Rawhide Down

by Del Quentin Wilber

  While taking a shower: Government psychiatric report; testimony from psychiatrists at Hinckley’s trial.

  Instead, he found himself thinking: The government psychiatric report delves into this moment, as did several psychiatrists at Hinckley’s trial. Dr. Sally A. Johnson, a psychiatrist at a federal prison where Hinckley was held in 1981, testified that the idea to assassinate Reagan “resurfaced” after Hinckley saw the schedule in the paper. “He denies really thinking about doing this prior to seeing the schedule, I mean as I have described he thought about doing it in the past, but he denied having any specific plan when he first got up that morning,” Johnson testified. “He said it was not until he read the schedule in the paper that the idea resurfaced. He said that at that point in time he showered and while in the shower thought about the idea and then when he came out of the shower he said that, using his words, his mind ‘was starting to turn,’ and he took some Valium to calm himself down.”

  In the government psychiatric report, the assailant was quoted as saying: “I guess it was in the shower or getting toweled off that I debated whether to ‘detour to the Hilton’ or to ‘go up to New Haven.’ I was thinking should I go over to the Hilton and take my little pistol, and see how close I could—well, see what the scene was like.… Maybe I can get close enough that I could end this madness.”

  Born in 1955: Government psychiatric report; trial testimony; FBI reports.

  Hinckleys moved to Dallas in 1958: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 44.

  But in junior high school: Government psychiatric report and testimony from various psychiatrists at trial.

  Later, his mother: Government psychiatric report.

  “College isn’t all that important for a musician”: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 51.

  enrolled at Texas Tech: Hinckley’s college transcripts were introduced at trial; government psychiatric report; trial testimony; Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 53.

  After completing his freshman year: Hinckley’s college transcripts.

  His new roommate was black: Undated autobiographical essay by Hinckley seized by the FBI.

  In the fall semester: The government psychiatric report and various newspaper stories described Hinckley’s college life. Carpenter testified that Hinckley “lived off campus in an apartment that he rented and at that point was not attending classes with any regularity and not having any relationship, acquaintanceship with other college students, so that he was spending this time, virtually, entirely alone with the exception of those occasions when he would go to classes, and he had no social network that he built up.” Johnson also testified that Hinckley lived alone in apartments.

  The following spring: Government psychiatric report; trial testimony; Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, pp. 66–83.

  One film in particular: There was extensive trial testimony about Hinckley’s interest in Taxi Driver.

  Travis Bickle, an angry: Taxi Driver, and its screenplay by Paul Schrader. The movie’s most memorable scene comes as De Niro stands in front of a mirror—armed with a gun that slides out from his left sleeve—and imagines a conversation with another man: “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking—You talking to me? Well, I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

  Directed by Martin Scorsese: Newspaper critics lauded the movie, especially the performance by De Niro and the directing of Scorsese. One reviewer described the movie as “a vivid, galvanizing portrait of a character so particular that you may be astonished that he makes consistent dramatic sense” (Vincent Canby, “Flamboyant Taxi Driver by Scorsese,” NYT, February 9, 1976, p. 35).

  one reason the movie rang true: Gregg Kilday, “‘Taxi Driver’—Up from the Dark Side of Schrader’s L.A.,” LAT, May 14, 1976, p. V32; Alethia Knight and Neil Henry, “Love Letter Offers Clue to Motive in Shooting,” WP, April 1, 1981, p. A1.

  Hinckley was all but hypnotized: Government psychiatric report. Hinckley told government psychiatrists that he “identified totally” with Bickle. The government report also said that Hinckley felt “he was hypnotized by the music and he identified with Travis because Travis was living alone the way he had been living and Travis was also trying to accomplish something. He said that Travis was totally alienated and hated New York City and all of society.”

  3: Without Fail

  His feet planted shoulder width: Interview with Parr; the former agent described going to the range that morning for target practice and provided a detailed description of the range and the shooting test; interview with Paul Kelly, who was an instructor at the Secret Service’s training center at the time.

  Originally formed: Excerpts from the History of the United States Secret Service 1865–1975, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978.

  By the time: Testimony of Secret Service officials on March 7, 1962, before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury and Post Office Departments and Executive Office Appropriations. At the hearing, Secret Service chief James J. Rowley requested more agents because the agency was stretched thin. “We have 325 agents devoted to investigative and protective activities, but this is simply not enough to meet our responsibilities,” Rowley said, six months before Parr joined the service. “With the advent of President Eisenhower the mode of presidential transportation was stepped up from Constellation to jets and to helicopters. President Kennedy has continued in this pattern and we find today that we require more agents. When I was on the detail years ago, I could hedgehop, as it were, in a DC-3 and keep ahead of the president across the country. Today, with the use of the jet, we cannot hedgehop. We have to put two or three men at another stop, so that in all you may have 20 men out there in advance, whereas I only took five men in those days.” After Kennedy’s death, the agency swelled—to 575 agents in 1968, another watershed year in the service’s history. By 1973, there were 1,238 agents, according to congressional testimony.

  During Parr’s nearly two decades: Treasury report; Secret Service testimony before the Appropriations Subcommittee of Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, April 2, 1981; “The U.S. Secret Service: An Examination and Analysis of Its Evolving Mission,” Congressional Research Service, January 23, 2009.

  But one fundamental aspect: Interviews with more than a dozen Secret Service agents.

  recent assassinations: Of these three men, only President Kennedy had Secret Service protection.

  Better training might have: Many Secret Service agents expressed this sentiment in interviews. Vincent Bugliosi meticulously documented Kennedy’s slaying in his tome Reclaiming History: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy (Kindle location 2068–2094 is an especially helpful reconstruction of what transpired in Dallas); William Manchester, who also chronicled the assassination, criticized the service’s lackluster training. When Kennedy was shot, the driver of his limousine, Bill Greer, and another agent in the car, Roy Kellerman, froze, according to Manchester. “Even more tragic was the perplexity of Roy Kellerman, the ranking agent in Dallas, and Bill Greer, who was under Kellerman’s supervision. Kellerman and Greer were in a position to take swift evasive action, and for five terrible seconds they were immobilized,” Manchester wrote in The Death of a President, pp. 155–56. Manchester blames the Secret Service hierarchy for the agents’ failures. “It was the responsibility of James J. Rowley, Chief of the Secret Service, and Jerry Behn, Head of the White House Detail, to see that their agents were trained to cope with precisely this sort of emergency. They were supposed to be picked men, honed to a matchless edge,” he wrote.

  Nearly a decade later: The description of the Wallace shooting comes from transcripts of the trial of Arthur Bremer and a lengthy interview with former Secret Service agent Larry Dominguez, who was guarding Wallace when the politician was nearly assassinated on May 15, 1972. Because he was never properly trained on what to do when someone opened fire in a crowd with a pistol, Dominguez thought he was
hearing a “string of firecrackers” when Bremer started shooting, and he hesitated before taking any action. In later years, Dominguez went through stepped-up training. Assigned to protect Reagan at the Hilton on March 30, 1981, the agent reacted instantly when he heard Hinckley’s first shot and raced to subdue the gunman. Dominguez made Secret Service history that day, becoming the first and only agent to be present at two assassination attempts.

  The agency began by revamping: Interviews with Fran Uteg, Robert Powis, John Simpson, Le Gette, Kelly, Parr, and other former agents. Former agent Ernest Kun described the “Attack on Principal” drills he helped create in Los Angeles. The Secret Service provided me with a course outline of “Ten Minute Medicine” from 1975, as well as a 1981 internal newsletter that briefly described the agency’s “AOP” training.

  At 9:15: DDPRR; details of the phone conversation between Schmidt and Reagan come from Allen’s extensive notes and my interviews with Allen, as well as a transcript of a press briefing that morning by James Brady, RRPL.

  laborers in the Solidarity movement: News accounts and U.S. intelligence reports.

  “possible turning point”: CIA memo entitled “Poland: Possible Turning Point,” March 25, 1981. “Solidarity and the government are on another collision course and will have greater difficulty than ever before in avoiding violence,” the report said. “The chances have increased markedly that the regime will impose martial law even though doing so risks provoking widespread disorder and a military intervention by the Soviets.”

  the two leaders agreed: At his press briefing, Brady said, “The situation in Poland was discussed and both the president and the chancellor feel on behalf of their own countries, that in the event suppression be applied either externally or internally in Poland … it would be impossible to render further economic assistance.”

  The president spent the next hour: DDPRR; Allen’s notes of briefing.

  This event, like every other: “The President’s Schedule, Monday, March 30, 1981,” RRPL; DDPRR; photos, as well as audio and video recordings of meeting by WHCA, RRPL.

  Reagan thanked the men: Tape recording of meeting by WHCA, RRPL.

  At 11:30 p.m., after all: Transcript and tape recording by WHCA of Reagan’s remarks at Gridiron Dinner, RRPL.

  During a long stint: For eight years, starting in 1954, Reagan hosted a weekly television show sponsored by General Electric. He also served as a company spokesman, touring GE plants and delivering speeches to its employees, managers, and civic and business groups. The long weeks on the road and rail—Reagan did not get over a fear of flying until he ran for governor—refined his speech-making skills and honed his political philosophy.

  Reagan told the ballplayers a favorite: Transcript of luncheon, RRPL.

  It was a great story: “I was broadcasting the Cubs when the only mathematical possibility, and Billy Herman will remember this very well, that the Cubs had of winning the pennant was to win the last 21 games of the season,” Reagan said. “And they did.” The streak was an accomplishment for the Cubs. They clinched the pennant after their twenty-first straight victory, this one over the St. Louis Cardinals, on September 27, 1935. The Cubs won their next game, but then lost their final two to St. Louis. When the Cubs started the streak, the team was just 2½ games behind the Cardinals and 2 games back of the New York Giants. The Cubs lost the World Series to the Detroit Tigers.

  That same morning: Interview with Chase Untermeyer, as well as Untermeyer’s diary. In describing the trip on Air Force Two, I also relied on Bush’s autobiography, Looking Forward, and notes and a transcript of an interview of Bush by Untermeyer on the plane. Bush’s biographical details came from his memoirs, the White House website, www.whitehouse.gov, various newspaper stories, and the Naval Historical Center. Tension between Reagan and Bush during the 1980 campaign was drawn from newspaper accounts, as well as Craig Shirley’s exhaustive history of the 1980 campaign, Rendezvous with Destiny.

  Shortly before eleven a.m.: Nancy Reagan’s monthly schedule, RRPL; Carla Hall, “The First Lady and Barbara Bush Meet the Arts Volunteers,” WP, March 31, 1981, p. D2; photos of event, RRPL. In describing the outfits of the first lady and Barbara Bush, I relied on descriptions provided by Cheryl Tan, a former fashion writer for the Wall Street Journal.

  A number of commentators: Nancy Reagan’s struggles are well documented, and I relied on various books, newspaper stories, and magazine accounts to describe her first few weeks in the White House. Particularly helpful were: “First Lady Has Gotten Rid of Gun,” AP, March 5, 1981; Melinda Beck, “Nancy: Searching for a Role,” Newsweek, February 2, 1981; and “A Chat with Nancy Reagan,” Newsweek, March 9, 1981.

  Still, she was where she wanted: Details of the Reagans’ courtship were drawn from Where’s the Rest of Me? and My Turn.

  Much later, it was revealed: The San Jose Mercury News, which obtained Reagan’s FBI file under the Freedom of Information Act, documented Reagan’s role as an informant in an August 25, 1985, story by Scott Herhold.

  Now she was first lady: Hall, “First Lady and Barbara Bush Meet the Arts Volunteers.”

  4: “I’m Not Dangerous”

  John Hinckley pulled: Trial testimony; government psychiatric report; photos of note, USAO.

  “Dear Jodie”: Photocopy of letter introduced at Hinckley’s trial, as well as photos of letter, USAO.

  Foster seemed so: Government psychiatric report.

  He told his parents: Trial testimony; government psychiatric report; Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, pp. 102–6.

  left her a dozen: Transcript of testimony by Jodie Foster; Johnson testified that Hinckley told her that he had left Foster his best poems and letters.

  In a series of halting conversations: Transcript of calls introduced at Hinckley’s trial.

  Hinckley was devastated: Carpenter and other psychiatrists described Hinckley’s response to Foster’s rejection. “And his reaction at the end of that effort was that he had been a total failure, had no ability—I mean he was there, had an opportunity to do this, had blown it, was unable to establish it,” Carpenter testified, adding that Hinckley “was totally incompetent in making contact. So his reaction was one of despair and depression and fury with himself.”

  By late October: After being rejected by Foster, Hinckley traveled across the country. Among the cities he visited during this monthlong period: Washington, D.C.; Dayton, Ohio; Lincoln, Nebraska; and finally Nashville. He purchased two handguns in Texas on September 26 and two more on October 13 from a Texas pawnshop. He finally returned home late in October. He was stalking President Carter during this time frame.

  a doctor had diagnosed him: Government psychiatric report; testimony of Dr. Baruch Rosen.

  his writing had grown increasingly dark: I read many of Hinckley’s letters, essays, poems, and short stories, most of which were introduced at trial. Federal prosecutors contended the writings were simply fantasies. “They are fiction,” prosecutor Roger Adelman told jurors. “If you tried to diagnose somebody based on writings, you would fill the mental institutions in our country with some of our best writers.” Hinckley’s attorneys countered that the writings provided insights into his troubled mind. “I think it’s an insult to our intelligence to suggest that all poetry is fiction,” Vincent Fuller, a defense lawyer, said at trial. “For some it may be. For others it’s a way of expressing their innermost thoughts and that is the case of this defendant.”

  Hinckley made a halfhearted attempt: Hinckley tried to overdose on twenty to twenty-five antidepressants, according to trial testimony. Though he succeeded in making himself sick to his stomach, it was enough to spur his parents to send him to a Denver-area psychiatrist.

  In late November: Carpenter testimony; copy of threatening note introduced at trial.

  “Your prodigal son”: Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 131.

  His approaches to Foster: Copies of notes introduced at trial, USAO.

  With that, he neatly folded the
letter into thirds: Photographs of the letter and the envelope, USAO. In describing from which bag Hinckley pulled various items—including the gun and ammunition—I relied on FBI reports documenting where the ammo and gun boxes were recovered by agents after the assassination attempt.

  The speech was printed in all capital letters: Copy of speech on heavy bond paper, RRPL; interviews with Ken Khachigian and Mari Maseng.

  had spent part of his Saturday editing: Reagan Diaries, p. 29.

  It was now a little after eleven: Interviews with Khachigian and Maseng; according to the DDPRR, Reagan was in the Oval Office between 10:54 a.m. and 11:24 a.m. Maseng and Khachigian remember meeting with Reagan alone in the Oval Office at about this time. The president’s schedule for the day listed two and a half hours of speech preparation time starting at 11:00 a.m.

  But White House officials: Interview with Raymond Donovan; copy of a memorandum, dated February 17, by a White House official recommending acceptance of the union’s invitation to speak. “This is biggest possible breakthrough group in the AFL-CIO,” the memo reads. “Very Strongly recommend this event” (emphasis in original), RRPL.