Ronald Reagan had been president for less than 70 days when he was shot while leaving a meeting in 1981. The gunman, John Hinckley, was just feet away, and the president was wounded when one of the bullets ricocheted off the limousine and struck him under the left armpit.
00:53:08.520think she's only talked about it once publicly I could be wrong on that you can see why who would want to relive that or can't continue calling attention to that I mean especially with the president as beloved is Reagan you just don't don't want any association with such a dark chapter but she has it unfortunately through no fault of her own. they're gearing up for a trial now and as I understand it there was at least one interview or deposition or deposition.
00:53:08.540I'm not sure what I read the word deposition.
00:53:09.880I read the word deposition, which sounds like the word deposition, which sounds like the wrong word to me in a criminal case, but the he he gave some sort of testimony or she gave some sort of testimony and he was there for it.
00:53:22.900I believe so. I believe that is what happened and at the trial and we can go back what you probably want to do to our interview of President Reagan.
00:53:33.920But the U.S. Attorney's Office and the defense didn't push it.
00:56:08.580Well, what happened was, if I could tell you this, because I think it is one of the more fascinating stories, parts of this.
00:56:13.880That very evening, after the search of the room, I went back to the Washington field office.
00:56:20.140And by then, the the agent in charge, Ted Gardner, had returned from this off site with the director.
00:56:25.740And we picked a fellow, Frank Weicker, to be the case agent, which is a key role in the FBI, the way the FBI is organized.
00:56:33.440And then the following morning, we knew we'd have to interview the president because he's he's not only a potential witness, he's also the main victim.
00:56:44.260And as much as I would have liked to have interviewed Ronald Reagan, because I'm also an admirer of his, I didn't think it was proper.
00:56:53.420I thought we had to have two working level FBI agents do this.
00:56:58.360Fortunately, the agent in charge thought the same thing.
00:57:00.900We picked two fellows, Robin Montgomery and John Povlansky, who are two two of my agents on the criminal side of the house in Washington field.
00:57:10.300A unique thing about them is that both of them had suffered gunshot wounds themselves.
00:57:18.840Robin was a Marine and Povlansky had been in the army.
00:57:22.040They had both suffered gunshot wounds.
00:57:24.880We thought that was a good thing in this sense, that they would be able to empathize with the president and perhaps have a good dialogue with him.
01:00:13.400I heard a noise and we came out of the hotel and headed for the limousine.
01:00:17.920And I heard some noise and I thought it was firecrackers.
01:00:21.680And the next thing I knew, one of the Secret Service agents behind me just seized me here by the waist and plunged me headfirst into the limo.
01:00:30.280So I landed on the seat and the seat divider was down and then he dived in on top of me, which is part of their procedure, to make sure that I'm covered.
01:00:39.480Well, as it turned out later, the shot that got me caromed off the side of the limousine and hit me while I was diving into the car.
01:00:48.500And it hit me back here under the arm and then hit a rib.
01:00:52.300And that's what caused an extreme pain.
01:01:14.200I mean, it's always an interesting question, especially for Christians who are, you know, really taught that that's a critical piece of our faith.
01:01:24.200I didn't know for quite a while until they began to tell me about the young man that had done this and what his problem was that he was not exactly on a normal basis.
01:01:36.920And so then I added him to my prayers that did you for myself that, well, if I wanted healing for myself, maybe he should have some healing for himself.
01:02:07.440And along those lines, I think it's significant and it should should be mentioned that later on.
01:02:15.820President Reagan had more than one opportunity to meet with Pope John Paul II and with St.
01:02:23.180Mother Teresa, and she came to Washington to see him, too.
01:02:27.200And in their private discussions, he later said that they they they both both these saints told him that his life was bad for a higher purpose.
01:02:38.320And he said he he always had that in mind in the rest of his life, that there was a reason his life was bad.
01:02:43.600Well, that just gave me a chill when you think about the Cold War, the Brandenburg Gate, you know, I mean, good gracious, all the things that President Reagan accomplished after this.
01:02:54.220As you point out, he only been in office, I think, 67 days when this happened.
01:03:00.060So let's spend a minute on the trial and then we'll get to John Hinckley.
01:03:04.300John Hinckley pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
01:03:06.880And if you look at his background, just by, you know, just to give the audience some facts, he was the son of John Hinckley, Sr., who was chairman of the board of Vanderbilt Energy Corporation, a Denver based petroleum exploration company.
01:03:22.840He said to have had a normal childhood, grew up in an affluent suburb of Dallas, Texas.
01:03:27.780As he got older, he began to withdraw.
01:03:54.40075, six years before the shooting, went to Hollywood to pursue a career in music.
01:04:00.460So what happened between 75 and 81 to this guy who was trying to make it to Hollywood as a performer to this guy who was behind that rope line pulling the trigger four times?
01:04:11.040Well, we went back and looked at a lot of that.
01:04:13.760And he was just he's just spiraling downward, worse and worse.
01:04:18.960And his parents, you have to feel sorry for them.
01:04:21.660They were apparently very good, very responsible people.
01:04:24.720They did all they could trying to help him.
01:04:27.500He had a brother and a sister who both led very normal, successful lives.
01:04:33.400It's it's it's just one of those sad things you just never know.
01:04:38.840I mean, I will say a lot of a lot of times when there's a psychotic break, it happens right around this age, young 20s, young to mid 20s or late teens for young men in particular.
01:04:51.680So, I mean, I feel like today we'd be looking at this a little differently.
01:05:09.500I'm not a psychologist or anything like that, but just in my layman's opinion, just after the first 24 or 48 hours in my layman's way of speaking, I thought, well, this guy is crazy.
01:05:23.080I mean, but to be crazy for insanity plea is is it's a little bit more precise than that.
01:05:32.380The the U.S. attorney and his staff, I mean, Chuck Ruff and Edelman, they really believe they could get a conviction.
01:05:42.000And and so things went full bore ahead.
01:05:46.020As I say, we gathered up all the background we could on Hinckley.
01:05:49.680But there was outrage in the country when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
01:05:56.480And then, of course, as we all know, committed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
01:06:00.980That was one of the well, there were several.
01:06:04.340Major outcomes from this case beyond his guilt or innocence, and one of them was a reform of the insanity plea.
01:06:12.360This first was done and within a couple of years in the federal system, the federal insanity rules were changed so that the burden was on the the defense to show the insanity where as opposed to being on the government to show the person was not insane.
01:06:31.420And a whole bunch of states then in the following year or two changed their statewide insanity thing.
01:06:39.760So the the insanity defense was since then has been greatly limited.
01:06:45.240It's not as used as much as it had been.
01:06:47.920So that was one of the big changes that insanity defense.
01:06:51.520I can talk about some of the other major changes when you want to get to that.
01:06:55.500Yeah, well, so they said his lawyers argued that he was sick with narcissistic personality disorder, citing medical evidence that he had a pathological obsession with a 1976 film Taxi Driver, that both sides had dueling psychiatrists.
01:07:12.400And June 21, 1982, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity on all 13 counts.
01:07:19.140He had prepared a statement thinking that it would be a guilty verdict, saying, in part, my assassination attempt was an act of love.
01:07:28.320His mental diagnosis at the time was major depressive disorder and various forms of schizophrenia.
01:07:34.600Again, not uncommon to see a schizophrenic break start for the first time, the first one to come right around his age or slightly before.
01:07:44.460What were the other what were the other changes that came out of this trial?
01:07:48.220Well, one, that's not so well publicly known.
01:07:51.060The Secret Service changed a lot internally.
01:07:54.100The president's schedule is no longer published in advance.
01:08:00.180They now use metal detectors at all gatherings like this at places like the Washington Hilton.
01:08:06.220They have them there to be used all the time.
01:08:08.140But the other big, big change that affects American life to this day was the Brady handgun bill, named after the man who was injured, Brady.
01:08:25.000And they created the National Instant Background Check System, which is in use today.
01:08:31.600To this day is actually managed by the FBI, their sieges division in West Virginia, where you need this instant background check, supposed to be instant, done before you can purchase firearms.
01:08:44.940That was all a result of the part of the Brady handgun bill, which got its push from this assassination attempt.
01:08:53.420Didn't didn't Hinckley say something like they said, what would have stopped you?
01:08:56.880And he said, you know, if I had to wait, if I had to go through some sort of a waiting period, it fell out a bunch of paperwork on the guns.
01:09:09.260And so, I mean, now gun control and gun legislation is so controversial.
01:09:15.500But in this case, you've got a statement from the defendant saying if they'd made him go through a few more hoops, and this clearly is a crazy guy, he might not have done it.
01:09:24.680And even the gun enthusiasts don't want crazy guys like Hinckley to have such easy access to guns.
01:09:31.240This was a real problem that we had in our system.
01:09:35.620My team will tell me where the quote was.
01:09:40.740When Hinckley was asked by his father what would have stopped him, he said if he had to fill out forms, get a permit, or anything complicated.
01:09:48.060So, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy made a full recovery, returned to the service.
01:09:51.740D.C. policeman Thomas Delahanty recovered, but suffered from a critical injury that forced his retirement.
01:09:57.440And press secretary James Brady nearly died.
01:11:19.720I had to go there in connection with other cases, with other people, and it's, it's, it's a phenomenal place.
01:11:25.800But, uh, he was then for several years allowed to go stay for long periods of time with his mother, uh, who lived in a, uh, a home, had a house, uh, in Williamsburg, Virginia, overlooking one of the golf courses there in a gated community.
01:11:42.920And it was, uh, the Secret Service, of course, was always, uh, objecting and checking on it because they were always concerned.
01:11:50.340And it's ironic that his mother's home overlooked one of the, um, was like 50 feet or so up a little hill, overlooked one of the greens on the golf course.
01:12:02.300And at that golf course in Williamsburg over the years, uh, President Clinton had played there, President Obama.
01:12:08.920I mean, it's that kind of a place, and yet here's Hinkley staying in his mother's house, just overlooking that.
01:12:15.120So you can understand why the Secret Service was so concerned about that.
01:12:19.880Eventually, this past year, as you just mentioned, he's been completely free now.