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Man Who Tried To Assassinate President Now Performs Love Songs On His Own Youtube Channel
John Hinckley Jr., who shot Ronald Reagan and three others to try to impress Jodie Foster, now sings love songs on YouTube.
The man who shot Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress actor Jodie Foster following the success of “Taxi Driver,” is now singing love songs on his own YouTube channel.
John Hinckley Jr., created his own YouTube channel about five months ago in which he uploads videos of him singing, playing guitar and performing some of his original music. As of Tuesday, he has over 4 thousand subscribers and has uploaded himself performing a cover of Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling in Love as well as original songs with titles like “Majesty of Love” and “Everything is Gonna’ Be Alright.”
The comments on Hinckley’s videos are mostly encouraging.
"Honestly an amazing song, would love if you got a spotify," one commenter wrote.
Another exclaimed, “Glad to see you're doing better John.”
Hinckley was 25 and suffering from acute psychosis when he shot and injured then-President Ronald Reagan and three others in 1981. Reagan's press secretary James Brady was paralyzed as a result. Hinckley had become obsessed with Foster after watching the 1976 film “Taxi Driver.” Foster co-stars in that film alongside Robert De Nero, who played Travis Bickle, a man who tries to assassinate a presidential candidate. Hinckley wrote Foster several letters before the shooting, the Hollywood Reporter noted in 2016.
Jurors found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982, and he was sent to a psychiatric facility.
Hinckley stated in a 1982 letter that hospitalization would not diminish his ''historical'' shooting, the New York Times reported at the time. He called his assassination attempt ''the greatest love offering in the history of the world.''
"Everybody but everybody knows about John and Jodie,'' he wrote in that letter, comparing him and Foster to Romeo and Juliet.
He spent decades living at a psychiatric hospital before moving in with his mom in Williamsburg, Virginia in 2016.
Hinckley considered himself an artist and musician even before the shooting. Following his release from the psychiatric hospital, he posted some of his art online, anonymously. He recently went to court to request permission to post his music online under his own name, the Associated Press reported.
“I’m a musician. Nobody knows that,” he said at the time. “They just see me as the guy who tried to kill Reagan.”
