The Reagan Assassination and John Hinkley Jr.

September 16, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, hitting four people including the president. The motive was not political ideology or anti-government sentiment. Hinckley was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he had never met, after becoming obsessed with her performance in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. The assassination attempt was, in his words, "the greatest love offering in the history of the world." This episode of Historically High traces Hinckley's path from an unremarkable rich kid to the man who changed the legal standard for the insanity defense in America.

The Making of an Obsession

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. was born in 1955 in Ardmore, Oklahoma, the youngest child of a wealthy oil executive. The family moved to an affluent Dallas neighborhood when he was four. By most accounts, his childhood was normal—he played sports, learned piano, and was socially active. But in high school, he began withdrawing, spending most of his time alone in his room playing guitar. He was so unremarkable that employees at his father's company didn't even know he existed.

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What you'll learn

1 The Reagan Assassination and John Hinkley Jr.
2 (01:40) **Episode Setup: The Insanity Question** - Hosts introduce John Hinkley Jr.'s attempt on Ronald Reagan and frame the central question: was he insane or responsible?
3 (06:46) **Background: A Normal Childhood** - Hinkley's early life shows no obvious trauma or warning signs, making his later descent puzzling
4 (13:29) **High School and Early Adulthood: Becoming Invisible** - Hinkley becomes withdrawn and unremarkable, a pattern that continues through college
5 (18:22) **Taxi Driver and the Obsession Begins** - Hinkley becomes fixated on the movie Taxi Driver and 12-year-old Jodie Foster
6 (25:27) **Deepening Delusion: Guns, Nazis, and Stalking** - Hinkley's behavior escalates with weapons, extremist groups, and active stalking
7 (30:54) **Stalking Jodie Foster and Jimmy Carter** - Hinkley pursues Foster while also beginning to stalk President Carter

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

This episode is a long strange trip into the mind of John Hinckley Jr. John attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Firing five shots, Hinckley would strike the President once. He was arrested immediately following the shooting. That's when the Hinckley case takes a turn. John Hinckley Jr had quite an obsession with Taxi Driver, and Jodie Foster. In John's mind, he was a Travis Bickle type character. In his mind, he needed to do something to make Jodie realize she loved him. That thing turned out to be trying to assassinate a president. That brings us to the most interesting subject of the episode. The insanity plea. John's lawyers tried it. In the end they succeeded. But was he really insane? Decide for yourself as you join us while we all get Historically High on John Hinckley Jr, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.

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