Judge frees President Reagan's would-be killer Hinckley
John Hinckley Jr., who wounded US President Ronald Reagan and three other people in a 1981 assassination attempt prompted by his mental illness, should be freed after 35 years and released to live with his mother, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
US District Judge Paul Friedman said Hinckley, 61, no longer posed a danger to himself or others and could be released from St. Elizabeth's, a government psychiatric hospital in Washington.
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 for the attack on Reagan, which also badly wounded presidential press secretary James Brady, outside a Washington hotel. Hinckley carried out the attack in a bid to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed.
