An Infamous Former Red Raider Is Out and Going on Tour
Sixty-seven-year-old John Hinckley Jr. is now a free man.
Hinckley was originally incarcerated after he shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but was freed from court oversight Wednesday, June 15th, the decision "officially concluding decades of supervision by legal and mental health professionals," according to ABC News.
Hinckley attended Texas Tech for nearly the entire decade of the 1970s but never graduated. He attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, but was found not guilty in 1982 by reason of insanity.
In the trial, according to History, Hinckley’s defense attorneys argued he was obsessed with the Robert DeNiro movie Taxi Driver. In the movie, the main character Travis Bickle, played by DeNiro, attempts to assassinate a senator. According to the same article, "his lawyers claimed that Hinckley had watched the movie more than a dozen times, was obsessed with the lead actress, Jodie Foster, and had attempted to reenact the events of the film in his own life."
In 2016, Hinckley was released from a Washington mental hospital and put under supervised release. Now, 41 years after shooting Ronald Reagan and his press secretary, Hinckley received an unconditional release. He announced the news on Twitter:
He then thanked everyone who helped and claimed it was "time to rock and roll."
And by golly, he ain't kidding.
Hinckley has a catalog of original songs ready to go on tour now that he's released starting in Brooklyn, New York on July 9th. The tour is called The John Hinckley Redemption Tour. Hinckley also announced he'll have a bass player and drummer with him. The setlist will include 17 songs.
No word on if the show will include "You and I Are Free," and also no word on if this song is about Jodie Foster.