HW 54952 Clerks at the Sunset Palms Motel on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood said they were questioned by Federal agents yes- terday about whether Mr. Hinckley: might have stayed there. However, the clerks said that there was no evidence that he had. i ‘A Sort of Negative Attitude’ Only one of the people who live at How- ard's Weekly Apartments, near the inter- section of Sunset and Vine, had any memory of Mr. Hinckley. Carey Ehmthe, - who has lived at the apartments for 10 years, said he did not know Mr. Hinckley well but had seen him and recalled that he had “‘sort of a negative attitude.” “1 kept away from him,” Mr. Ehmthe said. ma — Thea ents are in an area that has a reputation for being popular with homo- sexuals and is considered by the police to bea high crime area. . ‘The police say the apartments have been a source of police problems, includ- ing drug sales, assaults, and homosexual hustling Earlier in the year in Lakewood, Colo., a city of 113,000 on the western edge of Denver, Mr. Hinckley bought a Charter Arms .38-caliber revolver from a shop called Kawasaki West, which sells motor- cycles and guns. According to clerks in —s “the store and Federal authorities, Mr. |: Hinckley purchased the on sale for $148.35 incash on Jan. 21. su On Oct. 13, 1980, Mr. Hinckley is said to have bought a pair of .22-caliber revolv- ers from Rocky’s Pawn shop in Dallas. That was four days after his three guns were confiscated in Nashville. With the purchase of the .38-caliber in Lakewood, Mr. Hinckley had duplicated the combination of weapons, two .22's and a .3, that were seized in Tennessee. he bought the .38-caliber, the au- = himself with a card issued by the Colo- rado Department of Motor Vehicles and Indicated that he lived at 31340 Brookline Road in the fashionable suburban com- munity of: Evergreen, 25 miles west of Denver. That is where his parents live, in a $250,000 home. They have refused to speak with reporters, but neighbors say that Mr. Hinckley only dropped by from time to time to visit. During most of the time from 1973 to 1980, Mr. Hinckley gave an address in the" West Texas panhandle town of Lubbock as his home. thorities say, Mr. Hinckley identified
./ O19 (Rev..8-20-79) te ome Hee ee _ Washington (News Bureau)—Here is a step-by-step account of the cross-country travels of John Warnock j- Hinckley Jr. in the final days before he allegedly ‘shot 1 President Reagan: Wednesday, March 25—Hinckley drives away from the * Denver motel, the Golden Hours, where he had been staying for two weeks, in his 1977 Plymouth Volare and leaves the car in Evergreen, Colo., near his parents” home. .He boards a Western Airlines flight to Salt Lake ' - City, changing to another Western flight to Los Angeles. s.. Thursday, March 26-—He. leaves Los Angeles shortly 340) fovt Ter “SAR ube HW 54952 DBocld:32989491 Page 56  Anassassin’ S route to destiny Exec AD Adm. __ Exec AD Inv. Exec AD LES ___ Asst. Dir.: Adm. Servs. Crim. Inv. Ident. Intell. Laboratory — Legal Coun. __ Plon. & Insp. —_ Rec. Mgnt. Tech. Servs. __ Training Public Affs. Off. _ Telephone Rm. Director's Sec’y _ ‘after noon on a Greyhound bus, changing buses in Cleveland and Pittsburgh before arriving in Washington at-noon Sunday, March 29. A few hours later he checks into the Park Central Hotel, two blocks from the White House. Monday, March 30 (the day of the shooting)—Hinckley has breakfast about 9 a.m. at a coffee shop on G Street around the corner from the hotel..He is back in his hotel -Toom at 1 p.m., about 90 minutes before the shooting at _ the, Washington Hilton Hotel on Connecticut Ave. a, The Washington Post Washington Star-News - Daily News (New York) The New York Times The Wall Street Journal The Atlanta Constitution The Los Angeles Times — Date GF-2-s8| “3 ; FBI/O08
“Hinckley PLrsued Actre& for Months, eee es <.. By Ron Shaffer and Neil Henry [ - S h Asst. Dit . Washington Post Staff Writer m. gervs. ____. ” John W. Hinckley Jr., President Reagan's lt er OWS Crim. Inv. —_ accused assailant, had an obsession with ac- HW 54952 tress Jodie Foster that went beyond infatua- tion to a long and ominous cross-country courtship, according to sources and the full text of a letter addressed to her. *+ “As you well know by now, I love you very much,” reads the letter, found in Hinckley’s hotel room and signed with his name: “The past seven months I have left you dozens of poems, letters and messages in the faint hope you would develop an interest in me.” : When that interest never developed, de- spite telephone calls and a stakeout of her _college dormitory, sources said, Hinckley set out to impress the 18-year-old actress with what the letter termed a “historical deed,” a ; deed that federal investigators have tentative- ly determined was the motive for Monday's shooting. “Jodie,” the letter reads, “I would abandon this idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the -est of my life with you, whether it be in total Obscurity or whatever.” - “T will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead With this attempt now is ‘because +I just cannot wait any longer:to impress you. “T've got to do something“ now to make. you understand in no uncertain terms that I am doing all of this for your sake” ~ “Jodie,” the letter-ends, “I’m askirig you to please look into your heart and at least give me the chance with this historical deed to gain your respect and love. I love you forever. John Hinckley.” . The letter, neatly written on lined paper, - was dated 12:45 p.m. Monday. Hinckley al- legedly shot Reagan and three others as the president left the Washington Hilton Hotel at ¢ about 2:25 p.m. “In a news conference yesterday on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn., where she is a freshman, Foster said that she had never “met, spoke to or in any way associated” with Hinckley, a 25-year-old drifter and son of a wealthy western oilman. ' She acknowledged that she had received: several pieces of unsolicited correspondence. signed, “John W. Hinckley or JWH” during the fall of last year. “J threw them al! away,” Foster said in a prepared statement. “This was not uncom- mon as I received a great deal of similar un- solicited correspondence. “At the beginning of March, I -received three or four notes similarly signed. On March 6, I gave them to my college dean who, gave them to campus police. These are now, in the custody of the FBI.” DocTda:32969491 Page 5? The letter found at the Park Cen- tral Hotel here suggested that its writ- er had earlier mentioned the attack on Reagan to Foster. But, the actress said yesterday, “In none of these let- _ ters or notes I received was any men- tion, reference or implication ever - made as to violent acts against any- one, nor was the president ever men- tioned.” - When the FBI contacted her Mon- day night to inform her of a possible connection between the notes and the assassination attempt, Foster said, she felt shocked. “I felt very bad, fright- -ened, distressed,” she said. “I acted very badly. Cried, I guess.” Asked by a reporter why she cried, she answered, “I don’t know.” Hinckley stayed at the Park Plaza Hotel in New Haven for three days last September, and March 1 and 2, -1981, _according to Wednesday edi- tions of the New Haven Register. Yesterday hotel officials there refused to confirm or deny the story, but a bartender at the Top’ of the Park restaurant recognized Hinckley from’ a photogrpah and said he had bartender, Hinckley spent close to three hours drinking beer there. He showed newspaper clippings of Foster to other patrons, the bartender said, and claimed he was her boyfriend. Hinckley is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing today in U.S. Dis- trict Court here on charges of at- tempted assassination of a president and assault on a federal employe — a Secret Service officer wounded in the attack. Other charges stemming from. the wounding of a D.C. police officer and the president’s press secretary, James S. Brady, are under considera- tion. . Hinckley is now being represented by lawyer Vincent J. Fuller: of the firm of Williams & Connolly, who asked U.S. Magistrate Arthur L. Bur- nett yesterday that the preliminary hearing be waived and that a routine psychiatric examination of Hinckley be canceled. Burnett denied both re- quests. . Yesterday, a forensic psychiatrist spent about three hours interviewing Hinckley at the U.S. Marines Corps base at Quantico, where Hinckley is being held without bond. ~ The two-page letter, addressed but not mailed to Foster, sketched a por- = trait of lonely, shy and desperate man tory almost pleading for the affections of Coun. & Insp. — “Although we talked on the phone @ iggy, _ the young starlet. couple of times, I never had the nerve servs. —_ to simply approach you and introduce g myself,” the letter reads. “Besides my ffs. Off. _ shyness, I honestly did not wish to . Rm, __ bother you with my constant pres- ence. ‘ “I know the many messages left at your door and in your mailbox were a nuisance, but I felt it was the most painless way for me to express my love for you.” . . A source familiar with the investi- gation said yesterday that the discrep- ancy between ‘the letter’s claim of telephone conversations with Foster ‘and the actress’ statement that she ‘had never spoken with Hinckley is understandable if the suspect made anonymous calls to Foster. Sources said that’ Hinckley had ap- parently followed Foster to New Haven early last fall, when she began her studies at Yale, and the letter suggested that its writer had staked out Foster when she became a college coed “T feel very good about the fact you at least know my name and how I feel about you. And by hanging around ~ your dormitory I've come to realize | that I’m the topic of more than a lit- i tle conversation, however full of ridi- | cule it may be. At least you know that Tll always love you.” The Washington Post _Al Washington Star-News Daily News (New York) The New York Times * The Wall Street Journal The Atlanta Constitution s Sec’y The Los Angeles Times —_______. uf
The letter indicates a recognition “that an attack on the president could be suicidal. “There-is a definite pdssi- bility that I will be killed in my at- tempt to get Reagan. It is for this very reason that I am writing you this letter now.” But, the writer concludes, “By sacri- ficing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change your mind about me. This. letter is being written an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel.” . The letter is signed, “I love you for- ever, John Hinckley.” The contents of the letter were pieced together through a series of in- terviews with sources familiar with it. The letter was the centerpiece of a whole catalogue of personal items that . the FBI removed from Hinckley’s room at the Park Central ‘Hotel, 18th and G streets NW, according to knowledgeable sources. Investigators also found in the room a receipt for purchase of a .38-caliber handgun [Reagan was shot with a .22], a newspaper clipping listing: the president’s schedule for the day of the shooting and another newspaper arti- cle that contained the lyrics of some John Lennon songs, the sources said. There were some reports that a picture of Lee Harvey -Oswald, the alleged assassin of President Kennedy HW 34952 Docld: 32999491 Page 56 . .. U @... found in the ‘room as well, but sources close to the investigation could not confirm this yesterday. The FBI's inventory of these-items, said to number more than a dozen pages, was returned with a search warrant, and hes been sealed by court i Law " enforcement officials spent. part of the day yesterday reviewing ‘videotapes of the shootings. The tapes “have been described as “extraordinary” by one law enforcement source. | “There are six sounds of shots on jthe tapes,” the source said, and some ‘film does show a person shooting. Thomas Baker, a ranking special agent at the Washington field office of the FBI, said that investigators have taken special precautions -because of past criticism of the probes of major assassinations and assassination at- _ tempts. an ; All of the items in Hinckley’s hotel Troom were photographed, Baker said, ‘and the entire room was dusted for fingerprints — even ‘though _finger- prints are not normally taken when a ‘guspect is already under arrest. ; Within hours of the assassination _attempt, Baker said, FBI agents vid- “eotaped a reenactment of the shooting ‘outside the hotel, with various agents ‘playing the part of the participants and wearing large signs on their chests - to indicate whom they were standing in for: - Baker said that FBI offices throughout the country are tracing Hinckley’s past activities. “We want to know where he has-been for the past year,” Baker said..“We don’t want to have anything like 1963 [after the as- sassination of President Kennedy in Dallas} where people are still asking about whether there were two gunmen and whether there was a second or third shot.” -. ae . The FBI-has also seized items as a result of a search conducted at the home of Hinckley’s parents outside Evergreen, Colo., a wealthy suburb of Denver. ‘ ‘ ; Law enforcement officials investi- gating the case firmly believe that “Hinckley acted alone Monday. “We've found no evidence whatsoever to indi- cate a conspiracy,” said Thomas P. DeCair, a spokesman for the, Justice Department. Investigators are still trying to de- termine the identity of a woman who telephoned the. hotel several times Monday and left messages for Hinck- key Mille he was out, sources said yes- ye Hinckley is the son of John W. Hinckley Sr., who is chairman of the board’ of Vanderbilt Energy Corp. a ben petroleum exploration company. Young Hinckley’s family lived in a’ fashionable Dallas euburb while he was growing up. ‘In recent years, however, Hinckley seemed to have become estranged from the family, traveling about the country without their knowledge, and living in cheap motel rooms near the family home. At one point, Hinckley joined a neo-Nazi organization, but was expelled because the group’s lead- ers considered him “extremist” and “too violent.” Hinckley’s mother, Joanne, told a reporter immediately after the shoot- ing that she was unaware that her son was in Washington, and broke down when informed he was charged with shooting the president. Later, the family disclosed that Hinckley had been under psychiatric care for five -months and taking Valium, a tran- quilizer. In Denver, Baton Rouge, La, and Los Angeles yesterday, federal agents pursued possible clues to Hinckley’s past in apartment houses and in offi- Within an hour of the Monday shooting, six Secret Service agents ap- peared at an apartment house in a rundown section of Hollywood. Doris Henson, resident manager of the building, told a reporter yesterday that Hinckley had lived there in a $100-a-month single unit sometime in 1976, and that agents had taken away all records pertaining to his stay there. Agents also Visited’ several other apartment buildings in Hollywood, and confiscated records. Foster’s most famous movie role was that of a runaway teeriage hooker in the 1975 film “Taxi Driver,” which - some investigators feel has a plot with . ‘a bizarre parallel to the Hinckley case. In that film, the driver, a mentally troubled Vietnam veteran, stalks a po- ‘litical candidate and prepares: to as- sassinate the politician before being scared off by a security agent. - Tt is not_known if Hinckley ever saw the movie. * Law énforcement sources said yes- terday that an anonymous ketter de- actibing a plot to kidnap Foster at Yale was sent to FBI headquarters here. - ‘ : Agents are now trying to determine, one source said, if the abduction plan could be connected to the Hinckley 880. ‘ The source said Foster was in- formed of the abduction plan, which apparently was never attempted: Washington Post staff writer Joe’ Pichirallo contributed to this story.