Did John Hinckley have an obsession with Jodie Foster?

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. is an American man who attempted to assassinate United States President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C.

Using a .22 caliber revolver, Hinckley wounded Reagan, police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy on March 30, 1981, following Reagan’s first inauguration.

He also gravely wounded Press Secretary James Brady, who was left permanently disabled in the shooting.

Hinckley was reportedly seeking notoriety to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had an obsessive fixation.

He was arrested and found not guilty by reason of insanity and remained under institutional psychiatric care for over three decades.

Did John Hinckley have an obsession with Jodie Foster?

John Hinckley was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster.

Hinckley developed an infatuation with Jodie Foster, who played a sexually trafficked 12-year-old child, Iris Steensma, in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.

When Foster entered Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven, Connecticut, for a short time to stalk her. He sent Foster love letters and romantic poems, and repeatedly called and left her messages.

Failing to nurture any intimacy with Foster, Hinckley fantasized about conducting an aircraft hijacking or killing himself in front of her to get her attention. Ultimately, he settled on a scheme to impress her by assassinating the president.

Hinckley stalked President Jimmy Carter from state to state and was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, on a firearms charge.

In spite of psychiatric treatment for depression, his mental health did not improve.

He began to target the newly elected president Ronald Reagan in 1981. For this purpose, he collected material on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Hinckley wrote to Foster prior to his attempt on Reagan’s life:

“Over the past seven months I’ve left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me.

“Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. … “The reason I’m going ahead with this attempt now is because I cannot wait any longer to impress you”.