At the beginning of June, John Hinckley, who sang for US President Reagan, was released after 41 years in which he was under strict supervision, but he discovered that his music shows began to be canceled. “I just try to write songs to lift people up,” he says. | His daughter Reagan’s: “I can’t believe John Hinckley feels remorse”
John Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, understood that freedom is relative. His actions from decades ago prevent him from doing what he most wants to do, performing in front of an audience. Hinckley, who shot US President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was confined to a mental hospital in Washington for more than two decades after a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity. Starting in 2003, a judge began allowing Hinckley to live among normal people for a long time , with requirements such as participation in treatment and restrictions on where he can travel. And last June, the restrictions were completely lifted.
But on the same day that the order went into effect, Hinckley realized that a music hall in Brooklyn had canceled his concert, due to pressure and threats directed at them on the Internet. The event represented a lifelong dream of the 67-year-old, who started playing the guitar as a teenager. The Brooklyn show is just one of several concerts later canceled for similar reasons.
“I’ve been thinking about this concert in Brooklyn for several months, I’ve been planning and practicing,” he said. But the event was canceled due to many concerns. In fact, because his victims included the president of the United States, as well as a press secretary, a police officer in Washington and a secret service agent. “Many people are not eager to see him enjoy the benefits of life without court supervision” say those around the victims’ families.
The Reagan Memorial Foundation opposed the removal of Hinckley’s restrictions and his attempt to start a music career at the age of 67, saying in a statement that Hinckley “apparently seeks to profit from his actions.” Also in a 2021 article in the ‘Washington Post’ by Patty Davis, one of Reagan’s daughters, there was a protest about his freedom.
“I can’t believe John Hinckley feels remorse,” she wrote. “Narcissists rarely do.” Hinckley is best known to people who remember him from March 1981, when he fired six shots at the president outside a Washington hotel. Besides Reagan, the shots hit press secretary James Brady, a Washington police officer and a Secret Service agent. Brady suffered brain damage and died from his injuries in 2014.
A jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity, and he was committed to a psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained for more than three decades. However, starting in 2003, the court began allowing him family visits, and in 2016 he was approved to live full-time in Williamsburg, Washington, where his parents lived. The partial release came with restrictions, such as limiting access to email accounts and electronic devices, and a requirement to notify if he plans to travel a long distance from his home.
Hinckley says he doesn’t watch TV and doesn’t care what people say about him. “I don’t read about it at all,” he said. “And I don’t want to know,” but after decades of silence, Hinckley has something to say. “I write peaceful songs. The climate in the country right now is just so bad. I just try to write songs to uplift people,” he said.
His songs have attracted 30,000 subscribers on YouTube and more than 15,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, he has connected with audiences who don’t know him, listeners who weren’t even alive in 1981.
Ronald Reagan recovered from the March 30, 1981, shooting, but his press secretary, James Brady, who died in 2014, was partially paralyzed as a result. Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delhanty were also injured. Reagan died in 2004.