John Hinckley Jr. Shares New Message to Jodie Foster

Forty-five years after his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan - a crime he committed in a misguided effort to impress actress Jodie Foster - John Hinckley Jr. has offered a brief, reflective statement about the woman whose image once consumed his life. In a new public message, Hinckley expressed goodwill toward Foster, saying he “wishes her well,” a notable coda to one of the most bizarre and chilling chapters in American political history.

Hinckley’s remarks, shared through his social media channels, mark yet another step in his long, contentious return to public life. For decades, he was the face of a deranged obsession: on March 30, 1981, he shot Reagan outside a Washington, D.C. hotel, wounding the president along with Press Secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent, and a police officer. His motive, as he later explained, was to win the attention and affection of Foster, then a young actress who had starred in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver.” In that film, Travis Bickle - a disturbed loner - attempts to assassinate a presidential candidate, a role Hinckley famously imitated in real life.

The new message, which surfaced in a brief online post, is characteristically terse and tinged with an odd, almost mundane decency. There is no grand apology for the trauma he caused, nor any deep dive into his decades of psychiatric treatment. Instead, he offered a simple, human sentiment: that he holds no ill will toward Foster, and that he hopes her life has been kind. It is a far cry from the fevered letters he once wrote her, the ones that detailed his plans and his obsessive love, all of which she repeatedly ignored and never answered.

Foster has rarely spoken about Hinckley, and she has never engaged with his public overtures. In the years since the shooting, she has built an Academy Award-winning career, directed films, and largely kept her private life shielded from the kind of invasive scrutiny that Hinckley’s actions thrust upon her as a teenager. She has noted in past interviews that the event was terrifying and disruptive, and that being linked to such a violent act - through no fault of her own - was a burden she carried for years. Her silence on his recent message is consistent with that lifelong stance: she has always refused to give his obsession any oxygen.

Hinckley’s public presence has been controversial since his release from institutional care. Initially confined to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington for over three decades, he won conditional release in 2016 and was granted unconditional release in 2022, with a federal judge ruling that he no longer posed a danger to himself or others. Since then, he has pursued a strange, quasi-celebrity existence: selling paintings online, posting on social media, and even attempting to book small concert venues for his music. He’s spoken openly about his mental health struggles, and he’s frequently addressed his past - sometimes with regret, sometimes with an unsettling detachment that critics say suggests he still doesn’t fully grasp the gravity of his crime.

That tension is on full display in this latest message. On one hand, wishing Foster well is an almost banal gesture of politeness. On the other, it’s impossible to separate the words from the man who once stalked her across college campuses and wrote to her about violent fantasies. The context is everything, and the context is horrific.

Legal experts and mental health professionals who have followed Hinckley’s case note that his recent public statements are typical of someone who has undergone years of therapy and is trying to live a normal life. They point out that he has complied with the terms of his release for years, and that his behavior, while eccentric, has not raised red flags. Still, his continued attempts to remain in the public eye - often referencing the assassination attempt that made him infamous - strike many as a form of unrepentant self-promotion. For Foster, who never asked for any of this, the new message is likely just another unwelcome reminder of a nightmare she has long tried to leave behind.

The Reagan family, along with the survivors of the shooting, have been more forgiving than many would expect. Nancy Reagan, until her death, expressed a measure of compassion for Hinckley’s illness. James Brady’s widow, Sarah, became a gun control advocate and spoke about Hinckley with a pragmatism that focused on mental health care rather than vengeance. But those who witnessed the shooting, and the aftermath that nearly killed Reagan, have never fully accepted Hinckley’s release as a simple happy ending.

For now, Hinckley’s message to Foster stands as another strange milestone in a story that has always defied easy explanation. It is, on its face, a kind of benediction - a wish for happiness from a man who once tried to buy her love with blood. Whether it’s read as a sign of genuine growth or a hollow echo of a disturbed mind, it remains an unforgettable reminder of how a unrequited obsession can reshape a nation’s history. Foster, meanwhile, continues on her own path, clearly uninterested in offering Hinckley the one thing he wanted from her then and, perhaps, still seeks now: a response.

Source: Variety