Reagan Planned Hospital Visit to Hinckley, Film Producer Says

Ronald Reagan planned to visit John Hinckley Jr. in a mental hospital after the 1981 shooting, the would-be assassin says, but officials at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital blocked the meeting. The claim surfaced during an interview Hinckley gave to Mark Joseph, producer of the film Reagan, on Joseph’s podcast.

Joseph said he had previously spoken with the head of St. Elizabeth’s while researching the movie and was told he had advised Reagan, “please don’t do that” when the president asked about seeing Hinckley. Joseph raised that account directly with Hinckley on the show. Hinckley said he had heard Reagan wanted to meet him at the hospital and said he wished the encounter had happened. He said he would have used the moment to ask for Reagan’s forgiveness and to express respect for him.

Hinckley said the hospital stopped the visit, calling it a missed opportunity. He said he never disliked Reagan, including on the day of the shooting, and said he would have been “very respectful” in any meeting. Joseph described Hinckley, now 71, as rational, logical and subdued during the recent interview.

The episode adds a new wrinkle to one of the best-known political violence cases in modern American history. On March 30, 1981, Hinckley opened fire outside the Washington, DC Hilton and wounded Reagan, press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy. Reagan recovered, while Brady spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair and Delahanty suffered nerve damage. The shooting later led to the Brady Bill, a 1993 gun control law that established background checks and a five-day waiting period to buy handguns.