LAW 54952 Docld: 32939491 ing a man who met Hinckley’s de- scription eating breakfast at a crowded section of counter space near the G Street window of his restaurant. Though Stein could not remember what the man ordered, he described him as “quiet, nondistinguishable.” A maid who regularly cleans third floor rooms at the hotel said she en- tered the room in which Hinckley was staying about 10 am. He was not in the room, she said. But a large, two-suiter suitcase was open, filled with clothes. On the night table next to the bed sat a small alarm clock. Nearby was a telephone book and a copy of TV Guide. In the bathroom, said the maid, who asked not to be identified, toiletries were spread qut on the counter. She came back to the room after her-lunch-break at. 1:15-p.m.-to-bring. additional towels and pillow slips, she said. This time, Hinckley was in and responded when she knocked. As she entered the room, she said, Hinckley took up a position by the bathroom door. “He just stood there... and watched me,” she said. He was impassive, expressionless, dressed in his light. jacket, a sport shirt and casual pants. The television set was not on. The maid said she didn’t see Hinckley leave. The desk clerk on Page 63. duty yesterday refused to talk to re- porters. But sometime during the next 75 minutes, Hinckley made his way to the Washington Hilton Hotel and. stepping from behind a planter as the president’s entourage came into view, emptied his six-shot revolver at close Tange, according to police. Shortly after the shooting, FBI agents rushed to the hotel and ques- tioned the maid. They sealed off the room and searched through what was there. Among the things they found. sources said, were an affectionate. two-page unmailed letter addressed to actress Jodie Foster, a receipt for the purchase of a .38-caliber handgun and a newspaper clipping listing President -Reagan’s.schedule for March_30. _ Also found, the sources said, was a copy of an article from the Dec. 10 edition of The Washington Post quot- ing verses from some of the favorite songs written by former Beatle John Lennon, who was gunned down by a mentally troubled one-time security guard Dec. 8 outside Lennon’s New York co-op apartment. Also contributing to this article were Washington Post staff writers dudith Valente and Thomas W Lippman.
‘ O-fO Re .. 825-79 . ry 54952 Docld:32989491 Page 84 —_ The Obsession of John Hinckley Jr. The Accused Assailant’s Infatuation With Jodie Foster By Christian Filliams Jodie Foster was 12 when she made “Taxi Driver.” She was nominated for an Academy Award in 1976 for her portrayal of a pre-teen-aged prostitute who excited the protective instincts of a psychotic Vietnam veteran. At the bloody conclusion, Robert De Niro, as Travis Bickle, rescues her from her lot’ by brutally assassinating three men. The film ends with Bickle hailed as an avenging hero. Tt was revealed yesterday that John Warnock Hinckley Jr. 25, accused of wounding President others in Monday’s attempted assassi- nation, had written Foster a two-page letter shortly before going to the Washington Hilton Hotel. In the letter Hinckley wrote that “I will prove my love for you through a historic act.” Several photographs of the actress, who is now 18, were found in Hinckley’s wallet. The two had never met, but it was reported that Hinckley believed that the presi- dent had somehow snubbed Foster in the past. Tt was not known yesterday wheth- er Hinckley had seen the film “Taxi Driver,” but it is Foster's best known role. She has since made 11 other films, among them “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” in which she played a loose-limbed juvenile delin- quent, “Foxes,” a story of sex and drugs in the suburbs, and “Cary,” an R-rated 1980 film which aired five times last month on Home Box Office: television. Foster has shelved her movie career for the moment to attend Yale Uni- versity, a choice that put her on the cover of People magazine. At Yale, she made her stage debut last week in a college drama production - titled “Getting Out.” Her role is that of a teen-aged prostitute who has mur- dered a taxi driver. John Hinckley is reported to -have been obsessed with Jodie Foster, the movie star — so much so that he may have dedicated an assassination at- tempt to her. While most other children were in grammar school, Foster found herself an and three’ repeatedly cast as a discomfitingly young-old subject, hard and vulnera- ble simultaneously. She was part of a growing list of alienated characters that reached younger and younger, so that movie screens presented a steady stream of lost children — whether Foster in “Taxi Driver” or Tatum O'Neal as the beer-drinking pitcher in “The Bad News Bears,” or youthful but incorrigible actresses such as Son- dra Locke in “The Gauntlet.” Submarine crews in World War I had Betty Grable to pat on the fanny and troops in Korea named a twin- peaked hill after Jane Russell, but to- day's audiences have much less well- defined images to turn to in times of stress. It is unlikely that a movie star See FOSTER, B3, Col. 1 oak: Fesens Re Re Yh segeostie Ama: ‘ aa ee . e £9 PR ee eee se ce eee % pipes re Mea Te 38, pane v ve %, Se MS he oad oabaned rane IRS Bo Soir cans iten, < i el GOA Nand Laeg Sa 7 ae! Lax. Be Soran ye es os St vay. or we ARPS ‘ Se Sith SAS oe. The Washington Post Fs Washington Star-News — Daily News (New York) ——_~ - The New York Tina-s The Wall Strect Jeountne | —eeerens The Atlanta Consiiut wy 2a. The Las Angeles Tines —— + - Exec AD Adm. « Exec AD Inv. _ Exec AD LES Asst. Dit.: Adm. Servs. . 4. Crim. Inv. —_. Ident. Intell. _ Laborstory Legal Coun. — Plan. & Insp. —_. Rec. Mgnt. —-_ Tech. Servs. Troining —— Public Affs. Off. : Telephone Ra _ Director's Sec y Date —— u-f. i
34952 Docld: 32989491 Page 6&5 John Hinckley's Obsession FOSTER, From B1 of the 1940s would elicit sympathetic brutality. But in many contemporary scripts there seems to be no other way to get the subject’s attention. Today, a psychotic personality may see himself as stepping onto a set ready made for his performance. The character who rescues Jodie Foster in “Taxi Driver” is a gun nut, an aveng- er, a lonely figure who longs for a “clean rain” to sweep the skies of his city and wash away the filth. Psychological profiles of assassins drawn by law enforcement agencies show common characteristics. They are most often single males, intelligent but -afflicted--with- delusions—-of gran-. deur and classic symptoms of para- noia, and obsessed with a cause. They also do not generally plan an escape route. If assassins seek a form of immor- tality, we are now a society better equipped for immortalizing than ever before. The number of cameras in use by television organizations, for exam- ple, has increased greatly in recent years, as has the use of videotape. The result was apparent on Mon- day, when the shootings outside the Washington Hilton were recorded by @ networks wi e clarity and ef- fect of a movie. A skillful assassin, -by placing himself in a situation well- covered by cameramen, can insure that his act will be viewed and viewed again by an enormous audience. But the reality — the videotape of a wounded president thrust into a E limousine and the pathetic, enraged commands of his protectors and the lingering views of three men bleeding on a sidewalk — is utterly uncine- matic, finally. It is devoid of catharsis, and inspires only nausea. This we know after the fact, but not after the movie. “Taxi Driver” was an exceedingly powerful and disturb- ing film, and it-won first prize at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Whatever the link between John % - Hinckley and Jodie Foster, it cannot be explained away with an attack on a single movie or on any offending art form. The Manson Clan was said to be inspired by the song “Helter Skel- ter.” Books have often been accused of inspiring persons — and nations — ta evil deeds, and there were riots when the ballet “The Rite of Spring” made its debut many years ago in Paris. We all have a tenuous relation with our stars. Teen-agers choose manners of dress and behavior according to their idols. The rest. of us buy tickets and watch television and marvel, two, at the Redfords and Fondas and Tay- lors and Astaires. Usually, it is benign and harmless and it makes life a little less serious, this belief that there are stars that we love. But occasionally, the equation goes bad.Jodie Foster, by all accounts, is a well-adjusted woman in her first year at college. Before she was permitted to portray the craven child in “Taxi Driver,” she underwent psychological testing to make sure she was up te it. In a flippant off-to-college piece for _Esquire magazine, she wrete: - “Well, you may not be able id rrreally rrrelate to this, pal, but I’m trading in my life-guard shades for a taste of that good ol’ New Haven grime. See, here’s the scoop: college depression is in the cards for me! Yale actually invited me — little smog rid- den me— to sink my blond teeth into its dusty brick and ivy. Just coat me with some eastern tsuris, grease .up my hair for luck, and watch me dive into the depths of academia.” In the gulf between life and art lies madness; when it rears up, both are endangered. .
0-19(Rev. 8-20-79) @ 6 Exec AD Adm. ' ‘ , Exec AD Inv. Exec AD LES _ Asst. Dir.: Adm. Servs... Crim. Inv. — Ident. Intell. — "Laboratory To Eyewitness, Legel Coun, — Plon. & Insp. Hinckley Stuck Ree, Mant. —- Tech. Servs. __ ' Troining — Out in Crowd Public Affs. Off. By Joan Lowy Telephone Rm. —. Weshington Star Staff Writer Director's Secy . John M Dodson saw it comi Dodson said Hinckley was pushed While the people inthe crowd had toWard the VIP exit and “up against their eyes on President Reagan, Dod- the wali. . sor. was watching John W. Hinckley At that moment, about 12 Secret Jr., the man now charged with the Service agents came through the shooting Monday of the president. Xt and Dodson said he lost track “He stood out like a sore thumb,” Of Hinckley. The agents were fol- Dodson. 30, said yesterday as he sat lowed by Reagan, press secretary in his office across the street from James S. Brady, D.C. police officer the Washington Hilton Hotel. Thomas Delahanty and two other Se- Dodson, a computer programmer cret Service agents. who had a clear view of the scene Reagan walked toward the crowd, from his window, said he first no. Waving. When the president was ticed Hinckley about five minutes about six feet from the car door, Dod- before Reagan left the hotel. son said, “I looked down there and “He was very fidgety,” Dodson saw a hand with a gun. Bang, bang. said. “Maybe it was just me, but I bang. People began dropping like thought he didn’t look right.” flies. 1 could see the muzzle flashes. Hinckley, wearing a tan jacket Before half of the six shots were with his hands in the pockets, was fired. the crowd had begun to move “pacing back and forth . . . looking wildly, jostling the suspect and caus- around3 like he was real nervous,” ingthe bullets to spray, Dodson said. Dodson said. “It was like slow motion, some- “Tourists can get excited because thing in the movies,” Dodson added. they're going to see the president, “Not like anything I've ever exper- but they don't look nervous, and the enced before. I can hear it and see press just acts casual because it’s just it Very poignantly right now.” another job to them,” Dodson said. _ LOoking out the same window yes. “But he (Hinckley) wasn’t either terday, Dodson said he felt guilt and way. He didn't look like he belonged SOrrow over the incident. in thatcrowd, that’sall there istoit.” _ “! ve been going over and over it Dodson said that because Hinc- 12 my mind,” Dodson said. “Maybe | Le kley looked “strange,” he began Should have made a phone call, but The Washingtor, Post ——_____—— watching him. Isa all the ae a there and fig: ; Washington Star-News A100. When he first saw him. Hinckley Ure¢ they haa i uncer control. ily News (Now York was standing more than 20 feet from “I sit here and think I could have Pails Xews (Xex York — the VIP exit, Dodson said. But afew Prevented it if] had thought and act- The New Vork Ties =——ae— = minutes later “the presscame crush- €4 fast enough,” Dodson said. “He The Wall Street Journal —___.. ing out" the main entrance, pushing !00ked like a kook but then | The Aulanta Consthunoen —___- Hinckley forward. thought, ‘hey, there’s enough cops . “He (Hinckley) was about one down there to take care of him. ” The Los Angeles Fics 2 - deep into the crowd of press and ev- —— $$ erybody was pushing forward,” Dod- : — son said. Date —___ ~ ee FBI DOL