DALLAS — The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was the first time someone had tried to kill a current or former U.S. leader in more than 40 years.
The last time it happened was in March 1981, when President Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded in a shooting in Washington.
And the man who shot him was from Dallas.
And yes, he lives free now.
John Hinckley, Jr., now 69, was freed from court oversight in 2022 but has lived outside of custody since 2016. Hinckley was 25 when he fired six shots at Reagan and his staff, while they were getting into the presidential limousine after an event at the Washington Hilton.
Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, was paralyzed in the shooting, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded.
Reagan and the three others survived the shooting, which came just months into Reagan's presidency.
Hinckley, meanwhile, was acquitted in the shooting by reason of insanity. Still, he lived under the supervision of mental hospitals for 35 years, before his release in 2016. He still faced supervision at his home in Virginia. That changed in 2022 when U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman released Hinckley from court oversight.
“After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!,” Hinckley wrote on his Twitter after the court ruling.
Hinckley has apparently lived out his freedom without incident. On Wednesday, in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt, Hinckley posted: "Violence is not the way to go. Give peace a chance."
Hinckley's Dallas connection
According to previous WFAA stories about Hinckley, he was born in Ardmore, Okla., and then raised in Dallas, beginning when he was 4 years old. He grew up in University Park in North Dallas and attended Highland Park High School, where he graduated in 1974.
He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock off-and-on from 1974 to 1980 but eventually dropped out.
Hinckley became obsessed with Jodie Foster and the film Taxi Driver, where Robert De Niro's deranged character, Travis Bickle, plots to kill a presidential candidate. Foster attended Yale University, and Hinckley moved to New Haven, Conn., for a period of time to stalk her. He wrote Foster love letters and poems, trying to gain her affection.
Reagan assassination attempt
Then, his Foster obsession turned to action. Reagan wasn't the first president in Hinckley's crosshairs, though. He stalked then-President Jimmy Carter first and was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee on a weapons charge.
Hinkley's love-blinded focus shifted to newly-elected President Reagan in 1981. On March 30, 1981, Hinckley shot a .22 caliber Röhm RG-14 revolver six times at former President Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., after the president addressed an AFL–CIO conference.
Hinckley did not shoot Reagan directly, but the president was seriously wounded when a bullet ricocheted off the side of the presidential limousine and hit him in the chest. Police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and press secretary James Brady were all also wounded in the shooting. Brady died in 2014 from his injuries and the others recovered.
In 1982, Hinckley went on trial and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained until 2016.
Watch WFAA's coverage of the 1981 attempted assassination on Reagan:
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