John Warnock Hinckley (1955-), attempted assassin of United
States President, Ronald Reagan. In 1981 as the
President was leaving a hotel in
Washington D.C., Hinckley, a
psychiatric patient, who was in the crowd,
fired several shots, wounding the
president and two others. Per
report at the
time, Hinckley had planned the
shooting in
order to impress an actress whom he was
obsessed with. He was
tried and found not guilty of the
crime by
reason of
insanity. His violent
attack was later attributed to the
psychiatric drug
Valium, which he had been taking while receiving treatment, prior to the assassination attempt.