As John Hinckley Jr. Seeks Redemption, New Documentary Probes His Legacy

Now a free man, former Park Cities resident provides new perspective on his controversial life

“I’m John Hinckley. I shot the president of the United States,” confesses the subject of a new documentary that revisits the life and legacy of a would-be assassin who spent his formative years in the Park Cities and is now a free man.

Hinckley allows the infamous shooter — who wounded President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel in 1981 with a revolver purchased at a Dallas pawn shop — to tell his own story during a time of heightened attention on gun violence, political extremism and ideological division, and a 24-hour news cycle driven by social media. The film is available for streaming.

Australian filmmaker Neil McGregor was researching music tracks for another project a couple of years back when he came across a Bob Dylan cover performed by Hinckley. McGregor didn’t immediately recognize the name. He was born four years after the assassination attempt, and Hinckley’s notoriety had faded during the 35 years he was confined by a federal court to a mental-health facility.

Since being granted his unconditional release from court restrictions in 2022 at age 67, Hinckley has sought to pursue a music career, primarily by posting acoustic songs online. That gave McGregor an opening.

“I wanted to tell his story objectively as an outsider looking in,” McGregor said. “He’s done some absolutely monstrous things, so I couldn’t create empathy for him. It’s up to the audience to decide how they feel. How does he redeem himself? What kind of character is he? I don’t want to manipulate those emotions.”

Hinckley, who graduated from Highland Park High School in 1973, explains in the film how he became dangerously obsessed a few years later with teenage actress Jodie Foster after watching Taxi Driver. 

Unsuccessful in his extensive attempts to stalk her, Hinckley schemed to get Foster’s attention with a large-scale crime such as hijacking a plane or assailing a president. He originally plotted against Jimmy Carter before Reagan. A year after the incident, a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity on all 13 charges.

McGregor’s film combines an array of archival footage with interviews, conducted over six months primarily at Hinckley’s home in Virginia.

“I didn’t think he would open up as much as he did,” McGregor said. “He understands that things in his past are what causes him to not be able to move on with his life. He knows the world will always judge him in that way.”

Hinckley touches briefly on his younger years, during which Hinckley’s family moved to the Park Cities from Oklahoma. The son of an oil executive, Hinckley was influenced by the local music scene in the late 1960s. It wasn’t until later that he was diagnosed and began treatment for a variety of mental illnesses.

“He was born with the American Dream. He had a very normal upbringing, and that in itself strikes a chord with going on from that to what he did, and how his life spiraled,” McGregor said. “He loved living in Dallas and still speaks of it very fondly.”

These days, as Hinckley seeks redemption and a fresh start, he knows he will never be able to erase the past.

“That’s something he wrestles with,” McGregor said. “His name is etched in the wrong side of history.”