Attempted Reagan Assassin John Hinckley Freed After 41 Years—But Debut Concert Canceled

Topline

John Hinckley Jr., who shot then President Ronald Reagan in a 1981 assassination attempt, was freed from court supervision Wednesday only to find out his long-planned debut concert set to take place next month in Brooklyn was cancelled out of safety concerns.

Key Facts

Market Hotel, a small but popular concert hall in Brooklyn, announced it was canceling Hinckley’s concert scheduled for July 8 in a lengthy Instagram post.

The venue explained though the 67-year-old Hinckley is a “sexagenarian with an acoustic guitar” who they believe poses no security threat, they decided to cancel the concert because of “worsening threats and hate” and sending the message that letting Hinckley perform sets the precedent that “someone who did something awful [can]

skip the line.”

Hinckley, who served 41 years under federal oversight, built a sizable presence on YouTube while still imprisoned, picking up more than 28,000 followers on his channel where he posts performances of original songs, including his first video posted in December 2020 that’s racked up nearly 300,000 views.

After spending more than three decades at the federally-run St. Elizabeth’s Hospital psychiatric institution, Hinckley had been living under strict court-supervised conditions since 2016.

Hinckley announced the Market Hotel gig in an April tweet, later writing the show had sold out and saying he planned to perform 17 original songs at the concert.

Key Background

Hinckley shot Reagan and three others—Press Secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy—on March 30, 1981, outside of a hotel in Washington, D.C. Reagan was shot in the left lung and spent 12 days in the hospital. Brady was partially paralyzed in the attack, and he died in 2014 from complications of the gunshot wound. Hinckley said his motivation for the assassination attempt was to impress actress Jodie Foster. Hinckley was found not guilty by a jury in 1982 on 13 charges related to the attack by reason of insanity, and was institutionalized at St. Elizabeth’s from 1983 to 2017. A federal judge greenlit Hinckley’s release last September, and Hinckley’s lawyer Barry Levine said at the time that Hinckley’s assasination attempt was the “product of mental illness” and his client’s mental illness had been in “complete remission” for over 30 years.

Crucial Quote

“If we were going to host an event for the principle, and potentially put others at risk for doing so, it shouldn’t be for some stunt booking – no offense to the artist,” Market Hotel wrote in the Instagram post.

Further Reading

John Hinckley—Attempted Assassin Of President Reagan—Wins Unconditional Release (Forbes)

Would-be Reagan assassin Hinckley fully released Wednesday, NYC show canceled (Dallas Morning News)