Hinckley's Insanity (1982)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s April 27th. This day in 1982, John Hinckley went on trial for the attempted assassination of President Reagan. Hinckley’s lawyers would mount a successful insanity defense, based on his fixation with actress Jodie Foster.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the way the trial played out, why Foster was forced to testify, and how this trial played into the larger conversation — and criminalization — of mental health conditions in the 1980s.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:11.0	This day, April 27th, 1982, John Hinkley went on trial for his attempted assassination of President
0:18.6	Ronald Reagan.
0:20.1	Just over a year earlier on March 29th, 1981, outside a hotel in Washington, D.C.
0:26.2	Hinkley had fired six bullets at Reagan.
0:29.2	One of them hit and nearly killed the president.
0:31.9	Another hit and paralyzed his press secretary, James Brady.
0:35.2	Two other people in Reagan's entourage were injured as well.
0:38.6	Hinkley was quickly detained and arrested and it became very clear very quickly that he had a serious
0:44.8	mental health condition and this trial really focused on that the trial that
0:49.5	started in 1982 would center on his mental health, questions of quote unquote insanity, and lots more.
0:56.8	So here to discuss that trial and what it means and the kind of larger moment in America where
1:02.3	it really did feel like the country started to talk about
1:05.3	mental health and criminalize as we'll see mental health in many ways.
1:09.2	Here to discuss that as always are Nicoleheimer of Columbia and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
1:14.0	Hello there. Hey Jody. Hey there. And I should say that I'm particularly
1:20.3	interested in this because I've been working on this series. This is a chance for me to plug a little bit by working on this series this is a chance for me to plug a little bit
1:24.0	but I've working on this series called Death at the Wing hosted by this guy Adam McKay
1:28.1	and one of our episodes actually sort of lives a little bit in this moment and about how
1:31.6	mental health conversations about mental health shifted
1:35.0	and a lot of it was around the Hinkley trial.
	...

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