Release of Ronald Reagan’s Shooter Is ‘Outrageous, Disgraceful and a Travesty of Justice’

Reagan biographer Craig Shirley issued a statement Wednesday morning on the release of John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

“The decision to release John Hinckley, Jr. from St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital after his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan is outrageous, disgraceful and a travesty of justice,” Shirley said.

“No matter how much supervision he has, John Hinckley cannot be trusted to move and function in society. Even though his victims, President Ronald Reagan and White House Press Secretary James Brady have passed on, Mr. Hinckley remains a threat,” the respected Reagan biographer continued.

“According to the Secret Service, he is still obsessed with Jodie Foster. Hinckley’s actions remain a terrible stain on American history and a reminder of the lifetime of damage that can be caused by one man in a matter of seconds,” Shirley added.

The Washington Post reported that Hinckley “will be released from a government psychiatric hospital more than 35 years after he attempted to assassinate president Ronald Reagan and shot three others outside the Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.”

“Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a danger to himself or others and will be freed to live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., effective as soon as Aug. 5 subject to dozens of temporary treatment and monitoring conditions, U.S. District Judge Paul L Friedman of Washington wrote,” the Post added.

Shirley described the release as political.

“This is a purely political decision by Judge Paul L. Friedman who clearly wishes to corrupt Reagan’s legacy. Judge Friedman was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in March of 1994. Just as a jury of liberal Washingtonians came to the liberally biased verdict that John Hinckley was innocent by reason of insanity, so too is this decision,” he said.

“Hinckley is the murderer of Jim Brady and attempted murderer of Reagan, Police officer Thomas Delahunty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy,” the author added.

“Once again, corrupt liberal justice was served, but justice was not served for the four victims of Hinckley’s sick actions,” Shirley concluded.

Shirley has written several critically acclaimed and best-selling books about Reagan, including Rendezvous With Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America, Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All, and Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan.

Shirley tells Breitbart News that he revealed for the first time in Last Act that Reagan sought a meeting with Hinckley to tell him he forgave him, but that “Hinckley’s doctors advised against it. Hinckley would take the wrong conclusions from such a meeting.”

It would empower Hinckley, rather than make him regret his actions, the doctors told Reagan.

“I interviewed one of Hinckley’s psychiatrists who said this is one of the most self-absorbed, arrogant sociopathic patients he ever had,” Shirley tells Breitbart News.

When Hinckley’s request for release was up before a judge last year, Shirley wrote at Breitbart:

John Hinckley Jr. tried to murder the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. He succeeded in severely wounding Reagan, but failed in his ultimate goal. In the process he wounded DC Police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service Agent Timothy McCarthy, and Press Secretary James Brady who was so severely wounded that he spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He died unpeacefully August 4th, last year—in severe and unimaginable pain for over 30 years— and his death has been ruled a homicide by police, the murderer: John Hinckley Jr. Yet Hinckley will not face hard labor, nor life in prison, or even prison. In 1982 he was found not guilty by reasons of insanity. Half the year he spends in an institute, the other half “he spends in a house overlooking the 13th hole of a golf course in a gated community.”

Hinckley, even years later remains a “narcissistic” individual with no evidence of remorse.

Hinckley goes for long walks. How nice. Were it that Jim Brady could go for a long walk, just once in 30 years. Alas, he is prematurely dead, murdered at the hand of John Hinckley.

Wednesday, a court will decide if he gets to spend the rest of his life in his comfortable upscale family home or return to a comfortable institution. Almost every restriction that has placed on him he has broken. He was told not to enter bookstores or go to the movies (these seemingly innocuous activities triggered his violent spree in the first place), yet he has been caught doing both. Reportedly, he is still obsessed with Jody Foster and still fixated with the movie, “Taxi Driver.”

Moreover, he’s demonstrated deceptive behavior and dangerous relationships with women. All the while he has maintained innocence and lied about everything. When he was found not guilty 83% of the country felt justice was not served. Should this diagnosed sociopath be granted such a deep well of empathy (from the courts and his lawyers) and second chances while Fate Vincent Winslow toils in chains for the rest of his life?

Could it be that the liberal justice system has revealed its true hand? All these loopholes and “special deals,” they seem to work great for men like OJ Simpson, John Hinckley, and Ethan Couch, but Fate Winslow will get the short end of the stick. Is this another case of “all are equal but some are more equal” or is this something even darker?

Assassins have been found insane before, but this this the first time that one could actually be released from the comfy institute. An entitled Vanderbilt graduate from an elite family is going to get out of the most minimal of prisons.

Shirley is currently working on a fourth book, Reagan Rising, which follows Reagan from the end of the 1976 campaign to the start of the 1980 primaries.