Trial testimony: unless otherwise noted, all references to testimony refer to the trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. in 1982.
Author interviews: unless otherwise noted, all interviews were conducted by the author in 2009 and 2010.
Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries: Reagan Diaries. All citations in the notes section are from volume 1.
Daily Diary of President Ronald Reagan: DDPRR. Unless otherwise noted, this refers to the diary of March 30, 1981, and was obtained from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: RRPL
George Bush Presidential Library: GBPL
White House Communications Agency: WHCA
Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia: Miller Center
United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia: USAO
Associated Press: AP
United Press International: UPI
Los Angeles Times: LAT
Washington Post: WP
New York Times: NYT
Prologue
Ronald Reagan walked: Photos, RRPL; DDPRR, March 29, 1981; “Reagans Attend Church, Enjoy Spring Stroll,” AP, March 29, 1981; Dean Reynolds, UPI, April 4, 1981.
had not been able: Review of Reagan’s diary and the DDPRR for each Sunday since the inauguration.
didn’t want to impose: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, p. 396. Reagan wrote that he also stopped going to church because authorities warned him about terrorist hit squads attacking him during services. This alert most likely occurred four or five months after the assassination attempt. Michael Reagan told me that his father was not happy about missing church. On an Air Force One flight in April 1988, Reagan told his son that he was counting the months until he could return to services. “He shared with me that in nine months he could once again start going to church and how much he was looking forward to it,” Michael Reagan said. Reagan’s other son, Ron, also said his father was a regular churchgoer before and after his presidency.
St. John’s Church: History provided by Hayden Bryan, executive director of operations for St. John’s Church, and the church’s website.
the Reverend Harper delivered: John C. Harper, “The Son of the Man,” sermon delivered at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, March 29, 1981.
They ate lunch: Reagan Diaries, p. 30; DDPRR, March 29, 1981.
The only event of note: “The President’s Schedule, March 30, 1981,” RRPL.
By mid-March: “Reagan Approval Rating Trails Earlier Presidents,” WP, March 18, 1981, p. A3.
White House officials and pollsters: There were numerous press accounts detailing this, including a column that ran on March 30, 1981, in newspapers across the country. It was by the influential Robert Novak and Rowland Evans. “The Reagan honeymoon is truly over,” they declared in discussing the anticipated fight ahead over the administration’s plans to slash federal spending.
The news of the shooting stunned the country: Many newspapers and wire services published stories describing local reaction to the assassination attempt. Among those I relied on were articles in: Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune, Quad-City Times, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, State Journal-Register (Springfield, Illinois), Peoria Journal Star, WP, Kansas City Star, AP, and UPI.
never broke protocol: Secret Service agents, who reviewed the audiotapes of their radio broadcasts of that day, assured me that they never uttered Reagan’s name on the air, nor used the word “president” to describe him. I requested a copy of this tape from the Secret Service. As this book went to print, I had not yet been granted access to it. However, the Secret Service did provide me with a transcript of the radio calls, which confirms that agents never violated procedure.
Every modern president: Former president George W. Bush was Trailblazer; President Obama is Renegade.
It was first given: Interview with Pete Peterson. Peterson and Pete Hannaford, a close Reagan advisor in the 1970s, told me that the Secret Service bestowed the code name in 1976. In a copy of a long-defunct magazine, I found a reference to Rawhide being his code name during that year’s campaign (Richard Reeves, “Brown, Reagan, and Self-Destruction,” New West, June 7, 1976, p. 12).
By all accounts: Several friends, advisors, and Secret Service agents reported this. “The Reagans were amused by and rather liked Rawhide and Rainbow,” Hannaford said. In 1984, while on a break at his ranch, Reagan was rooting around at the base of trees. This greatly concerned Secret Service agent Robert DeProspero, then head of Reagan’s detail, because venomous rattlesnakes were a common sight on the ranch. “Mr. President, you make me really nervous,” DeProspero said. “I really don’t want you getting bitten by a rattlesnake.” Reagan looked up with a big smile. “Well,” he said, “you can’t be afraid with a name like ‘Rawhide.’”
years later, describing: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, p. 104.
Reagan viewed the presidency: Many biographers have made this point, none better than Lou Cannon in President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime.
1: Rendezvous with Destiny
When President Ronald Reagan awoke: Several people, including agents and White House staffers, remembered the dreary weather this day, but I also relied on an aviation meteorological report from www.weatherunderground.com to chart the weather hour by hour. In describing Reagan’s attire, I utilized FBI inventories of what he wore that day; I also relied on official photographs, RRPL, and an interview with Gary Walters to depict the White House residence and grounds. Michael K. Deaver described Reagan using Brylcreem in A Different Drummer, p. 14; the president made a point of informing several nurses that he did not dye his hair and did not wash it that morning. He told at least one that he used Brylcreem. Deaver described the president’s routine that morning in Nancy: A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan, p. 121; Reagan’s suit, crafted by his personal tailor Albert Mariani, is on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.
nicest watch on: Ronald Reagan, An American Life, p. 259. Before going to the Hilton, Reagan swapped this watch for a cheaper one that he used on his ranch.
Reagan’s clothes draped: Several of the president’s friends, former advisors, and former Secret Service agents described Reagan’s ranch work, his workouts, and his pride in his physique. Richard Williamson, for example, said he once saw Reagan jokingly pose in such a way to show off a biceps muscle for an official photograph.
fifty-three movies: Thomas, The Films of Ronald Reagan, and the official White House biography of Reagan.
captain sounded more dashing: Interview with Edwin Meese III. Reagan later wrote in Where’s the Rest of Me? (p. 117) that he turned down the promotion because he had not served in combat. “Who was I to be a major for serving in California,” he wrote, “without ever hearing a shot fired in anger?”
despite widespread skepticism: This is another example of how Reagan was underestimated. His opponent in the 1966 California governor’s race, the incumbent Democrat Edmond G. Brown, did not take the former actor seriously—to his own detriment. During the campaign, Brown derided Reagan’s experience as an actor and often mentioned that he starred in the movie Bedtime for Bonzo. As the race heated up, Brown famously told a classroom of young schoolchildren: “I’m running against an actor, and you know who shot Lincoln, don’t you?” Reagan crushed Brown by nearly one million votes.
most populous: California officially became the most populated state just before Reagan won the 1966 gubernatorial election; “California Takes Population Lead,” NYT, September 1, 1964, p. 37.
hundreds of radio: Ronald Reagan, Reagan, in His Own Hand.
Tough and demanding: This was echoed by nearly every former White House official I interviewed, and is a common thread in many Reagan biographies and newspaper stories of the era.
the couple had celebrated: Helen Thomas, UPI, March 5.
“As Pres. of the U.S.”: Nancy Reagan, I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to N
ancy Reagan, p. 140.
A much more elaborate celebration: Photographs of festivities, RRPL; DDPRR, February 6 and 7, 1981; Reagan Diaries, p. 17; stories published in WP, NYT, AP, UPI about the events.
did not retire until after midnight: DDPRR, February 7, RRPL.
Now, a little more than seven weeks: Deaver, Nancy: A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan, p. 121. “The President’s Schedule, Monday, March 30, 1981,” RRPL; the call with the German chancellor was not on the official schedule, but there is no doubt that Reagan was told about it at least a day earlier.
Reagan’s first task: “The President’s Schedule, Monday, March 30, 1981,” RRPL; interviews with David Fischer and Jose Muratti; photographs of event and meet-and-greet, RRPL; audiotape of Reagan’s speech by WHCA, RRPL.
Reagan made it clear that the Oval Office: Author review of DDPRR for first two months in office.
go horseback riding: Reagan went horseback riding with Fischer and James A. Baker III, his chief of staff, on March 25, according to the DDPRR and other scheduling records, RRPL. An official White House photograph shows Reagan and Baker chatting on the marine helicopter as it flew back to the White House. Reagan was wearing his brown riding breeches and boots; Baker had a pack of Red Man chewing tobacco poking out of his left breast pocket.
But Reagan, a perpetual optimist: Interviews with Meese, Frederick Ryan, Baker, and Fischer; Reagan’s autobiographies.
in a commencement address: Kengor, God and Ronald Reagan, p. 95.
At 8:50, shadowed by: DDPRR; photograph of Reagan walking to the Oval Office, RRPL.
Earlier that morning: Interviews with former Secret Service agents Jerry Parr, Johnny Guy, and James E. Le Gette, as well as Parr’s wife, Carolyn.
Hollywood’s version of an agent’s: Reagan thought the film was terrible, writing in a later memoir that the studio agreed not to release it in Hollywood to protect its actors’ reputations. “Never has an egg of such dimensions been laid,” he wrote in Where’s the Rest of Me? (p. 83). After the assassination attempt, Reagan also told Parr that the movie was the worst he had ever made.
He often told friends that devising: Interview with Parr; Zach Nauth, “Fan Who Saved Life of President to Get His Reward Today,” LAT, February 15, 1985, p. 5.
As morning light: Government psychiatric report; Hinckley’s whirlwind of travel in the months leading up to the assassination attempt were documented in a trial stipulation. His belongings were cataloged in trial testimony, trial stipulations, witness testimony, and FBI reports.
drab hotel room: Photographs of room introduced at trial, USAO.
But returning to Evergreen: Government psychiatric report; testimony of psychiatrists at Hinckley’s trial, as well as the testimony of his parents, Jo Ann and Jack Hinckley.
As he stepped from the car: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 138; testimony of Jo Ann Hinckley.
he pondered suicide: Dr. William T. Carpenter, a psychiatrist who examined Hinckley for his defense, testified that the gunman was thinking about these things on the morning of March 26. “He decided, then, to go to the East Coast, his final destination being New Haven, where he planned to end it all [with] either suicide or the homicide-suicide plan being foremost in his mind.” In the weeks before he took a bus to Washington, Hinckley often pondered a dramatic conclusion to his life. “He had to do something to end it,” testified Dr. Thomas G. Goldman, another defense psychiatrist who examined Hinckley. “He could not live. He made some motions towards looking for a job. Basically, he was selling his property to raise enough money to make another trip to the East where he thought he would do something, kill himself, kill Miss Foster, possibly kill both of them.”
On Thursday, March 26: Stipulations entered at Hinckley’s trial, as well as the government psychiatric report and testimony by government and defense psychiatrists.
The four-day trip: Government psychiatric report.
A minister who boarded: Reverend Richard Parke, the minister traveling with Hinckley, was interviewed by government psychiatrists and his comments were included in their report. Parke confirmed the report’s details in phone and e-mail interviews.
He didn’t even tell the minister: Parke learned Hinckley’s last name by seeing it on a luggage tag, according to the government psychiatric report.
he barely had enough energy: Government psychiatric report; testimony of various defense and prosecution psychiatrists.
the jumbled detritus: FBI reports and trial testimony.
Just after nine a.m.: Government psychiatric report.
On his walk back to the hotel: Government psychiatric report. “He noticed the president would be at the Hilton,” the report states. “He noticed the schedule without excitement, put down the paper and took a shower.”
2: The Man
When President Reagan: DDPRR.
the space looked much as: Photographs of Oval Office, RRPL; photographs of Oval Office displayed at www.whitehousemuseum.org.
the Resolute desk: Interview with Fischer; White House Historical Association website.
resigned himself to a bit of discomfort: The desk was raised two inches by adding a wooden base at some point between October 1981 and August 1982, according to Monica McKiernan, curatorial assistant in the White House Office of the Curator.
miniature bronzed saddles: Reagan Diaries, p. 25. Reagan received these statues from Walter Annenberg, one of his wealthy California friends, on March 12. According to Time magazine, “Six Shots at the Nation’s Heart,” on April 13, 1981, Reagan and his wife put these saddles on display in the Oval Office the day before the shooting.
his three top advisors: DDPRR; biographical sketches of Baker, Meese, and Deaver were derived from their autobiographies, stories in WP, NYT, Newsweek, and Time. Laurence I. Barrett provided detailed character studies in Gambling with History.
Meesecase: Interview with Richard Allen; Robert L. Pfaltzgraff and Jacquelyn K. Davis, National Security Decisions: The Participants Speak, p. 74.
Their efforts had already earned: On March 19, 1981, the Christian Science Monitor ran a story about the three aides under the headline “Reagan’s Troika: Setting the Pace.” A Newsweek piece on February 2, 1981, also referred to the men as the Troika. The nickname became more widely known after the assassination attempt.
Nearly every morning: Interviews with Baker and Meese. Details about that morning’s meeting came from two memos prepared for Baker: “Senior Staff Meeting Action Items (3/30/81)” and “Meese/Deaver Breakfast and Senior Staff Meeting.” They were provided by the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University.
The Troika entered: DDPR; interviews with Baker, Meese, and Fischer.
Jerry Parr found: Details about Parr’s career were supplied by Parr; Guy described the preview of the inaugural address.
“Do you mind timing me?”: Reagan’s inaugural address lasted twenty minutes.
Richard V. Allen arrived: Interview with Allen; DDPRR; Allen’s oral history (May 28, 2002) with the Miller Center. Allen’s career was also heavily chronicled in the press. The most helpful stories in charting his life and career appeared in the Washington Post: Stephen S. Rosenfeld, “The Return of Richard V. Allen,” April 18, 1980, p. A2; Spencer Rich, “Reagan’s Foreign Affairs a Pro on Policy, Trade,” August 24, 1980, p. A2; and Elizabeth Bumiller, “The Powers and the Puzzles of Richard Allen: The Disappearing ‘Disappearing Act’ of the National Security Advisor,” June 28, 1981, p. H1. Bumiller, in particular, wrote many illuminating character sketches of key players in the Reagan administration.
“we have to find a way to knock”: Interview with Allen; Reagan echoed these words later during one of his most famous speeches at the foot of the Berlin Wall in 1987 when he urged the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” I encourage anyone interested in this speech to read Romesh Ratnesar’s Tear Down This Wall.
In another revealing episode from the European trip, Reagan had some fun with the Ger
man language. Shortly after arriving in West Germany, Reagan was sitting in the back of their sedan as they roared down the autobahn. He kept jerking his head to read road signs.
“Everything okay, Governor?” Allen asked from the front passenger seat.
Reagan replied that he wanted to know when they got to a place he pronounced as “Owls Fart.”
“No, Governor, that isn’t a place,” Allen said, realizing that Reagan was reading German road signs with a German word in all capital letters on them. “It’s Ausfahrt,” Allen said. “It means exit.”
“No, there is no place like that,” Reagan said. “You just can’t have a word like that.”
Allen, fluent in German, rattled off a stream of words derived from fahrt: wassenfahrt (trip on water), himmelfahrt (Ascension of Christ), einfahrt (entrance), rundfahrt (tour).
“Can you write them down for me?”
Allen jotted a few dozen German words on a sheet of paper and gave it to Reagan. That afternoon, at a meeting with high-ranking German officials, the future president pulled out the list and chuckled.
at the president’s first news briefing: Transcript of the president’s news conference, January 29, 1981, RRPL; interview with Allen.
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