visits would improve the situation any.
posted by layceepee at 12:47 PM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I’m an artist, I’m a musician. Nobody knows that. They just see me as the guy who tried to kill Reagan.

Maybe he could join JFA.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 12:53 PM on May 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

He shot Reagan. Bad thing. Also Jim Brady didn't deserve to get shot. Bad thing, too. The article was interesting. Too many times we let ourselves get invested in cartoons, rather than real people. A guess the two things that drive the legal machine are supposed to be 1) Hinkely was mentally ill, but now he's improved enough that he doesn't need to be confined all the time (at least for now), and 2) he doesn't pose a danger to anyone. But shunning is the burden he must carry, a result of what he's done. That may seem harsh, but it's fair. If he'd shot my brother I would not want him living next door to me, just because.

Well, he also killed that neat TV show, too. Bad thing, but not actionable. (Greatest American Hero)
posted by mule98J at 12:53 PM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Look at all you bandwagoners with your successful assassins. Sara Jane Moore is the thinking man's choice.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 12:58 PM on May 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

Otherwise, you have stories like this that show how Hinkley is getting everything he ever wanted: his own security entourage! dozens of therapists and psychologists who hang on his every word! fame and notoriety! For a narcissist like Hinkley, how is this not a win?

I once read a biography of John Lennon that deliberately chose not to mention his killer by name. (I forget the title, unfortunately.) I thought this was extremely appropriate, for exactly the reason you mention.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 1:00 PM on May 26, 2016 [7 favorites]

That's an interesting article. It's frustrating to read him complain that his life is kind of boring and he doesn't understand why people only see him as the guy who shot Reagan. Of course he doesn't have a perfect life and people remember what he did. He shot 3 people - one of them the president! It sounds to me like he's getting along very well considering. Though I am glad to read of a case where a mentally ill person is being treated well and helping them get better is actually a goal, it just highlights that this is notable and it should be default.

There are several quotes from therapists and caseworkers. How does that work? It seems to me like a breech of confidentiality. Maybe it's just framed as quotes and it's not direct or maybe Hinckley told the writer about those things? Maybe I'm misreading and it jumps out to me because I'm hyper-aware of breaches of trust with therapists.

Well, he also killed that neat TV show, too. Bad thing, but not actionable. (Greatest American Hero)

Believe it or not I never knew about that. I remember the show and I liked it at the time but I didn't know about the renaming and re-renaming.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 1:21 PM on May 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Sara Jane Moore is the thinking man's choice.

Eh. I liked Squeaky Fromme better the first time. Anyway, I'm gonna go with Artie Bremer. Just because his Ma blamed it all on poor digestion.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:23 PM on May 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

I can't find a definitive citation for this right this minute, but I think there's often a lower level of confidentiality for court mandated therapy for someone who is considered a danger to others.
posted by ernielundquist at 1:44 PM on May 26, 2016

According to Wikipedia, James Brady's death later was ruled a homicide, but he didn't face any new charges since he was originally found not guilty due to insanity. Interesting.

Sorry, I'm on team "you kill someone, you don't get coddling or special privileges." (Humane treatment is fine.) There's only so much bleeding liberal angst I can take in one lifetime.
posted by Melismata at 1:47 PM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Artie Bremer's diary is sometimes said to be an inspiration for Traveis Bickle's diary entries in Paul Schrader's screenplay for Taxi Driver, but that is not true. It was just a coincidence. And that is all I can say about Artie Bremer.
posted by Falconetti at 1:47 PM on May 26, 2016

Definitely misread this post for something about John C. McGinley and was pretty confused for a sec, because I didn't know he ever shot Reagan, or that you could even do that and go onto have a pretty successful career as a character actor.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 1:50 PM on May 26, 2016

I once read a biography of John Lennon that deliberately chose not to mention his killer by name. (I forget the title, unfortunately.)

There's a certain irony in that parenthetical comment.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:51 PM on May 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

So: Hinckley wanders around (sometimes) and Reagan is a dozen years in his grave. I'll bet Jodie Foster is impressed now.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:35 PM on May 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

There are several quotes from therapists and caseworkers. How does that work? It seems to me like a breech of confidentiality. Maybe it's just framed as quotes and it's not direct or maybe Hinckley told the writer about those things?

I think there's an indirect explanation of this in the article where it says But that doesn’t mean Hinckley hasn’t been talking. Over his 35 years in confinement, he has been interviewed by psychiatrists, nurses, and therapists; evaluated by medical teams and watched by Secret Service details. The notes from these Court TV–meets–Crime and Punishment conversations and reports fill a voluminous case file, thousands of pages and counting, hidden in plain sight at US District Court in downtown DC.

I think when interviewed by a psychiatrist or therapist acting specifically as an agent of the court, a patient gives up their right to privacy, and is informed of this as a condition of participating in the interview.
posted by layceepee at 2:48 PM on May 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

What is the Latin term for the sentence of striking all references of an offender's name from all records and forbidding anyone to speak of them? It sounds apposite (if impractical) in this case.
posted by acb at 3:45 PM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I guess most people are just here for the lulz but as someone for whom mental health awareness and advocacy is a major concern, this article actually brings up a lot of emotions. For one thing, despite a ruling of "not guilty" he's clearly spent more time as a not-free man than the majority of people convicted not only of attempted murder, but of actual murder. Even though under a not guilty verdict (if we are to believe that such a verdict actually means what it says on the tin) his confinement should not have been intended as punitive in the first place, at some point when he's spent longer locked up than a guilty person would it seems to be no longer about back-door punishment and instead about preemptively protecting society from a potentially still dangerous person. And that, my friends, raises all kinds of issues as far as the right of the state to lock up people not because they have done something bad but because they MIGHT do something bad.

The other thought this raises is the whole "well, it was the president after all," which triggers some "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" response. Like, if he'd attempted to kill 3 civilians do you think he would still be locked up? Do you think he should be? It's certainly possible you make think that that essentially a life is fair punishment for any attempted multiple homicide, and if that's the case then there's no disconnect. But if you think that, say, 20-30 years is a fair sentence for attempted homicide, then should one really get a harsher penalty because the target is the present? And if you're the sort of person who believes that rehabilitation with an eye toward reintegration should be a higher priority for the criminal justice system in general, is there a reason that in this case that should not likewise be a goal?
posted by drlith at 3:50 PM on May 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

I do think it matters if the target is the president. Like it or not, killing the President (of any country) has a much much bigger impact than killing most people does. Its not that the President has more value as person, but the effect of the murder (including the chaos of the Presidents death, changes in national policy due to new leader, chilling effect on candidates/politicians, etc).
posted by thefoxgod at 3:56 PM on May 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

I'm glad Hinckley was able to get good treatment, but the disparity between his experience and the norm at St. E's is incredible.

Context: St. Elizabeths Hospital, where Hinckley lives when he's not in Williamsburg, is a public psych facility. It's in an extremely poor, predominantly African American neighborhood. Hinckley, as a white guy, is in a distinct minority among St. E's patients. Funding for the hospital keeps getting slashed, and as a result the number of beds is a teeny fraction of what it used to be, leaving the hospital poorly equipped to address the mental health needs of the surrounding area, which are considerable. Most of the buildings on east side of the hospital are abandoned, save for a homeless shelter and the small part that's still in use as a hospital. The west side is now the headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, which says something about where our country's priorities are.

St. E's only recently stopped receiving oversight from both the city of DC and the federal DOJ following allegations of various types of patient abuse and neglect. In 2014 a patient wandered away from the hospital and turned up dead in the snow nearby. Where was that guy's 24-hour minder? It says Hinckley regularly goes out and around DC with other hospital patients, but do those patients get access to their families and communities like Hinckley does? Do they have intensive treatment teams watching their every move and analyzing their every word? If my experience rotating through as a provider in a psych facility in my city that serves primarily lower income patients is representative, I'm gonna guess no.

tl;dr: There are vast gaping racial and economic disparities in mental health treatment in this country. What else is new?
posted by ActionPopulated at 4:06 PM on May 26, 2016 [10 favorites]

What is the Latin term for the sentence of striking all references of an offender's name from all records and forbidding anyone to speak of them? It sounds apposite (if impractical) in this case.

Damnatio memoriae.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:32 PM on May 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

This article is actually a follow-up to a previous piece, titled "Stalking Hinckley", by the same writer, that appeared in Washington DC's CityPaper in July 1997. I can't find an active link to that article, but it's a great read if you can track it down -- weirder and more in-depth.
posted by newmoistness at 5:25 PM on May 26, 2016

I'm all for the humane treatment of the mentally ill, but this right here is why I think John Hinkley (and other attention-whores like Ted Kaczynski or Mark Chapman) should remain behind bars for life. Otherwise, you have stories like this that show how Hinkley is getting everything he ever wanted: his own security entourage! dozens of therapists and psychologists who hang on his every word! fame and notoriety! For a narcissist like Hinkley, how is this not a win?

I'm not sure why it should matter. If he's not engaged in criminal activity, who cares if he wants attention? It shouldn't be the goal of criminal justice to lock up people for being unpleasant.
posted by krinklyfig at 5:56 PM on May 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

What Jim Brady's life was like afterward...fuck this fucker, I'm not gonna read one sentence about him.

I read a biography of John Lennon that deliberately chose not to mention his killer by name...I thought this was extremely appropriate

I've also heard of the family of a victim not wanting their loved one mentioned when the criminal is being discussed. Sort of the 180 of the above.
posted by NorthernLite at 10:44 PM on May 26, 2016

The fact that this whackjob is a bad shot does not change the fact that he had every intention of killing Reagan. That action would almost certainly have had enormous consequences on a global scale, potentially even resulting in the extinction of humanity (hey, the Cold War was a touchy time, and let's not forget our old buddy Franz Ferdinand). The vast majority of attempted assassins throughout history have been summarily executed, at the very least. That's not even taking into account the lifelong suffering that he inflicted on James and Sara Brady (and I'm sure it was no picnic for the other two people that he wounded, to say nothing of the emotional trauma that he inflicted on Jodie Foster).

So yeah...I'm not losing any sleep over the fact that Hinckley only gets to see his Mommy for two weeks a month, and his neighbors very rightly see him as a potential negative presence. Jesus, my neighbors get pissed if I turn up the stereo on a Saturday night.
posted by Optamystic at 2:20 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Hinckley/Fromme duet, Unworthy of Your Love
posted by crossoverman at 4:55 AM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Re the Chapman/Hinckley confusion, I'm now eagerly awaiting the alternate-universe story wherein Hinckley was successful, Chapman failed, and Lennon decided to head back home and oust Thatcher.

We'd still have ended up with GHWB, but with potentially very different versions of Reaganomics, War on Drugs, Iran-Contra.

Unless of course people are right and the Gipper's second term was mostly as a ventriloquist-dummy.

Now I suppose I'd better actually read the article.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:56 AM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Stalking Hinckley. Very interesting that his male therapists considered Hinckley more credible than the female pharmacist he stalked and pestered.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:42 AM on May 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

The fact that this whackjob is a bad shot does not change the fact that he had every intention of killing Reagan.

That's true, but I don't think that fact all by itself is enough to justify his release.
posted by layceepee at 12:19 PM on May 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Believe it or not I never knew about that.

I saw what you did.
posted by mule98J at 10:18 AM on May 28, 2016