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Collection: Fuller, Craig: Files Folder Title: Assassination Attempt on Pres. 03/31/1981 [2 of 2] Box: OA 8978

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t Nation Business as Usual-Almost A powerful troika takes charge, while Haig overdoes it-once more The first reactions European allies. Altogether, the week's better at the higher levels in such mo­ were shock, horror, official activity appeared to justify the ments. Heightened tension acts as a mag­ sickness at the thought phrase that Reagan's aides were using nifier; every word, and sentence, becomes that the nation had to while the President was still in the recov- an act of international significance and go through it all once ery room: "Business as usual." is rocketed around the globe where it is ex­ more. Then almost instantly came anxiety Well, almost. The day-to-day opera­ amined and weighed." -not' only for the wounded President but tions of the Government will continue Even long-run policy formulation will f', for the country itself. As citizens all over about the way they would if the Presi­ not suffer badly during the next month the U.S. and indeed around the world dent were in the White House-as in fact or so while Reagan is convalescing. Rea­ waited for the medical bulletins, questions he might be this week, if his recovery pro­ son: the Administration decided from the formed: Did, and would, the U.S. still have ceeds on course. start to make the economic program of a functioning Government? Could deci­ TIME Contributing Editor Hugh Si­ spending and tax cuts its top priority, and sions still be made, necessary actions be dey, who has been reporting on Wash­ that program is well advanced. Says one taken, while a President in office little ington for 24 years, notes that calm pre­ White House aide: "There are peaks and more than two months, barely enough vailed during Dwight Eisenhower's valleys in decision making. If this had time to get his hands on the levers of pow­ several hospitalizations, Richard Nixon's happened on Feb. 10, we would have been er, recovered from the attempt on his life? phlebitis, and even in the far graver cri­ in a totally different situation. Now, for Fortunately, the answer came before sis of the Kennedy assassination. Says the time being, the economic decisions are the worries had time to blossom. It was a Sidey: "We have sometimes overplayed already made." resounding yes. the difficulty of running the Government. In the worst hours of uncertainty and National trauma we have had. But the till, no nation as heavily dependent confusion, while Ronald Reagan was un­ postal clerk still comes to work, the sol­ on presidential lc;adership as the U.S. conscious in surgery, the nuclear button diers still drill. If anything, they are a lit­ S can shrug off the Wounding of its was right where it should be, in the hands tle more diligent in their duties, realizing Chief Executive as if nothing had hap­ of Vice President George Bush. On his that the country needs a special effort. pened. Already last week, some decisions flight back from Texas to Washington, Men and women also tend to cooperate were slipping: the Administration put off Bush was accompanied by a mil­ announcement of a package of mea­ itary aide carrying the Vice Pres­ sures designed to help the U.S. auto ident's version of the "football"-an industry meet foreign competition. unremarkable black leather case Though aides publicly asserted that containing top-secret signal codes Reagan would confer late this and military target information. ' month with Mexican President Jose Reagan, once he shook off the ef­ Lopez Portillo as scheduled, they fects of anesthesia, ,resumed some 1 conceded in private that the session of his duties. The fri.orning after the might be called off. shooting, wlfh a tube still in his nose Meanwhile, there are sure to be and a needle dripping intravenous shifts in the balance of forces with­ solution into his arm, the President in the -Administration, some with signed a bill canceling an increase. , lasting consequences. Even in an in dairy price supports that other­ Administration officially dedicated wise would have gone into effect the to Cabinet Government, the White next day. The only sign of stress: House staff had been increasing its I his signature was a trifle shakier influence before the shots rang out. ir than usual. The so-called troika at the top con­ With Reagan's approval, Bush sists of Presidential Counsellor presided over two Cabinet meet­ Edwin Meese, Chief of Staff James ings, carefully taking his accus­ Baker\ and Deputy Chief Michael tomed seat and leaving the Pres­ Deaver, Reagan's closest personal ident's chair empty to symbolize the aide. Within half an hour of the temporary nature of his enhanced shooting, the troika set up a kind authority. The Vice President also of command post at the hospital, conferred with Netherlands Pre­ and once the President was recu­ mier Andreas van Agt and Polish o.;c._ .. perating funneled briefing papers to Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Jagiel­ him (greatly condensed to avoid ski, who had come to Washington taxing his strength). to see Reagan. For at least the rest of The Senate passed, 88 to 10, a Reagan's hospitalization and the budget resolution cutting spending early period of his convalescence, for fiscal 1982 by $36.9 billion: that the troika's power will be greater was roughly $2.8 billion more than . . t,~ than ever. They will decide who Reagan had requested. At week's l - ~- sees the President, which decisions end Secretary of State Alexander I ,. _'\ · --·~ are referred to him and which are Haig took off, on schedule. for a trip _ ., · . .· postponed or settled at lower lev­ to the Middle East, and Secretary of : _ · --- - - els. They will also be the primary Defense Caspar Weinberger left for Bush at White House reception for Netherlands Premier communicators of Reagan's words defense consultations with Western In a moment ofshock, he carried the 'football. ·· and wishes to the rest of the

22 TIME, APRIL 13, 1981 Government and the outside world. was continuing to operate. Said one White be hampered in making an aggressive The three, who breakfast together at· House staffer: "Al Haig is too strong a case against those cuts that they contend 7:30 each morning, have worked out a player to let go." Reagan himself sum­ hurt the poor. Says one liberal: "You could smooth division of duties and interests moned Haig to his hospital bed and gave never get anyone to go after him person­ that should enable them to maintain their the Secretary letters' to hand carry to the ally, because he's a nice guy. But now it influence when matters settle down. leaders of Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and will be difficult even to voice anything Meese, who likes to lug home a bulging Jordan. Nonetheless, Haig left on his against the program. That would be vis­ briefcase, concentrates on developing pol­ Middle East trip an uncertam figure, wor­ cerally resented by a lot of people." icy positions; Baker, who scorns paper­ ried about having unnamed enemies in Nonetheless, the Democrats will try. work, keeps a sharp eye on political af­ the White House who were out to get him. House Budget Committee Chairman fairs; Deaver is the devoted guardian and Whether he can recover authority over James Jones will unveil this week a bud­ shaper of Reagan's . schedule. Says one foreign policy is yet to be seen. get proposal that would slash spending aide who has watched them closely: "No On the domestic front, the most ob­ $4 billion more than the Administration's • one can put himself in the President's vious immediate effect of the assassina­ plan, but with a very different set of pri­ shoes, when it comes to personal and tion attempt, and the courage with which orities. Jones and the Democratic lead­ many political considerations, the way the President withstood it, was a power­ ership would cut $4 billion out of planned Deaver can. No one can put himself in ful surge in Reagan's popularity. A quick defense spending and $1.5 billion out of the President's mind, when it comes to dif­ Washington Post/ ABC News poll the day energy outlays, for example, while restor­ ficult policy questions, the way Meese can. after the shooting found 73% approving ing $7 billion of cuts that Reagan wants And no one can understand the intersec­ the way the President is handling his job, in such programs as Medicaid, food tion of the White House and the bureau­ up eleven percentage points from just the stamps and child nutrition. On the tax cracy, the bridge between intention and week before. side, the Democrats reject Reagan's three­ action, better than Baker." year, across-the-board slash in income tax Vice President Bush, too, seems sure hether that tide of public sym­ ·rates in favor of a much narrower one­ to gain in clout because of the calm man­ pathy and admiration will win ad­ year reduction. The Administration's ner in which he filled in for the President W ditional votes for Reagan's spend­ ability to counter this effort may be ham­ at Cabinet meetings and ceremonial func­ ing and tax cuts, especially in the pered by the enforced scrapping of Rea­ tions. His demeanor, neither pushy nor re­ Democratic-controlled House where the gan's personal selling campaign for his tiring, impressed even some Reaganites real battle will be fought, is in some dis­ program. The President had been sched­ who had considered him a mushy mod­ pute. Most of Reagan's senior advisers uled to speak almost weekly to state leg­ erate. Said one: "He has been impressive. agree with Office of Management and islatures to plug his economic package. He has a good sensitivity to the situation." Budget Director David Stockman, who · "Nobody can sell the program like he In contrast, Secretary of State Haig says, "I don't think it will have any sig­ can," says one senior adviser. Another is damaged his already shaky standing in nificant effect on the Hill." On the other concerned that "with Reagan in bed, we the Government. The echoes of his los­ hand, some Democrats are afraid they will will lose a crucial month." White House ing effort two weeks ago to aides, however, are exploring have himself rather than Bush other methods of using the named as foreign policy crisis President's persuasive talents. manager had not died down ' They say he will resume his when he took the podium in highly effective personal lob­ the White House press room bying on congressional leaders to proclaim, in a shaky voice, once he leaves the hospital, "I am in controLhere." Said though he will receive them in one Stare· Department official the White House residence who is friendly with Haig: "I quarters rather than the Oval thought it was Seven Days in Office. They talk of putting May. Al didn't do it right, and him on-television for a speech it's going to hurt him." At in which his natural mastery of week's end a new controversy the medium might be en­ threatened to erupt when it hanced by the emotional im­ was learned that Haig, without pact of a recuperating Presi­ properly consulting other Cab­ dent once again addressing the inet members, had given the citizenry. French tacit approval . to sell Meanwhile, the Govern­ 600,000 tons of wheat to the So­ ment is carrying on sufficiently viets. The White House at­ well that by week's end tempted to play down the in­ some Reagan aides were voic­ cident in the hope that it would ing an ironic worry: perhaps blow over, but talk continued they have convinced the public to float around Washington too thoroughly that everything that Haig might resign, and is business as usual. Says one: that the White House was al­ "We spent two months trying ready looking for a successor. to erase an impression that the Those rumors were vehe­ 1 U.S. had elected Ed Meese mently denied by the White President, instead of Ronald House staff. Late in the week Reagan. Now we are almost it made a concerted attempt to going back to the point of say­ salvage Haig's credibility so ing that this Administration that he could deal effective­ does not need him." Compared ly with foreign governments. with the potential dangers of a White House aides insisted leaderl(!S\ Government, how­ that Haig had only meant, ever, that is a minor worry quite properly, to reassure the indeed. -ByGeorgeJ. Church. world-and warn the Soviets The President and Nancy strolling through hospital corridor Friday Roported by laurfHICe I. Barren -that the U.S. Government The signature, shakier than usual, was the only sign ofstress. and Neil MacNeil/Washington

TIME. APRIL 13, 1981 23 T Brad)' lying serlou5!y wounded on pavement outside the hotel Six Shots at a Nation's Heart Again, a momen_t ofmadn~ss threatens a President and tarnishes the U.S. The final Sunday Of miniature western saddles given to them $42 a night, moderate by Washington stan­ March began with a by their California friend Walter Annen­ dards. Hinckley sat/or hours in Room 312. slight haze and soft berg. They carried a doi.en of the min­ He made two local telephone calls, using ·· ·breei.es; unseasonable iatures to the Oval Office and arranged the hotel's direct-dial system. . temperatures in the them for display on a table at the left of The sky turned a lead gray on Mon­ niid-70s welcomed the blossoming dog­ the President's desk. Then they dined to­ day, Ronald Reagan's 70th day in office. woods. The day was so balmy that Ron­ gether in their residence. It had been a A monotonous drizzle formed puddles on ald and Nancy Reagan, after attending comfortable day. the city's streets. But the weather was still services at St. John's Church, took a short Hinckley checked into the Park Cen­ warm and the rain did not dampen Rea­ noontime stroll back to the White House, tral Hotel on 18th Street. It is just two gan's spirits. At an early morning break­ passing the pink magnolias in Lafayette blocks west of the White House and di­ fast with 140 sub-Cabinet-level officials Park. rectly across the street from Secret Service of his Administration in the East Room, Shortly after 12 :15 p.m., a pudgy young headquarters. It often houses visiting Se­ Reagan gave a pep talk. He quoted Thom­ man with unkempt blond hair stepped off cret Service agents. The cheapest room is as Paine, declaring, "We have it in our a Greyhound bus after a three-day ride power to begin the world over again." from Los Angeles. He leaned against a pole Then followed short meetings with his se­ in Washington s seedy terminal, then sat nior staff in the Oval Office and a na­ restlessly in a blue plastic seat. He seemed tional security briefing. All were in the in no hurry to go anywhere. normal workday pattern. · Enjoying a rare day without guests or Hinckley got up early. He stopptd in meetings, the Reagans lunched together the Lunchbox Ca"yout Shop, just a few in the White House. They stayed indoors, doors from his hotel, for coffee at 7:30 a.m. catching up on some unstrenuous house­ An hour later, he ordered breakfast in hold chores. One of them was to hang pic­ Kay's Sandwich Shoppe, adja-cent to the tures in the President's study in the fam- hotel. He sat alone at the counter. · ily quarters. · The visitor to Washington was John 'Reagan greeted two dozen Hispanic W. Hinckley Jr., 25, of Evergreen, Colo. leaders in the Cabinet Room and He was in a surly mood. He snapped at a conferred with them in private af­ waitress who served him a cheeseburger in ter photographers were allowed to take a the terminal restaurant. He ate alone at few pictures. Aides Lyn Nofziger and the rear of the room, then walked back Elizabeth Dole sat in on the meeting. into the station's lobby, stalking about im­ One topic of the discussion: Reagan's patientlyfor an hour. He seemed to be wait­ efforts to place Hispanics in Government ing for someone. positions. The Reagans admired a collection of Lyn Nofziger briefing reporters at hospital Hinckley was out ofhis room at JO a.m. 24 TIME, APRIL 13, 1981 . 1 . when a maid checked it. A two-suiter suit­ Unrue was driving, and Jerry Parr, chief half-hour walk. lf he went by cab or bus, case filled with clothes was spread open. A of the presidential protection detail, sat he was unnoticed. · copy o/TV Guide was near the bed. Also in in the right front seat. Following them in The President received a standing the room was a newspaper clipping about the motorcade was Presidential Press Sec- ovation as he entered the Hilton's Inter­ the President's schedule, which disclosed retary Jim Brady. Half an hour earlier,· national Ballroom to address 3,500 union that Reagan would leave the White House his deputy, Larry Speakes, had asked, representatives. It was the largest audi­ at 1:45 p.m. to address a session of the "You going with the President to the ho- ence he had faced in person since his In­ AFL-CIO's building and construction trades tel?" Brady's casual reply: "Yeah, I think auguration. As he made his pitch for the department at the Washington Hilton. ·· I will." With other agents following in the union members to support his economic The President had lunch at the White "battlewagon" protective car, the caravan program, Reagan's delivery was unchar­ House in the f;uni!y. quarters. He ate an moved swiftly through the rain-slick acteristically flat. He drew only tepid ap­ avocado-and .. ehfoken salad, sliced red streets to the hotel. Everything was going plause, even meeting silence at a few beets and an apple tart. Then he worked smoothly; the trip seemed quite routine. punch lines. Only one sentence in the 18- on his Hilton speech and stretched out Rechecking rooms at I :15 p.m. to re- minute speech would later be remem­ for a brief rest. p/ace some used towels, the maid found bered. Noted the President: "Violent When he returned to the hotel about Hinckley in the room, wearing a light- crime has surged 10%, making neighbor­ noon, Hinckley asked the desk clerk wheth­ co/ored jacket, sport shirt and casual pants. hood streets unsafe and families fearful er he had received any telephone calls. He stood by the bathroom door and in their homes." There were no telephone messages in his watched without expression as she hung the Outside the Hilton, on an adjacent key box. Then at 12:45 p.m. he sat in his towels. Shortly afterward he left for the Hi/- sidewalk, Hinckley was pacing nervously. room and began to write a five-paragraph ton. It was almost a mile away, less than a John M. Dodson, a Pinkerton's detective letter on lined note paper. It started: .. ~~..,v ••n agency computer specialist, was "Dear Jodie, There is a definite pos- . watching the Hilton's lower-level VIP sibility that I will be killed in my at- ' entrance from the seventh floor of a tempt to get Reagan." It ended: "This nearby office building. Dodson noticed letter is being written an hour before the young man wearing a tan rain­ I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Jodie, I'm coat. "He looked fidgety, agitated, a asking you to please look into your little strange," Dodson recalled later. heart and at least give me the chance 1 A group of TV and still photog­ with this historical deed to gain your raphers also awaited Reagan's exit respect and love. I love you forever." in what they call "the bodywatch" It was signed: "John Hinckley." -the need to record any presidential Hinckley sealed the letter to Actress calamity, or what Reagan has termed Jodie Foster, 18, a freshman at Yale "the awful-awful." Other reporters University whom he had never met, but .were there, some with microphones did not mail it. and tape recorders, to ask the Pres­ The President climbed into his ident for his reaction to the latest armor-plated black · Lincoln limou­ showdown between the government sine at 1:45 p.m. for the seven-min- , and Lech Walesa's independent la­ ute drive to the Hilton. With him was . bor movement in Poland. As always, Michael Deaver, his closest personal curious onlookers pressed in for a aide, Labor Secretary Ray Donovan glimpse of the President. They in­ and two Secret Service agents: Drew Hinckley, flanked by officers, after arraignment cluded some union members who had

TIME, APRIL 13, 1981 25 Nation

At a shout from the press, The shooting starts. Six shots are fired in two seconds. One hits a window Deaver moves to the left, giv­ across the street, and one the window of Reagan's limousine. Other bullets ing Brady room to talk to AP Re· hit Brady, Delahanty and McCarthy. Another bullet hits the rear panel of the lim­ porter Michael Putzel, who wants ousine, ricochets through the gap between the open door and the body of the car, to ask a question. and hits Reagan as he is bending over and being pushed into the car by Parr.

either arrived late for the lunch or left it rue was in the driver's seat; the engine transmission hump early to get a closer view of Reagan. There was running. Reagan raised his right hand ahead of.the rear seat, were women with Kodaks, children, and high, waving to people standing across the Parr on top of the President. "Take ofi1" even a mllyor, Charles Wright of Dav­ driveway. shouted Parr to the driver. "Just take ofi1" enport, Iowa. Agent Parr was at Reagan's right side. The limo lurched out of the driveway. The unmarked entrance, consisting of Aide Deaver was at his left, between the Deaver, who had crouched beside steel double doors under a concrete can­ President and the press group. Brady the President's car until he saw Reagan . opy, was designed precisely to provide se­ walked a few $teps behind Deaver and was in it, ran for the Secret Service curity for Presidents and other celebrities closer to the wall. Agent Timothy Mc­ control vehicle. "Oh, my God, it's who attend affairs at the Hilton. The Carthy waited at the limousine, standing happening!" he thought. The shots had doors·· open-·orifo a 13-ft.-wide sidewalk behind the open rear door. Washington been so close to him that he could that runs along a curving driveway at the Patrolman Thomas Delahanty, drawn "feel the concussion and smell the pow­ base of a 15-ft.-high stone retaining wall. away from his normal duties with the po­ der." In the car, he shouted, "Let's get On this day the Secret Service had roped lice canine squad to help guard the Pres­ out of here!" He grabbed Presidential off an area along this curving wall about ident, stood near the press rope. Reagan, Assistant David Fischer and, referring 25 ft. from the doors. The press and oth­ now just a few feet away from his car, to Reagan, asked, "My God, Dave, is er onlookers jostled for position behind turned to his left and waved toward the he all right?" · the rope. reporters. Brady lay on the sidewalk, blood seep­ Among them was John · Hinckley. ing from a wound in his head and trick­ Standing close to the wall, he complained ''Mr. President, Mr. President," ling into an iron grating. He tried to rise. about the press, which had been griping came a familiar shout from be­ Rick Ahearn, a White House advance­ about onlookers getting in the way. ABC hind the rope. A.P. Reporter man, cradled Brady's face and shouted: Cameraman Henry Brown had protested Michael Putzel was trying to ask Reagan " A handkerchief, a handkerchief!" that the press area had been "penetrated" a question. Brady stepped ahead of Dea­ Dropped in the turmoil, a police pistol by people who were ''interfering with our ver to help field any press queries. Still lay incongruously beside Brady's head. work." Replied a man whom Brown as­ smiling, Reagan looked past McCarthy, McCarthy had been trained to try to block sumed was a Secret Service agent: "We 'II Deaver, Brady and Delahanty and at the any shots at the President with his own try to do something." A.P. Radio Reporter milling group behind the rope. body; when the firing began, he turned Walter Rodgers pushed his way along the The man in the tan raincoat reached away from the limousine toward the as­ wall. extending his fishpo/e mike, when he out to point a .22-cal. "Saturday night spe­ sailant. Hit in the abdomen by a bullet heard the young man complain about the cial" at the President. The chambers of that might well have struck the President, reporters: "They ought to get here on time. the revolver contained six Devastator bu/- McCarthy whirled away from the gun­ They think they can do anything they want. . lets, designed to explode on impact. He shot man and fell prone. Patrolman Delahan­ Don't let them do that." twice, paused, then fired off four more ty, a bullet lodged in his neck, lay scream­ Reagan left the ballroom stage and rounds-all in a scant two seconds. ing in pain near the rope. walked down a 100-yard carpeted corri­ At the.first sound of firing, Deaver Along the wall, agent;, police officers dor that leads to the VIP exit. When he ducked. The President's grin vanished. He and a union member leaped on Hinckley. stepped out onto the sidewalk, the drizzle looked startled, bewildered. Instinctively, He struggled furiously for at least 20 sec­ had stopped. The President flashed one Agent Parr pushed Reagan's head down, onds before the gun was wrestled away from of his usual jovial smiles as he headed to­ shoved rum hard through the open car him. One agent brandished his Uzi sub­ ward his car, parked 1S ft. from the exit door. Reagan's head struck the roof of machine gun to emphasize orders to his col­ and IO ft. from the press rope. Agent Un- the doorway. Both men landed on the leagues as well as to fend off any threat 26 TIME, APRIL 13, 1981 Nation from the aghast and screaming crowd; Brady lost consciousness as he was lift­ or. Then he started to cough up some for all he knew, it might hold other as­ ed onto a stretcher and placed into the blood. My first impression was that some­ sailants. Another agent, jammed against ambulance with an oxygen mask clamped how a rib had broken and punctured a the wall in the melee, waved his pistol to­ to his face. Two more ambulances, their lung." Reagan had the same mistaken ward the menacing street. "Get a police sirens wailing, arrived to take Agent Mc­ idea. He later said: "It hurt, but I thought car! Get a car!" cried the men holding Carthy and Patrolman Delahanty to sep­ it was a broken rib." Hinckley. Handcuffing Hinckley and arate hospitals. Parr ordered the driver to turn right 1 throwing a jacket over his head, the of­ and rush toward George Washington ' ficers shoved him toward one police car, n the President's Lincoln, Reagan pro­ University Hospital, IX miles from the : but found the rear poor locked. . They tested: "Jerry, get off me. You're hurt­ Hilton. By radio Parr advised the Secret , pushed him into a second and sped off to Iing my ribs. You really came down Service command post at the White Washington police headquarters, some 30 hard on top of me." The agent apol-. House: "Rawhide is heading for George blocks away. ogized and helped Reagan sit upright Washington." Rawhide is Reagan's apt The three wounded men still lay on on the rear seat. The car was speeding Secret Service code name. His limousine the ground. After five agonizing minutes, down Connecticut A venue toward the is called Stagecoach. an orange and white Washington am­ White House. Said Parr later: "I ran my As Reagan's car pulled up to the hos­ bulance, parked at the Connecticut Av­ hands over his body, under his arms, his pital's emergency entrance, Parr opened enue entrance to the hotel, pulled around back." He detected no wound. The lim­ the right rear door and called for help. into the T Street driveway. Paramedic ousine was less than 15 seconds away 'Two more agents, following in the bat­ Bobby Montgillion jumped out, ran to from the Hilton when Reagan said again tlewagon, helped the President walk to­ Brady and grabbed his hand. "I asked if that his ribs hurt. "He complained of hav­ ward the entrance. Reagan had gone he knew what was going on," recalled ing some problems with his breathing," about 45 ft., said Parr, when he sagged. Montgillion. "He squeezed my hand." said Parr. "He was getting an ashen col- "He was perhaps going into shock, but I

years ago, has a sticker on the door that reads GUNS DON'T Cheap Gun, Will Travel CAUSE CRIME ANY MORE THAN FLIES CAUSE GARBAGE. In the window a red, green, blue and black sign advertises he origins of the .22-cal. revolv­ .22-cal. revolvers for $47. ~ · Ter that was used to shoot Pres­ "Hinckley did everything required to buy a gun," says ident Reagan are in Sontheim, West Isaac "Rocky" Goldstein, 70, a cigar-chomping, gray-haired Germany. A picturesque town built man who has run the shop for 51 years. "People are going along a tributary of the Danube, to blame us for selling the gun that shot the President, but Sontheim is the home of Rohm we have no way of knowing. We don't even remember him." GmbH, a 74-year-old firm that Goldstein, who also sold the small handguns that were used makes drilling . equipment and in a series of gang shootings in New York City's China­ cheap handgun parts. West Ger­ town in 1978, has been shaken by events, however, and mans have little use for Rohrri. now says he is considering getting out of the gun business. weapons. The country's gun own­ Hinckley purchased the ammunition that was used at an­ ership laws ar:e-strict, and the rel­ other pawn shop, this one in Lubbock, Texas. The type of ativefyfew ~p:oople who do qualify i..::::~~__.:::~~'.....:::::::J bullet he chose was interesting-and frightening. The car­ to possess handguns tend to choose Gun Seller Goldstein tridges were Devastators, made by Bingham Ltd. of Nor­ better-made and more expensive . cross, Ga. These projectiles, akin to dumdum bullets, con­ models. Thus, most Rohm gun parts-perhaps $I million tain a small aluminum canister filled with an explosive worth a year, although company officials refuse to be exact compound. They cost at least twelve times as much as or­ -are shipped through Bremen and Hamburg·to the U.S., dinary .22-cal. slugs. where there is one pistol for every four citizens, and where Upon impact the unstable compound is supposed to ex­ there is a flourishing market for cheap "Saturday night spe­ plode and fragment the bullet, although most of the ones cials." Last year the U.S. imported 298,689 foreign hand­ that Hinckley shot, including the one that hit Reagan, failed guns, most of them from Italy and West Germany, and 3.1 to do so. Bingham spokesmen say that the Devastator was de­ million gun parts. veloped for use by sky marshals in hijacking cases. By frag­ American law closely regulates the importing of entire menting, the bullet would quickly incapacitate a person but guns. But there are far fewer restrictions on bringing in gun would be less likely than an ordinary bullet to pass through parts that are then inserted into American-made frames. him or to puncture the outer skin of an airplane. Because of RG Industries, Inc., which is partly controlled by Heinrich manufacturing difficulties, the company stopped producing and Gunter Rohm of the German firm, employs about 200 the Devastator last May. people to do that kind of assembly work at a shabby white concrete building in the garment district of northwest Mi­ ami. The cheap alloy frame is smoothed with a file and THE DEVASTATOR BULLET then placed on an assembly line where the barrel and Ger­ man parts are inserted. Then the metal is tinted a dark 1 2 blue. RG Industries last year sold 190,000 such weapons, making it the nation's fifth largest handgun producer. Because of its short (l~-in.) barrel the model RG 14 re­ An aluminum canister The"shock volver that Hinckley used cannot be sold legally in the Miami containing lead azide, sensitive" area. The one that Hinckley bought, serial number L 731332, an explosive compound, leadazide was shipped by Southern Gun distributors of nearby Opa­ and lacquer sealer is can explode Locka, Fla., directly to Rocky's Pawn Shop on Elm Street inserted into a small onimpact .. . hole at the top in Dallas. This cluttered emporium, only a quarter of a mile of the bullet. from the site where President John Kennedy was shot 17

TIME, APRIL 13, 1981 29 Nation never sensed it was life threatening. He wife and Reagan's children. Meese sug­ was just pale, shook up." Only after the gested that he and Baker go to the hos­ agents had lifted Reagan onto the table pital. It was a questionable move, since it in the trauma unit and scissored off his Seriously, Folks ... separated the dominant troika (Meese, coat and shirt did anyone realize that the Baker and Deaver) from the Situation President had been shot. hen Nancy Reagan .first arrived Room in the White House. Recalled one The first reports all said that the Pres­ W at George Washington University participant: "Meese was like a rock. Bak­ ident had escaped harm. Nancy Reagan Hospital, her husband deadpanned: er was shaken." learned of the shooting minutes after she "Honey, I forgot to duck." -The Pres­ While the troika set up a mini-com­ returned to- the White House from a lun­ ident, a onetime radio sportscaster, mand post at the hospital, Haig, Regan, cheon meeting. Her own Secret Service es­ borrowed that line from Prizefighter Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger corts told her that her husband was at the Jack Dempsey, who said it to his and National Security Adviser Richard hospital, but they too were unaware that wife in 1926 after losing the world Allen moved to the Situation Room in he had been wounded. She reached the heavyweight championship to Gene the White House basement. It has elab­ hospital only minutes after his limousine. Tunney. orate communications links to U.S. The White House staff first learned The crack was the first in a bar­ military commanders and embassies of the shooting when David Prosperi, one rage of good-humored quips that Rea­ throughout the world. CIA Director Wil­ of Brady's assistants, ran to a Hilton tele­ gan tossed off after the shooting. The liam Casey and Attorney General Wil- · phone. He reached the White House and remarks, made before he had learned liam French Smith soon joined the group. demanded to talk to Assistant Press Sec­ that other victims had been critically Only Haig had been through a crisis retary Larry Speakes, shouting: "This is injured, did much to reassure his fam­ in Government before. One of his first an emergency!" To Speakes, Prosperi ily, his staff and the American public acts was to reach Bush. Since the tele­ cried: "The President has been shot at! that he was still healthy enough to phone link was poor, Haig said that he And Brady's been shot!" Speakes quickly laugh. They were also the envy of at would send a wire by a secure radiophone told Staff Director David Gergen. James least one other-comedian. Said John­ telecopier that Bush should read imme­ Baker, the White House Chief of Staff, ny Carson to his audience at Holly­ diately. The message: "Mr. Vice Presi­ was sitting in his office when Gergen wood's Academy Awards ceremony: "I dent, the President has been struck." rushed in at 2:30 p.m. to shout: "Brady's was tempted to call him and ask if he Aboard the plane, Bush gave the order: been hit!" had any more of those one-liners I "We're going to refuel in Austin and go Peter Teeley, press secretary to Vice could use." .;,}Philadelphia." · .· .- President in Austin?" Texas Governor .,.. In another note, recalling a Winston William Clements and his wife visited aker rush~d .- to tell Presidential Churchill observation: ''.There's no Bush as the plane was refueled. Then it CeunseUo:r Ed Meese the news; more exhilarating feeling than being headed from Texas back to Washington. BMeese too had heard it. He had . shot at without result." _ At 3:10 p.m., some 35 minutes after punched a button on a Secret Service com­ .,.. In a third note: "Send me to the Secret Service had learned that Rea­ puter that tracks the President; it showed L '.A., where I can see the aii I'm gan had been shot, the White House final­ that Reagan was at the hospital. Both breathing.". ·'F. -~.: ,_ .. , ly informed the press of the injury. That hurried to the White House residence to .,.. In yet another note written while delay, and others that followed, contrib­ inform Nancy but discovered that she was surrounded by medical staff: "If I had uted to a sense of confusion as television already on her way to the hospital. Back this much attention in Hollywood, I'd networks, breaking off regular program- in his office, Baker took a telephone call have stayed there." ming, struggled to sift fact from rumor. · from Deaver at the hospital. The Pres­ .,.. Complimented by a doctor for be­ ident was not wounded, said Deaver, but ing a good patient: "I have to be. My aig contributed to the tension when, Brady was badly hurt. "Oh, Jesus!" ex­ father-in-law is a doctor." with the best of intentions, he sought claimed Meese, listening on an extension. .,.. To an attentive nurse: "Does Nan- Hto clear up any potential confusion Presidential Aide David Fischer took over cy know about us?" . about whether the U.S. Government was the telephone at the hospital to keep the .,.. To a nurse who told him to "keep functioning, particularly among Ameri­ line open. Secretary of State Alexander up the good work" of his recovery: ca's allies-and enemies-abroad. He Haig called Baker on another phone to "You mean this may happen several was in the Situation Room about 4 p.m. ask about the shooting. "I will keep you more times?" · · when Speakes gave reporters in the White advised," said Baker. Two minutes later, .,.. To Daughter Maureen: The at­ House a brief explanation of Reagan's Deaver was on the hospital phone, speak­ tempted assassination "ruined one of presurgery treatment at the hospital. ing in somber tones. Then Reagan's per­ my best suits." While TV cameras caught the scene, sonal physician, Dr. Daniel Ruge, came .,.. Greeting White House aides the Speakes was asked, "If the President goes . on to deliver the bad news: the President morning after surgery: "Hi, fellas. into surgefy and goes under anesthesia, had been hit after all. I knew it would be too much to would Vice President Bush become the In rapid succession, Treasury Secre­ hope that we . could skip a staff acting President at the moment or under tary Donald Regan- whose department meeting." what circumstances does he?" Replied includes the Secret Service-Haig and .,.. When told by Aide Lyn Nofziger Speakes, who was not prepared for the others joined the group of White House that the Government was running nor­ question: "I cannot answer that question staffers in Baker's office. Initially, there mally: "What makes you think I'd be at this time." Watching, Haig sent a note was little talk of military alerts or pro­ happ)'abouf that?" · to Speakes. It said, in effect: "Get off the viding for a transfer of power; they dis­ tfi~ · ~-· .;~r.:. .:ef'i,/Z,.~;}A · ~ ••·A~ air." The delivery of the note alarmed cussed such matters as notifying Brady's reporters present, particularly when

30 TIME. APRil. 13, 1981 ....._, Nation Speakes understandably refused to dis­ Reagan had gone horseback riding at close its contents and left the rostrum. Quantico. Haig felt that any uncertainty over &rly Tuesday morning, Reagan asked who was in charge could be dangerous. "Part of the Job" about the man who had shot him, phras­ He rushed upstairs to the briefing room ing the question in his usual casual man­ and tried to convey a sense of calm. In­ ·5 hould Ronald Reagan; once he re- ner: "Does anybody know what that guy's stead, he was perspiring, his voice shook, covers, change his style and min­ bee/was?" l.Ater in the day, Dr. Ruge told and his hands trembled. He assured re­ gle less with· the public to minimize Reagan for the first time that three others porters that there was no command va­ the risk of possible fUture attempts had been wounded. Said Reagan: "That cancy, that communications were open on his life? Certainly not, says a man means four bullets hit, good Lord." He with the Vice President, and that no spe­ who should know: former President wondered if the gunman had fired delib­ cial military-alert measures were neces­ Gerald Ford. Within a span of only erately al the others or whether they had sary. But then he blundered. Asked, 17 days in 1975, two women, Lynette been struck by shots aimed at him. "/didn't "Who's making the decisions?" he replied: ("Squeaky") Fromme and Sara Jane want a supporting cast," he said. His eyes "Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have Moore, tried to shoot Ford in Cal­ filled with tears as he talked about the oth­ the President, the Vice President and the ifornia. ··. Last week he shared his ers. "/guess it goes with the territory," he Secretary of State in that order and should thoughts on the dangers of the pres­ said sadly. the President decide he wants to transfer idency with TIME West Coast Bu- As news of the shooting flashed the helm to the Vice President, he will . reau Chief Ben Cate. After the two around the world, many nations ex­ do so. He has not done that. As of now, I incidents in 1975, said Ford, "I didn't pressed sympathy for the President but am in control here, in the White House, change my. style, and I :don't think predictably criticized the American ten­ pending return of the Vice President." any President should." To do so, he dency toward mayhem. "I pray your in­ That, of course. is not the constitu­ said, would be to "capitulate to the juries are not serious," cabled Britain's tional order of succession; both the Speak­ wrong forces in the country." ...,,, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. West er of the House and the President pro tern ·, ,, The ever-present threat of assas­ German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt re­ of the Senate, as elected officials, rank sination is "part of the jo~the peril layed his "deep horror," and Egyptian ahead of the Secretary of State. Perhaps of the profession, if you will," said President Anwar Sadat his "extreme realizing his mistake, Haig was annoyed Ford. "There's no way you can . get shock and sorrow." Japan's largest daily, minutes later when Weinberger interrupt­ 100% security unless you ~it in the Yomiuri Shimbun, said th,e attack "proves ed Haig's discussion in the Situation White House immunized. But you that violence is deep-rooted in U.S. soil." Room about the succession provisions of can't isolate yourself. The job entails West Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine the 25th Amendment. With a slight edge certain responsibilities. One. of those Zeitung charged that America is "a coun­ in his voice, Weinberger said jokingly, .responsibilities is moving around see­ try of pistols on hips." Soviet President "Al, we already heard you explain your ing people and appearing in public. Leonid Brezhnev expressed his "indigna­ view of the Constitution." Haig stopped ..If you're in the job, you have to ac­ tion" at "this criminal act" and wished and glared at the Defense Secretary. "You cept tbat gamble." Reagan "a full and speedy recovery." should check the Constitution," Haig re­ Meanwhile the Communist Party youth plied. Everyone in the room sensed the newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, de­ tension. Then the moment passed. · picted the U.S. as a society "where terror whisked into a US. district courtroom to is a phenomenon of daily life." And Iran's ar more soothing to a wondering na­ be charged formally with the attempted as- Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini said about tion ·was lhe surprisingly agile and sassination of the President, a crime car- Reagan, even before he knew the Pres­ Farticulate medical briefing at George rying a maximum life sentence upon con- ident was not seriously hurt: "We are not Washington University Hospital. It was viction, and assaulting a federal officer. going to mourn for him." given by Dr. Dennis O'Leary, a former Before dawn, he was moved into a small Abroad, as in the U.S., there was a Marine major who has taught medicine prison cell at the Marine Correctional Fa- sense of deja vu. "Oh no, not again!" said at George Washington since 1973 and is cility in Quantico, Va. Just two weeks ago a man in Helsinki as he picked up a news- now dean for clinical o. oo"o"- '"' "'w vo"' ""'s paper at a kiosk. A news­ affairs. Handling repet­ paper in Athens charged itive and sometimes that-what else?-the inane questions with CIA was responsible. precision and amiability, At home, former O'Leary insisted that the Presidential Candidate President "was at no John Anderson declared time in any serious dan­ that "we are all dimin­ ger. He has a clear head ished, we are all de­ and should be able meaned, by an act of vi­ to make decisions by olence of that kind."· The tomorrow." Wall Street Journal ob­ At Washington po­ served in an editorial lice headquarters, Hinck­ that "the forces that ley, sweating but mostly move men to violence silent. was held in a third­ seem to ·be on the up­ f/oor homicide squad surge" and "we are dis­ room while federal and mayed at our impotence local officials decided before them." Noted the who had jurisdiction in Los Angeles Times: his case. The feds won. "Doctors said ... that he and Hinckley was photo­ was in stable condition. graphed and fingerprint- The country is not." Ad­ ed by the FBI. At. •• miration for the Presi­ 11 :52 p.m. the heavily Sarah Brady, at left of Bush (with notebook), outside her husband's hospital room dent's courage and calm guarded _.Rinckley was Said a shocked and tearful President: "/ didn 't want a supporting cast. " under fire, as well as for TIME.APRIL 13.1981 37 Nation the vitality of his 70-year-old physique, ber, and that someone was expecting him his own life. Agent Parr too was com­ was widespread but not universal. At the in the city just before the shooting. In plimented for his fast reaction. Contended Academy Central School in Tulsa. a few Hinckley's hotel room, police and FBI one veteran agent: "Everyone did exact­ students clapped and cheered when they agents found clippings from a Dec. 10 ar- . ly what he was supposed to do. It was heard news of the assassination attempt. ticle in the Washington Post. The next like watching a training film." Fonner President Carter praised the day Reagan visited the Hilton to address Still, how did the gunman get so close? Secret Service and said the assault showed a meeting convened by the American En- He carried no press credentials, which ac­ again the need for gun control. A sur- terprise Institute, a conservative think credited reporters and cameramen wear prising possible convert to that cause was tank. Reagan left the hotel through the about their necks and are· supposed to South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, same exit he used when Hinckley tried keep visible at all times. The Secret Ser­ who said he is at least willing to~onsider to kill him. Agents so far have been un- vice insists there was no intention to cre­ banning the importation of parts for Sat- able to trace the two calls Hinckley made ate a closed press area at the Hilton site. urday night specials. Senator Edward after checking into the Park Central. Ho- The spectators were not considered in­ Kennedy said he would again propose leg- tel employees said two calls were made truders. Why was not the presidential car islation to outlaw totally the manufacture to his room. One was a wrong number parked directly in front of the exit, in­ and sale of that type of gun. But Carter -a woman trying to reach a relative who stead of 15 ft. away? The Service claimed noted that members of Congress "didn't was registered elsewhere in the hotel. The that the positioning permitted a faster exit move after 1963. They didn't move ~~~Z!'!!:f~'.I=~~~;;~~ "'""'"'~"~", and was normal. "They are wrong," when George Wallace was attacked. ,,. ,....;;~--.-.~!:::::~:-:'Ii insists TIME Photographer Dirck And they didn't move after Bobby Halstead. "I've covered that exit Kennedy was killed. These guns that many times, and the President's car are only used to kill someone, not for was always right in front ofit." hunting, ought to be regulated, but I Secret Service Chief H. Stuart predict they won't be." Knight indirectly criticized the FBI Within moments of Hinckley's for failing to inform the Service that arrest the FBI dispatched its agents Hinckley had been arrested at the to weave a net of evidence that would Nashville airport for carrying three form the legal case against him. They handguns in his briefcase on Oct. 9. found the unmailed letter to Jodie On that day Jilniny Carter had been Foster in his Washington hotel room in the city to make a campaign -a note that amounted to a highly . i:- ':,. .. " · speech at the Grand Ole Opry house. explicit confession. The investigators Qfi Yet there was no evidence that also found a tape recording of tele- ''q'~ !\IN,. N() R!:iPUliL '< ·"' ~' ~' 11.. Hinckley had been tracking Carter. phone conversations between Hinck- ? ~\·~~'.:.rs' ti OW \~'[ r\R~ :All fAMllY Spin'ted into a helicopter at the ley and a woman who might have Ger WE.LL. o'· ·utCK RON Quantico base by FBI agents. who been Foster; it is possible that Hinck- · .~ · tli: NtEO , . • ')';/ J , ~ L, •·· made him bend over and run. Hinck- ley made the calls anonymously. . · ,~1ca. fey late last week was flown to an Thrust innocently into a national Army post near Washington. There spotlight she had not sought, the ac- he was transferred to a limousine tress held a news conference at Yale and brought in handcuffs to a fed- to confirm that· ·stie had received era/ courtroom under security so tight mariy-"unsoficited" love notes from that even the clerk of court had to Hinckley. None had mentioned the show identification. A paramedic with President. she said, and none had an oxygen tank sat behind Hinckley contained any hints of violence. in the courtroom. A court-appointed But the letters became so persistent psychiatrist. Dr. James L . Evans. tes- that last month she gave the ones ti.lied that his three-hour examination she had not earlier destroyed to her of Hinckley showed he was "mentally college dean. He turned them over competent to stand trial. " District to campus police. who found noth- AmessagetoReaganonthewallofaWashingtonfactory Court Chief Judge William B. Bry­ ing in them that would warrant "Guns that are only used to kill ought to be registered." ant ordered that the suspect be ex- warning anyone else about Hinckley. amined further to establish his men- The FBI now has these letters. other was from an unidentified woman ta/ condition. Hinckley"sfamily had hired Demonstrating the importance of reg- who asked for Hinckley by name. the firm headed by Defense Attorney &/- istering handgun sales, the Treasury De- ward Bennett Williams to represent their partment's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco The rapidity of the shots fired at the son; the lawyers argued that a11y such ex- and Firearms within minutes discovered Hilton made it difficult for the FBI amination should be done.first by defense- where Hinckley had purchased the weap- to pinpoint the sequence of the mul- chosen experts. Bryant denied the request on: at Rocky's Pawn Shop in Dallas. If tiple wounding. Studying the video tapes but assured defense attorneys that their Hinckley had somehow eluded capture, and the ballistics evidence, the FBI ten- psychiatrists would have "equal access" tracing this sale would have given the FBI tatively concluded that Reagan was hit to Hinckley. the gunman's identity. after he had been doubled over by Agent Finally John W. Hinckley Jr. was FBI agents are convinced that there Parr and was being pushed into his car. flown by helicopter to the Federal Correc­ was no plot, no conspiracy and that In a freak bit of chance, the bullet ap- tional Institution in Butner. N.C., where Hinckley had acted on his own. None- parently bounced off the car's window psychiatric examinations could take up to theless. they were busy tracing his past frame and through the narrow gap be- three months. The legal question may turn connections with the Chicago-based Na- tween the open door and the car body. out to be whether he was sane at the time of tional Socialist Party of America. A neo- But had the Secret Service done all it the crime. The larger question for the U.S. Nazi group. it claims to have expelled him could to protect the President? As con- ·was whether the course of its history must in 1979 for being "too militant.'" Agents gressional committees-began a series of continue to be influenced by the mental were also puzzling over evidence suggest- post-assault probes, there was lavish mis.fits in its midst. --ByEdMognuson. ing that the suspect may have been stalk- "praise for Agent McCarthy, who had Reported by Douglas Brsw and Johanna ing Reagan in Washington last Decem- stepped into the line of fire at the risk of Mc°'1ary/Washington 38 TIME. APRIL 13, 1981 What had to be done at that moment ! An Interview with Nancy Reagan was an exploration for abdominal bleed­ ing. Nancy's recollections now rush out. i "All you 're thinking is you've got to hold yourselftogether ... " "They· put me in a tiny, tiny little room, really tiny, no window, and it·was hot. Control. Along with When she arrived outside the emer­ There were so many people running back cool charm. good looks gency room she was at first informed, by and forth in the halls, police and doctors and an obsessive desire Mike Deaver, that Reagan had been and a lot of noise, a lot of people shout­ to walk in her hus­ wounded, but only slightly. Her worry es­ ing, 'Get back, get out of the way.' " Then band's shadow. control calated slowly. Moments later, doctors she went to the hospital chapel to say a is a buttress of Nancy Reagan's persona. told them that it was more serious than prayer and weep a little. That willed restraint :is visible in hurly­ Deaver had thought, and she saw her pale, Nancy and the man she still insists burly crowd scenes. in interviews that usu­ prostrate husband. on calling Ronnie have been as close as ally leave reporters unsatisfied and on the What did she feel? Fear? Anger? any couple can be in politics. She travels rare occasions when she speaks from a "There's an unreal kind of feeling ... It's with him constantly, she fusses over small platform. And the control is there just four hard to describe. There's an unrealness details of his care and feeding, she casts days after the attempt on her husband's to it . .." Nancy Reagan gropes for words, looks of adoration or amusement, as the life as she greets a correspondent in scene demands. Now, in the worst mo­ the East Wing sitting room on the sec­ ments of their 29-year marriage, she ond floor of the White House. The was demoted to spectator. That passed chamber has been Reaganized. There in a few hours. The day after, she was are two jars of jelly beans and a dish bringing him jelly beans and his slip­ of bonbons. A pair of massive tradi­ pers. She also accompanied the White tional sofas has come cross country House physician, Daniel Ruge, when from their former home in Pacific he told Reagan that Jim Brady had Palisades. been seriously wounded. Reagan The First Lady's friends say that turned teary-eyed at the news. · she feels "guilty" about being else­ where* when the slug tore into Rea­ A II week two schools of thought were gan's left side. She has spent the week ft in conflict: a concession that at­ visiting hospital rooms-the Presi­ tacks on the President are inevitable dent's and those of the three men shot vs. outraged demands that something with him. She has been consoling Sar­ -anything-be done. Reagan's eldest ah Brady, knowing that a slight change child, Maureen. went on television to in the angle of the gun barrel could pronounce her angry demand that vi­ have laid Reagan as low as Jim Bra­ olence be quelled by public indigna­ dy, or worse. tion. Where does Nancy stand? "I But her smile is as warm as the sun­ guess I'm somewhere in between shine that engulfs the room. In a beige there." Her composure is back and for tweed skirt and tasteful silk blouse,. once she ventures into what she usu­ with every dark blond hair in place ally pretends is terra incognito for her, and her huge hazel eyes clear. Nan­ public policy. The excursion is signaled cy Reag~_n look~ .as· much like spring with an apologetic little laugh. "You as the tuffp-s···and hyacinths that fes­ know, I'd be happier if they didn't toon the room. And when she starts make the violent movies that they talking, the control is there. No, she make and maybe titillate people who had not worried much about physical are not mentally stable. I'd be hap­ assault, not any more. Reagan had pier if sentences . . . if people were been threatened frequently while Gov­ brought to trial more quickly and if ernor in Sacramento; in 1968 a se­ the whole thing [criminal justice] were curity man shot at someone trying to tightened up. I think that would cer­ fire-bomb the Governor's residence. tainly be an improvement." "It was the tenor of the times," she What about the ubiquity of psy­ says of that period. "But during the chopaths and firearms? The answer is past campaign, and certainly since The First Lady bringing jelly beans to the hospital rapid: "You know Ronnie's position. the election, the only thing we felt Jn between the concessions and the demands. He just doesn't believe that's where the was such warmth and affection that problem is." In fact, she notes, Rea­ [fear of attack] wasn't up front." something rare for her. Usually she dis­ gan mentioned his continued opposition misses an unwelcome question politely, as to gun control to several visitors in his hos­ er restraint begins to dissolve as she if it were a boring suitor. This time she pital room. H goes over the events of Bloody Mon­ seems as interested in finding the answer Her. husband's convalescence will day. She was on the third floor of the man­ as the reporter is. dominate Nancy Reagan's next several sion. in guest quarters that are still being "You're frightened, sure," she says weeks. Eventually there will be trips and renovated, when a Secret Service agent finally.· "Of course you're frightened, es­ public appearances. Maybe she will nag told her: "There has been a shooting. The pecially because he was having trouble Reagan about wearing a bulletproof vest. President has not been hit. but he is at breathing. But it just seemed so unreal. as he occasionally did during the pres­ the hospital.'' She decided to leave im­ And I guess you .. . must go into a sort idential campaign. But will they be able mediately, even though, as she recalls it, ofa .. ." to go into crowds comfortably again? she was told. ''It is such bedlam there. so The thought trails off. She sighs. "Well, I don't know how it's going to feel much confusion, maybe it would be She hugs herself with both arms as the first time. I don't know. It really comes better if you stayed here a while." if to feel the image before she speaks down to this: you have a job to do and it. "Then all you're thinking is you do it the best you can. Time will tell "Mrs. Reagan had attended a luncheon at the you've ;aot to hold yourself together if it's going to be harder." Certainly Nan­ Georgetown home of Michael Ainsley, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She re­ and not be a bother to anybody so that cy Reagan will need all the control she turned LO the White House minutes before the auack. they can do whatever has to be done." has. -ByLaurence I. Barrett

TIME. APRIL 13. 1981 39 1l

The stalker at his quarry's honie: an undated photograph of John W. Hinckley Jr. sitting outside the White House grounds

and a swimming pool out back. A Drifter Who Stalked Success He was not a troublesome teen-ager or even a loner. Indeed, in the seventh "Something happened to that boy in the last six years,, and ninth grades he was elected presi­ dent of his home room, and as an eighth­ , It cannot be said fairly Hinckley Sr. took a job in Dallas, 100 grader managed the basketball team. - that John Warnock miles south. The growing family was John Hinckley was no aloof oddball then. Hinckley Jr., 25, was good-looking and healthy and Protestant, Says his junior-high friend Kirk Dooley: . destined for infamy. and all five settled down to life in Uni­ "No one rooted louder than Hinckley for He is accused of a versity Park, a moneyed Dallas suburb of the Highland Park Red Raiders." shooting that, perhaps even to him, is a broad lawns and handsome houses. The By 1970 John's father had amassed surprise; the first openly extraordinary act Hinckleys are "a fine Christian family," capital of $120,000 and set up his own oil of his life. This son of Sunbelt affluence according to one friend, and regular exploration business. Hinckley Oil, now -blond, blue-eyed,_witti the fleshy good churchgoers; i.t was fiJting that their first known as Vanderbilt Energy Corp., af­ looks or-:r·cowrtcy club lay-about-had home in Dallas was a former parsonage. firmed the man's entrepreneurial mettle. never been outwardly quirky or unpleas­ Scott, now 32, ever the good eldest child, And Son Scott, an engineering major at ant. His unremarkability confounds the sought and won parental approbation; Vanderbilt University, would soon join his desire for tidy, comforting explanations. Diane, now 28, was exceptionally blond dad's wildcat enterprise. Says a family friend: "There but for the and pretty in a neighborhood of blond, In the fall of 1970, John Jr. began grace of God goes anyone's kid." Beverly pretty little girls; and John. never a prob­ classes at Highland Park High School, McBeath was no friend at Highland Park lem, joined the Y.M.C.A.'s Indian Guides where his sister was a senior. That year (Texas) High School, but she speaks for and distinguished himself in grammar­ Diane Hinckley apparently burst forth as all her schoolmates when she recalls that school sports. Recalls Jim Francis, John's a campus star; she performed in a school John Hinckley was "so normal he ap­ basketball coach for three -~-ff!!~uil., operetta, she was head peared to fade into the woodwork." None­ years during elementary cheerleader, homecoming theless, some time in the barren years school: "He was a beau­ queen candidate, vice since his 1973 graduation from high tiful-looking little boy, a president of the choir, school, Hinckley went beyond mere or­ wonderful athlete, really a member of both the stu­ dinariness. His solitude and fecklessness leader. He was the best dent council and the A­ became chronic, and he started drifting: basketball player on the students' National Honor to seedy neighborhoods in Los Angeles team." No wonder the fa­ Society. There are at least and Denver, toward fascism, and then to ther of such a child, told ten pictures of her in the his climactic infatuations with handguns years later that his son was yearbook, which cited her and a teen-age movie star. Says his fa­ being held as an assassin, as one of the class's eight ther's business associate Clarence Neth­ would scowl in disbelief: "favorites." She was a for­ erland: "Something happened to that boy "It had to be a stolen ID." midable sibling presence in the last six to eight years to break him In 1966 the Hinckleys for Sophomore John. from the family tradition and the family traded up: they moved to During his junior year life-style." In fact, John Hinckley's past Highland Park, the neigh­ John was a member of the years seem not to constitute a break so borhood-of-choice for civic affairs club, and as a much as Hollywood's slow fade to black. haute Dallas. The house senior he was in the Ro­ John Jr. was Jack and JoAnn Hinck­ on Beverly Drive where deo Club, which organized ley's last child. He was born on May 29, John Jr. spent the years barbecues, square dances 1955. in the southern Oklahoma town of of his adolescence is • and junkets to rodeos. In Ardmore, where his father worked as a large, with a sweeping his yearbook John's roster petroleum engineer. Two years later circular driveway in front Hinckley in a recent ID photo ofactivities was scanty bu! 40 TIME, APRIL 13, 1981 1 unembarrassing. just as his senior-picture member of the sect for more than a year, hair length seemed perfectly median, nei­ and in March 1978 marched in a Nazi pa­ ther long nor short. Bill Lierman, the rade in St. Louis. Allen claims they kicked Rodeo Club's sponsor. recalled nothing Hinckley out in 1979. Allen's explanation: untoward. Says Lierman: "He wasn't a "When somebody comes to us and starts rowdy. He got along fine with all the advocating shooting people, it's a natural kids." And a sampling of schoolmates' reaction: the guy's either a nut or a federal reminiscences shows a consensus. David agent." Hinckley was a voracious reader Wildman. the basketball captain, calls of newspapers, so it is logical that his af­ him "a middle-of-the-roader." filiation with the Nazis began in early Only Sally Bentley, 26, disputes the 1978: it was then that a spate of national hazy image of genial blandness. ''He was news stories appeared about the National well known because his sister was well Socialists, mostly involving their planned known," says the woman. "John was marches through the heavily Jewish com­ mousy. His sister was friendly and cute munity of Skokie, Ill. and alive. I thought he was sour about that. John never did anything outstanding fter more than a year's hiatus from or memorable." A Texas Tech-a period of deepening Lubbock, dry and bleak, is 318 miles disturbance for Hinckley-he registered from Dallas on the flat cap rock of west for classes in September 1979. He also be­ Texas. The population is 180,000. and gan his acquisition of firearms with a .38- 22,000 are Texas Tech students. John cal. pistol, purchased in Lubbock, where Hinckley Jr. was one of them, a business a year later he bought two new .22 pis­ major,asofSeptember 1973. He never fin­ tols at a pawnshop. When the 1980 sum­ ished. but over the next seven years mer session ended, Hinckley left Texas .c Hinckley attended classes more than half Tech for good to begin his last addled the time. By 1977 he had dropped business ramble around the country. His path in favor of liberal arts and earned at least seems one of accelerating aimlessness and a B average-good enough to be on the Jodie Foster as prostitute in Taxi Driver fragmentation. dean's list. But once away from home, he A desperate. deluded infatuation. Hinckley found himself in New Ha­ made not even a token effort to fashion a ven, Conn., in September-within days social life. Says a Texas Tech spokesman: just before Hinckley left for Los Angeles. after Foster's matriculation at Yale-and "We can't find a single university-recog­ The film, according to a synopsis, con­ boasted to strangers that they were lovers. nized activity he participated in." cerns "a loner incapable of communicat­ In October he returned to New Haven ing," who "usually spends his off hours . . . and left several notes for Foster at her n 1975, John's parents moved to Ever­ eating junk food or sitting alone in a dingy dormitory. I green, Colo., a Ponderosa town some room." When the protagonist is scorned A few days later, Hinckley was ar­ 25 miles outside Denver. It is that city's by Foster's character, he mails her a letter rested-and promptly released on $50 choicest mountain suburb: a place of and sets out to kill a presidential candi­ bond-at Nashville Airport as he at­ steep, piney cul-de-sacs and well-to-do date. The coincidences are powerful and tempted to board a flight for New York placidity. On some of his periodic sabbat­ given credence by a letter that Scriptwrit­ City: in his carry-on luggage were three icals from Texas Tech, John Jr. alighted er Paul Schrader got last fall-from J.W. handguns and 50 rounds of ammunition. at the new family home; and while there Hinckley. Schrader told TIME he thought Although President Carter was making a he often foitered at the local high school, the letter was from a smitten groupie who campaign appearance in Nashville the presumably seeking companionship. wanted to meet Foster, and he had his sec­ same day, the Secret Service was never Not a single pal or girlfriend has retary throw it away. told ofHinckley's airport arrest. This may turned up from those seven sketchy years Hinckley returned to Texas Tech dur­ be the first clear, though unheeded, sig­ at Texas Tech. His few acquaintances re­ ing 1977, but his enrollment lapsed again nal of Hinckley as stalker. call Hinckley as an expressionless blank. during 1978. It was then that he began his Four days later in Dallas he bought a Still he caused no alarm. Says German flirtation with Nazism. According to Mi­ pair of .22-cal. revolvers at a pawnshop. History Professor Otto Nelson: "I never chael Allen, president of the National So­ Within a week Hi:ickley had surfaced in picked up anything unusual or bizarre cialist Party of America, Hinckley was a Denver, where he applied for jobs at two about him. He never asked a thing in class." (Hinckley did, however, choose to specialize: one paper focused on Hitler's Mein Kampf his other on Auschwitz.) Says Mark Swafford, one of his Lubbock landlords: "I only saw him with another human being one time." Hinckley's stu­ dent life was a sad, remote vigil. "Every­ where there were empty bags from ham­ burger joints and cartons of ice cream." says Swafford. "He just sat there the whole time.staringat the TV." In late 1976 Hinckley went to Califor­ nia. He intended, John Sr. told a friend, to "crash Hollywood." He ended up at How­ ard's Weekly Apartments. in the seamy Selma Avenue district of Los Angeles- a street market for whores, drugs and every kind of sleaze. Perhaps during this period Hinckley developed his obsession with Actress Jodie Foster. Consider the plot parallels of the movie 'Taxi Driver. star­ ring Foster as a prostitute and released Cedar and moss-rock Hinckley home in Evergreen, Colo.. a Denver suburb TIME.APRIL 13, 1981 41

-· ·• ,_ ·' ment garage. The Secret Service argues Protecting the President that the President risks being trapped in a basement garage, and so prefers ush­ New questions about whether the Secret Service c_an do better ering him through an exit that leads to an open driveway-and the waiting lim­ "If anyone wants to agents required for a presidential trip; for ousine. Others recommend that the Se­ do it, no amount of pro­ a routine speech like the one that Rea­ cret Service start closing off streets around tection is enough. All a gan gave last week at the Washington Hil­ the exit to all spectators; some even sug­ man needs is a willing­ ton Hotel, perhaps two dozen agents will gest that the President entirely stop min­ ness to trade his life for be used. Every presidential motorcade has gling and shaking hands with onlook­ mine." So observed President John F. at least two cars filled with agents, in­ ers. Says Chicago Police Superintendent Kennedy less than a month before his cluding a station wagon, code-named War Richard Brzeczek: "It's time to consider words came tragically true. After last Wagon, that is crammed with weapons keeping some distance between crowds week's attempt on the life of Ronald Rea­ (ranging from Israeli-made Uzi subma­ and the President, offering them a fleet­ gan, the question is again being asked with chine guns to shotguns), first-aid supplies ing glimpse instead ofa slower wave." great urgency: What can be done, if any­ and even tools for prying the President But there are great drawbacks to iso­ thing, to better protect an American Pres­ out of his car in case of a crash. lating a President from the people he must ident from the risk ofassassination? The Secret Service keeps a list of some serve. Presidents, like most U.S. politi­ In an attempt to find answers. two 25,000 people believed to pose potential cians, relish contact with crowds; indeed, congressional committees began hearings threats to the President, and 300 to 400 they may come to rely on that kind of in­ last week to investigate the role of the Se­ considered especially dangerous. Yet teraction to keep them going in so gru­ cret Service in providing such protection. none of the persons involved in well- eling a job. Ronald Reagan has already At the same time, Treasury Secretary Donald Regan has ordered his own re­ view of the agency, which is part of his de­ partment. More than likely the inquiries will not solve a basic dilemma: How to guard a President as fully as possible in an open society? Says a longtime Secret Service official: "It may be unsolvable: Can you stop a free individual in a free so­ ciety, who is willing to take that ultimate risk, and still avoid a police state?" Founded in 1865 to combat the ris­ ing tide of counterfeit "greenbacks" then flooding the country. the agency now numbers some l ,500 special agents, up -· t from 389 at the time of Kennedy's as­ ,, sassination. Once selected, a recruit is dis­ .·, patched to offices around the country to -~ help track down counterfeiters and pur­ sue stolen or forged Government checks # and bonds. Only superior agents are even­ J. l tually picked to serve in the protection ser­ vice, which is responsible for guarding not ·q only the President, the Vice President and '.'1 ~ ' their families, but also presidential can­ . didates and former Presidents. i:'' The agents then undergo extensive in­ struction at the Secret Service Training Campaigning in Miami In 1975, Reagan Is confronted by a man with a toy gun Center in Beltsville, Md. They practice "It's time io consider keeping some distance between crowds and the President." moving a make-believe "president" through crowds (composed of other known assassination attempts since 1963 demonstrated his fondness for pausing agents) to a waiting car, sometimes un­ -Sirhan Sirhan, Arthur Bremer, Lynette and responding to shouted cries of "Mr. der fire, as well as through specially built ("Squeaky") Fromme, Sara Jane Moore President! Mr. President!" as he moves auditoriums, hotel foyers and offices. In and John Hinckley-ever appeared on about Washington-a practice his agents a weapons course, computer-controlled the Secret Service list. would dearly like to stop. Yet the ease cutouts of possible assassins and harm­ with which an attack can take place was less citizens pop up from the ground and f the Service cannot always recognize dramatically demonstrated to Reagan be­ twirl past windows on a Hollywood-like I -or stop-a potential assassin, can fore last week's shooting. As then Can­ back-lot street of mock buildings. The anything more be done to lessen the dan­ didate Reagan campaigned in Miami in agents must fire and hit a threatening tar­ gers? Many law enforcement officials rec­ November 1975, a college dropout named get but refrain from shooting at an un­ ommend that Reagan wear a bulletproof Michael Lance Carvin, 20, managed to armed figure-or at the image of a woman vest when making public appearances. break through the crowd and point a toy wheeling a baby carriage, who may quick­ Modern vests, made offiber glass, are both gun directly at him. ly slide in front of an armed figure. lightweight and flexible." When an attack by a deranged lon­ Secret Service preparations for a pres­ Ted Gunderson, former head of the er occurs, there is not much that even idential trip are equally thorough: teams FBI's Los Angeles office, suggests that the Secret Service can do. Sums up one of agents. aided by local police. carefully whenever possible. the President should senior agent: "We try to get our bodies travel presidential itineraries in advance, exit a hotel or auditorium through a base- between him and the bullets, and then check the backgrounds of hotel employees get the hell out of there"-which is just and others who may meet the President, •If Reagan had been wearing only a "front-and­ what they did last Monday, efficiently and make certain that local hospitals have back" v~t last week. his sides would have remained and even heroically. -By James Kelly. exposed "lind he probably would still have been a supply of blood in the President's type. wounded. Only the full, wrap-around model would Reported by Jonathan Beaty and Johanna There are no set rules for the number of have protected him. McGeary/Washington TIME. APRIL 13. 1981 43 Nation gan had not bled so heavily, surgery might not have been done immediately. But an Emergency in Room SA operation would probably have been nec­ _essary eventually. Though bullets are fre­ As the world watched, calm doctors performed their ritual quently left inside the body when they do not threaten further damage, a bullet in It is the kind of emer­ cate the bullet; blood samples were an­ the lung can travel to the heart and ob­ gency familiar to trau­ alyzed for gases to help determine how struct the flow of blood. ma teams across the much oxygen was getting into the blood. Reagan was rolled next door into an nation, particularly at To see whether there was bleeding in the operating suite. Under the watchful eyes places like New York abdominal cavity as well, the team per­ of two scrubbed and gowned Secret Ser­ City's Bellevue Hospital Center and Chi­ formed a procedure known as peritoneal vice agents and the President's personal cago's Cook County Hospital. The dif­ lavage. Surgeons Benjamin Aaron and Jo­ physician, Dr. Daniel Ruge, doctors be­ ference this time was the victim: not seph Giordano, who headed up the trau­ gan anesthetizing the President. They in­ some dope dealer or faithless lover, but ma team, made a small incision just below serted a tube into his mouth and down the President of the U.S. But even with the President's navel, inserted a tube and his windpipe and put him on a mechan­ the world watching, the medical ritual infused several liters of fluid, filling the ab­ ical respirator. Then he was gently turned was the same. dominal cavity. Then the fluid was with­ onto his right side and placed at a 45° As soon as Ronald Reagan was car­ drawn and examined for blood. It was angle. In the operation, called a thora- ried into Room 5A of George cotomy, surgeons made a 6-in. in­ Washington University Hospital's cision extending from just below emergency unit, a hastily assem­ the left nipple, along the ribs to bled team of more than a dozen TREATING just below the left armpit. Spread­ doctors plus paramedics, nurses ing the ribs and the overlying mus­ and aides swung into action. REAGAN'S cles apart, they first noticed a Seemingly in disorganized fash­ massive blood clot and removed ion, but actually with speed and WOUND it. Then they checked the heart precision, they moved toward one· and major blood vessels for dam­ goal: stabilizing the patient as age but found none. They tried to quickly as possible. Oxygen was follow the path.of the bullet to.lo­ administered to aid the President cate the slug. This proved diffi­ in breathing, and fluids were giv­ cult so another X ray was taken. en intravenously to raise his blood The doctors finally retrieved the pressure. A reading indicated that bullet from the lower lobe of the the systolic pressure (when the left lung. Said Aaron: "It was flat­ heart contracts) had dropped be­ entel'8 tened almost as thin as a dime. low 100, alarmingly low. Simul­ ·chest under and about the size of a dime too." taneously, his clothing was cut left arm, strikes away; as soon as the jacket and top of 7th rib , • , rom their examination, doc­ shirt were off, an oozing, slitlike F tors concluded that the bullet bullet hole was discovered just un­ ''""'""''"'"'"' , •• and Is plowed through the chest wall at '"''' deflected into der tbe)eft a.rmpit'. lower left lung an angle. struck the seventh rib Because Reagan was cough­ and ricocheted down 3 in. into the ing up bright red blood and com­ lung. Its oblique path kept it a plaining of chest pain on his left Incision to remove bullet good 3 in. away from the heart. side and difficulty in breathing, Reagan was fortunate that his as­ . Tubes inserted doctors immediately suspected to reinflate sailant used a small-caliber, low­ that his lung had been injured and lung and drain fluids velocity gun. A .45-cal. bullet, I probably collapsed, a common re­ twice as wide and five times as Tube inserted sult of gunshot wounds to the to check for heavy as a .22, would have torn chest. Normally, the pressure in abdominal bleeding up the President's flank and prob­ the space between the lung and ably killed him quickly. if not in- the chest wall is less than atmo­ stantly. But he could have been spheric pressure, and this keeps the lung clear, indicating that Reagan had suffered luckier: if his arm had been hit, the bul­ expanded; when the chest wall is pierced, no injury to abdominal organs. let might not have reached his torso; if air enters and forces the lung to collapse. But during the 45 minutes of perito­ the bullet had not glanced off the rib, it To reinflate it, doctors made two small in­ neal lavage, blood continued draining out might have just passed on through the cisions, one just below the collarbone and of the chest tube, an unusual occurrence. chest wall and out of the body without hit­ the other between the seventh and eighth In the majority of bullet wounds to the ting any internal organ. ribs, and inserted tubes to suction off air chest, bleeding stops soon after the lung After the three-hour operation, which and any blood that might have accumu­ is reinflated. By now Reagan had required the President "sailed through with vital lated from damage to the heart, lungs or a transfusion of five units of blood; that signs absolutely rock stable," according major blood vessels in the chest. About meant he had lost about 2X quarts of to O'Leary, Reagan was taken to the hos­ t~o pints of blood spilled out. Immedi­ blood, almost half the total amount cir­ pital's fourth-floor intensive-care unit, ately doctors started transfusing blood, culating in his body. Continued bleeding where he spent a restless night. So does al­ using 0 negative, a blood type any per­ can be a sign that a bullet has caused most everyone in such a unit: the lights son can accept. (Later they began using major damage to organs and blood ves­ are kept on; nurses and doctors move Reagan's own type, 0 positive.) All this sels in the chest cavity. To assess the ex­ about constantly, checking vital signs and was accomplished within five minutes of tent of the injury and to locate the source taking blood samples; monitors hooked up his arrival. of bleeding, doctors decided to operate. to patients beep incessantly. Reagan was That done, the trauma team could "It wa~- a major bleed," said Hospital given antibiotics to combat possible in­ proceed more deliberately. X rays of the Spokesman Dr. Dennis O'Leary. "That fections and pain medication to ease his chest and abdomen were taken to try to lo- was why surgery was required." If Rea- moderate discomfort, more the result of 44 TIME. APRIL 13, 1981 'I HE\\ \~Hl\GTO\ POST___ _0_ ~-~·:!.:_~~-Ap_,;_1~~~ -a 1_ Reagan's Risk, ill

heard one of the agents tell a dodor By Su..c:.an Okie perted between the ~est wall and Wa..,hlngton Post Stall Writer & rollapsed lung. "we don't think he has been hit. We think he may have broken ~rib when President Reagan's life may have .:Medical 80Urces also said he initial- we pushed him into the ~ been in graver danger after he was -~- _$owed some heart irregularities, shot in the chest Monday than was iihd 'the surgical intern who treated A surgeon who saw Reagan minute! evident from preliminary medical re- him, Dr. William O'Neill, told a New after his arrival said he remain(-d con· ;V ork Times reporter that the presi­ . ports. sdous but was having obvious diffi­ ; The president might have died of d~nt's blood pressure was only 78 - culty breathing. "He did have a couple low enough to signal impending shock. blood loss and shock if Secret Service of quarts of blood ther'e" in the left agents had ordered him transported ~ - Reached yesterday, O'Neill declined side of his chest, pressing on the col· I1 to a more distant hospital, such as 'to- comment further on Reagan's vital lapsed left lung, he said. ' Walter Reed Anny Medical Center or _signs when he was first_ e~e? · ''When he was lying down, it didn't Bethesda N~val Hospital, rather than 'Other ,doctors at the hospital srud his · seem he was in extremis . . . , " the driving him swiftly to nearby George b1ood pressure may have fallen briefly, doctor said. The president could not Washington University Hospital, ac­ -tiut within a few minutes rose to a have been safely transferred to anoth­ ording to medical sources familiar \>iormal level of 120. They said Reagan er hospital, -however, be added. ·th his case. \\·as· never actually in shock, a condi­ Dr. Joseph M. Giordano, the head Jerry Parr, the agent who dove on tion in which blood pressure falls 90 of the hospital's trauma team, Y.1to p of Reagan after pushing him into · ·f U'St saw the president five minute& his limousine, noticed a · trickle of low that the brain and vital organs blood coming from the president's are receiving insufficient blood. , mm•th, the first clue that he had been But in the opinion of Roberto Her- after his arrival, said that by that ' nandez, a D.C. paramedic who helped . time his blood pressure was returning carry the stricken president into the to normal, but that his breathing emergency room, Reagan looked like a · problems and signs of blood 1088 made shot, moments after the car sped man whoae life was in danger. it necessary to insert a tube into his .chest to reirlflate his lu."lg belore an away from the Washington Hilton Hernandez was coming out of the 1 X-ray could be taken. Hotel, according to Treasury Secretary hospital as Reagan was being heiped Donald Regan. Parr, who had ordered out of his limousine by two Secret As soon as the tube went in ac­ the car to return to the White House Service agents. cording to another surgeon p~nt, "When I !l8W him it just shocked they drained more than two quarbl of under the assumption that Reagan me," he said. "I noticed he looked very wasn't shot, then diverted it to the. blood. Doctors immediately adminis­ pale, and he had an apprehensive look tered intravenous fluids and orde.n'Cf a hospital, . . .. The stare in his eyes was like he A D.C. paramedic noticed blood on transfusion. Reagan received five units was in a slight dai.e. • of blood - about 21h quart& - be· Reagan's face_ when he was brought "He looked like he was in shock," fore being taken tO surgery. into the emergency room - well be­ Hernandez said, and his first thought, fore the White House confirmed that knowing Reagan's age (70), was that i Giordano .said that only 15 percent he had been hit. he had suffered a heart attack. of patients with wounds such as A doctor who was present con­ Reagan's ever need surgery. In most. cases, he said, a chest tube connected firmed yesterday that about two Then, as the group passed, - quarts of the president's blood - be­ "Reagan's eyes rolled - upward, his to ~Uclion device ~ai~¥L~ ~ tween one-third and one-half of his head Went back, his knees buckled a air, allowing the collapsed l1o nt· total blood volume - flowed "at a and he started to collapse,• Hemand~ lung rather brisk rate" out of the left side .recalled. inflate. Surgery is ' ddne "oofy--"~ of his chest as soon as the tube was One agent called for help. Hernan­ · · bl~ continues ~- nc1,\i fr(,~ :~·,·~1be, See CONDITION, A7, Col. I I dez grabbed Reagan's legs and helped indicating . possible life-threatMq carry him into the resuscitation area damage to the heart·or ~ major blciod

. of the emergency room. . vesse·· l "' - ·· · · " ~ \· ·· .·.! :~ ... 4 ~~ 1• • · . . - . · . 'j{~aa. . gasping for air. He was ' ·"· - ~reathinglrlnd of deep," he said, de- · Since his operation, Reagan his monstrating by making a choking improved steadily, and a stat.e.mHlt sound. As they placed Reagan on the yesterday said he was in good condt· stretcher, , "he turned in my directioq tion despite some pain requiring mild and said, 'I can't breathe.' • . medication:,...... normal for · BOmMne At that point, Hernandez Said, he who .has had major surgery. Ht Mii noticed a little blood around Reagan's walking around, eating solid food. Rnd nose, but did not see any as his last night was expected tch-~,, hJa clothes were removed. He said he last dose of antibiotics (given aft« surgery to prevent infection), \crorct. ing to a doctor. ·THE WASHINGTON STAR Tuesday, March 31, 1981

'l'be -tragedy occ01 red at 2:is-p:ID. ~ The hospital had been .notified by . ~ At 4:14, · an emouonQlly sna.1West Wing, told reporters that a bu!· trade. unions designed to_drum up . team, he walked in under his ·own let had punctured the presideRt's - support' for his economic program. ·power although .holdirig his. bleed· left lung and that surgery was unde The president was waving to a crowd · · ing left side. · way~The secretai·y of state sought t of more than 100 _well-wishers when Meanwhile, deputy press secre· assure. all concerned that ever a series of shots rang out A. s~all . tary Karna Small told reporters that· thirig was under control, that he wa cloud of smoke rose about 10 feet the president . was .unharmed and ih charge of crisis management un­ away, above the area roped off for that ttie~ were conflicting reports til Bush returned and that allies had ; reporters and phQtographers who . as to · whether ·Brady had 'been been notified of the situation. accompany the president on all such wounded. : . .:.. · . . ·. . . . . At 5:17,. · brave attempts by th.e - outings. .· · At 2:58, Frank Ursomarso. White · White House press office to remain I "Get· down.~ "get back," security· · H9use 9irector of'communications, · -relatively·. composed. under severe/ men shouted. Onlookers screamed,' . $aid · Brady's condition was "un,:" emotional stress and considerabld. .. ran, cowereci :.The presi9ent- was known• and that.Meese, Baker and confusion gave way ~n the face o .. shoved d'own and. in tQ his- armored ·..· deputy press . secretary .· . Larry television reports: that Brady wa limousine, a: look of fear replac;ing ; Speakes were going to the hospital. dead. One staffer ran sobbing to the · the ever-present .smile~ . {They were joined by Reagan's po­ relative privacy ·of the basement. .. ·As the · presidential· limousine· litical director· and longtiIJ!e aide, . Tears flowed down the cheeks of the • ·screeched away, a group of wrestling Lyn Nofziger.) ·· . · · , usuaJIY. poker-faced· aides. · b6dies pinned the suspect against · Not .·. until · 3:1s·· did ·urso1f!arso, sery.'Iabeled. thos_e. rep: ' a submachine gun crouched as .West Wing. office, c.onfirm to scream­ A:bOUt ' 5:30; stirgeQriS COrriplete_d though in anticipation of another . ing: reporters: that Reagan. was in­ the removal of the bullet from the \ possible attack. , · : . jured. .MThe president was shot rn the president;.s lung and' by .S:20 ·the 6- A few feet away faid Brady, face· left-ehest," he said. "His condition is inch incision was sewn up and the - 'down. Blooo poured from the right stable." president whe~led .oto a recovery .. side. of his forehead, down a grid in By that time, Secretary of State Al· room .. . __ . ·' the sidewalk and b)' a small handgun ex_ander M. Haig haq arrived at the At 6:30, Bush arrived at Andrews . ·tying by his head.-Almost on top of White House to tak'e control of crisis Air Force Base. By 7, he, too, was in him w.·a s Delahanty. McCarthy lay on . opera!ioris pending· Busll 's return. the.situation room. · · . his. side a few feet away. . - . '· . · ,Haig had called Baker within min· At 7:30, Dr. Dennis S. O'Leary told j, A group of Secret Service agents · utes of Deaver's report from the hos· reporters that the president was out · of surgery, would be "fully capable" .wrestled the handcuffed suspect to pita!, and arrived at the White House.· in less fuan--five minutes. of making deci_sions today after the a D.C. police car which had backed anesthesia wears off, would be in into the seryice. alley. Agents .and At 3:37, Gergen told reporters that a decision was then being made .as ~moderate pain" for a couple of days, White House staff memberstattended would be hospitalized for a couple of ' ·.the wounded men, with one holding to whether Reagan required surgery and that,Bµ_shwQ.ulWilliam French Smith were in the White House to handle anything that ers, Bush convened aCabinet meeJ· !'ieved to be unhurt. That was the ini· ing. About 8:30, the vice president tial report relayed to the White might arise. - _· . ·. · ·' · A~out 3~45, Reagan was taken to reassured-the nation and the world, House. - . · . . · that the AmericaIJ. government i$ At 2:25, Vice President Bush, air· surgery, his irrepressible humor un:· : daun te'd. He-winked at Baker as or­ "functioning fully and effectively ,D : borne from Ft~ Worth to Austin., Tex., despite the trauma of the previous was told there had beeri a shooting ~- derlies wheeled him . toward the '_operating room . . He told his close ·six hours. / ·.. · -' ~ and that two men were down. Not 8:50, fr~eild, Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev.; By Reagan was sufficiently until 20 to 25 minutes later 'did he alert to pass the· light-hear.ted note learn that the president was hit. Air "Doti'.tworry, I'll make it." To Mrs. Reagan; the president had an apol~ to his doctors. Force II then landed in Austin, re· · Washington Siar Staff Writers fueled while Bush remained aboard ogy: ,"Honey, I forgot to duck." .. There was even a crack for the Jeremiah O'Leary' an.d Howie Kurtz and headed back to Washington. contributed to t!Jis repo!_r. About 2:35, Mrs. Reagah was told by surgeons. "Please tell me you 're Re­ her Secret Service agent that there _ publicans," quipped Reagan as he had been a shooting and that Brndy was about to undergo anesthesia. was hurt. She went immediately to "Today,' we·re all Republicans," · a the hospital, where she learned that doctor rejoined. her husband, too, was wounded . . About the same time. White House staff director Dav!d Gergen went fl y. ing into Chief of Staff James A. Baker III's office with word that Brady had been hit. Baker had gone . to tell· counselor Edwin Meese m. when - deputy chief-of-staff Michael K.. Deaver, who narrowly escaped the barrage of bullets, called from the hospital. to report the president's in- . jury. · . · .. ··. WASHINGTON STAR 3/31/81

1:,5 p,m, Reagan leaves White House 3:45 p.m. Surgery on Brady begins. for Wac;hington Hilton Hotel ' 4:10 p,m; Vice President George Bush -2:00 p.m. Reagan arrives at th~ · · leaves Austin. Texas, on Air Force Two. Washington Hillen to address the AFL·CIO Building and Trades . 4:15 p.m, Secretary of Stale Department conventi-on . · ·.·. ·.- Alexander Haig announces from the-­ White Hou<>e that key Cabinet.otfi~ials-· 2:25 p.m. Reagan and his entourage have been assembled . . leave the hotel. T~e president. Pres.s '.·_, · Secretary JamesS. Brady, D.C . Police 5:30 p.m. Doctors complete surgery on Officer Thomas K. Delahanly'ancfSecret Reagan. ' Service M .enLnmothy McCarth\t.are . ,. ; shor. ; . • . 5:30 p.m. Hinckley is transferred from O.C. police headquarters to the FBI' s . 2:25 p.m~ Joh ~ Wirnoci< Hinckley Jr., Washington field office. · ·2s. suspectei1~ int•'? assassination . ·. ilttemp\,_is fak.en into custody, and : 6:30 p.m. Bush arrives at Andre.ws Air Force Base: transported t<... !:>.r,. police headq11arters. · 2:35 p.m. Reag

'o. MillS . y, I

Tl>« Waslungtoo Star COMPILATION OF LOG OF INTERNAL EVENTS (See Baker Memo of 3/31/81 attached)

Questions to be Covered in Individual Memos

1. Exactly when did you first know about the President's condition, and how did you learn of it? (If your knowledge changed over time, please respond accordingly.)

2. What did you do first upon learning of the President's being injured?

3. Who was in command where you were located? (If the comrnan~ structure or your understanding of it changed over time, please note accordingly.)

4. What means of communications did you (or others near you) rely upon for interaction with key members of the White House staff and Cabinet; did this communications system function satisfactorily? (Please elaborate as appropriate.)

5. What significant decisions (in your judgment) were made where you were? By Whom? And how?

6. Please note any other facts that you judge might be relevant for a log of internal events. THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

March 31, 1981

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SENIOR STAFF

FROM' JAMES A. BAKER III~!/' SUBJECT: Compilation of Log of Internal Events

There is a need to compile an accurate log of relevant internal events for the period (approximately) 2:00 p.m. - 9: 00 p .m. on March 30 (yesterday) .

This will be required to provide authoritative responses to external questions, and to provide a basis for our own review of internal operating procedures.

I am asking Dick Darman to take overall responsibility for pulling this compilation together. I have asked him also to coordinate the development of a preliminary analysis of this compilation -- with a view toward recommending necessary changes (if any) in operating procedures and support systems. He will work closely with Dick Allen and Fred Fielding on this -- consulting with all of us as necessary. COMPILATION OF LOG OF INTERNAL EVENTS (See Baker Memo of 3/31/81 attached)

Questions to be Covered in Individual Memos

1. Exactly when did you first know about the President's condition, and how did you learn of it? (If your knowledge changed over time, please respond accordingly.)

2. What did you do first upon learning of the President's being injured?

3. Who was in command where you were located? (If the command structure or your understanding of it changed over time, please note accordingly.)

4. What means of communications did you (or others near you) rely upon for interaction with key members of the White House staff and Cabinet; did this communications system function satisfactorily? (Please elaborate as appropriate.)

5. What significant decisions (in your judgment) were made where you were? By Whom? And how?

6. Please note any other facts that you judge might be relevant for a log of internal events. INTERNAL EVENTS LOG

Asked for Facts Received Response

White House

Deaver Allen Anderson Fielding Friedersdorf Garrick Murphy Canzeri Fuller Hickey Hodsoll McCoy Williamson

Cabinet

Baldrige Regan (via Fuller) Casey (via Fuller) Weinberger Goldman (for Haig) Block (via Fuller) Lewis Watt Smith (via Fuller)

To Be Asked

Vice President Meese Baker THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

March 31, 1981

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SENIOR STAFF FROM: JAMES A. BAKER IIIf/'11 SUBJECT: Compilation of Log of Internal Events

There is a need to compile an accurate log of relevant internal events for the period (approximately) 2:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on March30 (yesterday).

This will be required to provide authoritative responses to external questions, and to provide a basis for our own review of internal operating procedures.

I am asking Dick Darman to take overall responsibility for pulling this compilation together. I have asked him also to coordinate the development of a preliminary analysis of this compilation -- with a view toward recommending necessary changes (if any) in operating procedures and support systems. He will work closely with Dick Allen and Fred Fielding on this -- consulting with all of us as necessary. THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

March 31, 1981

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SENIOR STAFF FROM: JAMES A. BAKER nrf/'11 SUBJECT: Compilation of Log of Internal Events

There is a need to compile an accurate log of relevant internal events for the period (approximately) 2:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on March30 (yesterday).

This will be required to provide authoritative responses. to external questions, and to provide a basis for our own review of internal operating procedures.

I am asking Dick Darman to take overall responsibility for pulling this compilation together. I have asked him also to . coordinate the development of a preliminary analysis of this compilation -- with a view toward recommending necessary changes (if any) in operating procedures and support systems. He will work closely with Dick Allen and Fred Fielding on this -- consulting with all of us as necessary. THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

March 31, 1981

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SENIOR STAFF FROM• JAMES A. BAKER III~il SUBJECT: Compilation of Log of Internal Events

There is a need to compile an accurate log of relevant internal events for the period (approximately) 2:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on March30 (yesterday).

This will be required to provide authoritative responses to external questions, and to provide a basis for our own review of internal operating procedures.

I am asking Dick Darman to take overall responsibility for pulling this compilation together. I have asked him also to coordinate the development of a preliminary analysis of this compilation -- with a view toward recommending necessary changes (if any) in operating procedures and support systems. He will work closely with Dick Allen and Fred Fielding on this -- consulting with all of us as necessary. THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

March 31, 1981

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SENIOR STAFF FROM' JAMES A. BAKER rrrfr'# SUBJECT: Compilation of Log of Internal Events

There is a need to compile an accurate log of relevant internal events for the period (approximately) 2:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on March30 (yesterday).

This will be required to provide authoritative responses to external questions, and to provide a basis for our own review of internal operating procedures.

I am asking Dick Darman to take overall responsibility for pulling this compilation together. I have asked him also to coordinate the development of a preliminary analysis of this compilation -- with a view toward recommending necessary changes (if any) in operating procedures and support systems. He will work closely with Dick Allen and Fred Fielding on this -- consulting with all of us as necessary. I GUIDANCE ON EVENTS OF MONDAY, MARCH 30

I 1. The activities that took place in GW Hospital, in the White House Situation Room, and on the Vice President's plane during the afternoon reflected a spirit of · complete cooperation and dedication toward one goal -­ to keep the American Government running smoothly during a period of distress.

2. There was full communication between the hospital, the Situation Room and the airplane at all times. During much of the afternoon, an open line was maintained between the White House and the hospital.

3. When new~ of the incident first broke in the afternoon, White House Chief of Staff Jim Baker and Secretary of State Haig twice conferred by telephone. Upon learning that the President had indeed been wounded, the Secretary came directly to Mr. Baker's office. Baker had just departed for the hospital with Ed Meese, Larry Speakes, and Lyn Nofziger. From the hospital, Baker talked with Haig and they agreed that Haig would serve as the chief contact point between Baker and Meese at the hospital and the Situation Room. He did so in numerous conversations thereafter.

4. Haig was chosen to coordinate the activities in the Situation Room, and- to serve as the chief contact because he was the senior Cabinet member present.

5. At one point during the afternoon, a question arose in the White House press room and on national television about the alert status of American forces and our overall security. Secretary Haig at that point felt it was important to reassure our allies that there was continuity of government here in the United States.

6-. At all times, officials of the Administration were prepared to deal with any contingency that might arise.

7. This morning, at the White House Senior Staff meeting, both Baker and Meese took the occasion to praise the Cabinet and the staff for their complete cooperation and teamwork during the tense hours of Monday. GUIDANCE ON EVENTS INXIHK OF MONDAY, MARCH 30

]. The activities that took place in GW Hospital, in the White House Situation Room, and on the Vice President's plane during the afternoon reflected a spirit of complete «aa~e~atiM8 cooperation and dedication toward one goal -- to keep the American government running smoothly during a period of distress. 2. There was full conrnunication between the hospital, the Situation Room and the airplane at all times. &txm1M1xtimes During much of the afternoon, an open line was maintained between the White House and the hospital. 3. When news of the incident first broke in the afternoon, White House chief of staff Jim Baker and Secretary of State Haig twice 1 • conferred by telephone>~ .JJpon a~ertaiR~at the ('""~'! Presidendl had indeed been wounded, 'the Secretary came directly'? \.... ~ . '\"""" to Mr. Baker's office. Baker soe,., U1ereafte1 we11t to tl1ed 'lc\l..... c.. J"' hospital with Meesx Ed Meese, Larry Speakes, and Lyn Nofziger. ~~\..l... +.r From the hospital, Baker Haig &Ms a.ml---asked liiffl:" <-.._ __ _ 11 • int of \ '(\...... \__ 4-.J... """" ~~~ ~ -""'- ~"' 4. Haig was chosen to coordinate the activities in the Situation ~ Room, and to serve as the «BJllt&«txwi:tkxtkexkH chief «RJ11tn contact~ Ve • .w;tL tRe "118!f'J;!al and tee vi• e f.lr esiae~ because he was the ~.s senior cabinet member present.i:J11xtJrJexiittt&t:iRM '-'-'.l- r<...,< 5. At one point during the afternoon, a question arose in the White House press room and on national television about the alert status of American forces and our overall security. Secretary Haig at that point felt it was important to reassure our allies that there was 11- continuity of government here in the United States.1J11i No one in the Situation ~aa Room disagreed with that judgment. r;-r wer. ~r~ ority ~~~ a/'L ~· ctivities JU./~

7. il!li This morning, at the White House senior staff mm meeting, both r ,,,.,.__ - Baker and Meese took the occasion to ~~as praise the cabinet and the staff for their complete CB cooperation and teamwork during the tense hourse of ittesa11 Monday. ~ ---- v ~ #'~ f ~ aA.~ .. ;.:z;;.Z:.. ~ G,. /I_J., ~ --n-~r ~1-6../ :1?/ ~47 t'*7·,, u.v--r ~- GUIDANCE ON EVENTS OF MONDAY, MARCH 30

1. The activities that took place in GW Hospital, in the White House Situation Room. and on the Vice President's plane during the afternoon reflected a s~irit of complete cooperation and dedication toward one goal ~ to keep the American Government running smoothly during a period of distress.

2. There was full communication between the hospital. the Situation Room and the airplane at all times. During much of the afternoon, an open line was maintained between the White House and the hospital.

3. When news of the incident first broke in the afternoonr White House Chief of Staff Jim Baker and Secretary of State Haig twice conferred by telephone. Upon learning that the President had indeed been wounded, the Secretary came directly to Hr. Baker's office. Baker had just departed for the hospital with Ed Meese, Larry Speakes, and Lyn Nofziger. From the hospital, Baker t~lked with Haig and they agreed that Haig would s~e as the chief contact point between Baker and }leese the hospital and the Situation Room./~~..,.., ..;_..-.u•• ·~ ~_.~ ~ 4. Haig was chosen to coordinate the activities in the Situation Room, and to serve as the chief contact because he was the senior Cabinet member present.

5. At one point during the afternoon, a question arose in the White House press room and on national television about the alert status of American forces and our overall security. Secretary Haig at that point felt it was important to reassure our allies that there was continuity of government here in the United States. "No--one--in tae- Si taat±on- Ro"onr d±s~-F~ wj th :t..h.a.:t.. __j_udgm.en-e-~ - --

6. At all time, officials of the Administration were prepared to deal with any contingency that might arise. 7. This morning, at the White House Senior Staff meeting, both Baker and Meese took the occasion to praise the Cabinet and the staff for th~ir complete cooper ation and teamwork during the tense hours of Monday. GUIDANCE ON EVENTS OF MONDAY, MARCH 30

1. The activities that took place in GW Hospital, in the White House Situation Room, and on the Vice President's plane du~ing the afternoon reflected a spirit of complete cooperation and dedication toward one goal -­ to keep the American Government running smoothly during a period of distress.

2. There was full communication between the hospital, the Situation Room and the airplane at all times. During much of the afternoon, an open line was maintained between the White House and the hospital.

3. When news of the incident first broke in the afternoon, White House Chief of Staff Jim Baker and Secretary of State Haig twice conferred by telephone. Upon learning that the President had indeed been wounded, the Secretary came directly to Mr. Baker's office. Baker had just departed for the hospital with Ed Meese, Larry Speakes, and Lyn Nofzi;er. From the hospital, Baker talked with Haig and they agreed that Haig would serve as the chi€f contact point between Baker and Meese and the hospital and the Situation Room.

4. Haig was chosen to coordinate the activities in the Situation Room, and to serve as the chief contact because he was the senior Cabinet member present.

5. At one point during the afternoon, a question arose in the White House press room and on national television about the alert status of American forces and our overall security. Secretary Haig at that point felt it was important to reassure our allies that there was continuity of government here in the United States. No one in the Situation Room disagreed with that judgment.

6. At all time, officials of the Administration were prepared to deal with any contingency that might arise.

7. This morning, at the White House Senior Staff meeting, both Baker and Meese took the occasion to praise the Cabinet and the staff for their complete cooper ati on and teamwork during the tense hours of Monday.