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Presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. will be allowed to obtain a D.C. driver's license and spend more time at his mother's home in Virginia under a ruling yesterday by a federal judge. The decision is the latest in recent years expanding privileges for Hinckley, who has been held at St. Elizabeths Hospital since he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan, his press secretary and two law enforcement officers. The psychiatric hospital is seeking to gradually increase Hinckley's freedom so that doctors can evaluate whether he is nearing the point...

A federal judge says John Hinckley, the man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan, can spend more time away from his psychiatric hospital and apply for a driver's license. In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman says Hinckley's health will probably improve with more freedom and that he wouldn't be a danger to himself or others.

Here is video from twenty-eight years ago today, March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley attempted to assasinate President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was shot and came perilously close to death, but recovered. The video also has Reagan talking about being shot, and shows him speaking before a Joint Session of Congress on April 28, 1981 after recovering from his wounds. Reagan was one-of-a-kind! How we need someone like him again today. . . . . . (Watch Video)

The man who shot Ronald Reagan would really like to have longer furloughs from the psych hospital, but prosecutors say it's a bad idea. Their reason: Hinckley is "is a womanizing narcissist who juggles sexual relationships, maintains 'fondling privileges' with one paramour, and 'believes himself entitled to a life of leisure,'" The Smoking Gun reports.............."

<p>Would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr., is a "narcissistic" ladies' man, according to a government filing that argues against him being given more freedom from his loony-bin lockup.</p> <p>Hinckley, 53, shot President Ronald Reagan in March 1981 in a twisted attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster - an homage to the movie "Taxi Driver" - and now has four different girlfriends, court papers indicate.</p>

An attorney and top foreign policy adviser to Sen. Barack Obama is coming under fire for representing controversial figures, including an accused human-rights abuser, an alleged murderer of a U.S. soldier and even the would-be assassin of former President Ronald Reagan. Greg Craig, who has been termed the "lawyer of the left," represented John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate Reagan in 1981 by firing six bullets at the president as he left a hotel. Craig was reportedly the architect of Hinckley's successful defense in which he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, even though reports by the...

Gordon B. Hinckley will be remembered for a lot of things within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose President and Prophet he was until his death Sunday at 97.... But for the rest of the country, he may be credited as the man who helped make Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy possible.... were it not for Hinckley's relentless 20-year publicity campaign to assure fellow Christians that Mormons, as he insisted, were not "weird," Romney would have had a much more difficult time overcoming the impression that many have of his faith.... By the time Hinckley took over as...

J.W. "Jack" Hinckley, whose son attempted to assassinate President Reagan, has died. He was 82. Hinckley, who had been in declining health, died Tuesday, according to Nelsen Funeral Home. He had lived in Williamsburg for 22 years with his wife of 61 years, Jo Ann. A memorial service will be held Saturday at Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. John Hinckley Jr. has been committed to a Washington, D.C., psychiatric hospital since he shot and wounded President Reagan in 1981. Hinckley, who said he was trying to impress actress Jodie Foster, was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In 2005, a federal...

Funeral services for President Gordon B. Hinckley, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who died Sunday evening, will be held this Saturday, February 2, in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. The proceedings will be broadcast via satellite in 69 languages to over 6,000 Church buildings globally. Brigham Young University’s BYU Television will also broadcast the funeral internationally. Those who attend the funeral services at the Conference Center will need to be in their seats no later than 10:30 a.m. for an 11:00 a.m. start. Seating will be restricted to the 21,000 capacity of the...

President and Mrs. Bush Deeply Saddened by Death of Gordon B. Hinckley Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of our friend, Gordon B. Hinckley. While serving for over seven decades in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon demonstrated the heart of a servant and the wisdom of a leader. He was a tireless worker and a talented communicator who was respected in his community and beloved by his congregation. As President of his church, he traveled to more than 60 countries to spread a message of love and optimism to the millions of...

SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97. President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995. The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of...

(ABC 4 News) SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has died. He was 97 years old. President Gordon B. Hinckley, world leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was ordained and set apart as the 15th President of the Church on Sunday, March 12, 1995. He had earlier served 14 years as a counselor in the First Presidency, the top governing body of the Church, and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for 20 years prior to that. President Hinckley married Marjorie Pay in the Salt...

President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints died this evening. He was 97. Hinckley's life spanned the 20th century, a time marked by LDS global outreach and technological advances. Hie saw his church evolve from a tiny sect in the Intermountain West to a respected religious movement with more than 13 million members worldwide. He embraced each new communication device, from radio to satellite to YouTube, as a chance to spread the Mormon word. He began his career in the 1930s as a missionary defending the faith on a soapbox in London's Hyde Park...

<p>President Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has passed away.</p>

It is good to be here with you this morning, my dear young friends. I ask that the Lord will help me to say something that will help you. Recently I spent the better part of a week in Washington, D.C., living in a hotel room. Each morning I watched the early news on television and then read the morning paper while eating breakfast. President Ford had just granted a pardon to his predecessor. The amount of venom that spewed from the mouths and pens of the commentators was unbelievable. They were aflame with indignation. In all that week of...

WASHINGTON - Presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. may continue with visits to his parents' home in Virginia indefinitely, a federal judge has ruled. The man who shot President Ronald Reagan and three others in 1981 will be permitted an unlimited number of visits, each of four nights' duration, to his parents' home in the upscale, gated Kingsmill subdivision near Williamsburg. Hinckley, 51, won court approval last December to make seven trips to Kingsmill and has completed six of them. In granting additional visits, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman found that Hinckley ``does not present a danger to himself...

WASHINGTON (AP) - John W. Hinckley Jr., who was committed to a mental hospital after trying to assassinate President Reagan, is asking a federal judge to let him spend more time with his family. Prosecutors oppose the request, saying they need to review Hinckley's medical records. Last year, a federal judge approved Hinckley's request to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington for seven extended visits with his parents in Virginia. Hinckley is down to his last visit. On Aug. 1 he asked a federal judge to extend that order. "On each of these trips, Mr. Hinckley has complied fully with...

WASHINGTON -- It was 25 years ago today that John Hinckley tried to kill President Reagan. He fired the shots that struck President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington D.C. hotel. The shooting came just 70 days into the Reagan presidency. It nearly killed him and permanently disabled White House Press Secretary James Brady. The shooting was said to be an attempt by Hinckley to impress actress Jodie Foster. At his trial a year later, Hinckley was found innocent by reason of insanity. He is still in a Washington mental hospital, continuing his efforts to be allowed to...

At around 2:25 p.m. on March 30,1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot as he exited the Washington Hilton Hotel. A volley of shots rang out from the press area where 25 year-old John Hinckley Jr., who had gotten to within 15 feet of the President, was holding a .22 caliber pistol. Hinckley shot not only President Reagan, but a Washington police officer, a Secret Service agent who put himself in the line of fire to protect the President, and White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was shot in the head. A Secret Service agent pushed Reagan into a limosuine...

Intermountain Healthcare has fired two employees at Cottonwood Hospital in Murray after news media reportedly were alerted to the medical condition of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley through an e-mail. The 95-year-old president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints underwent surgery at LDS Hospital to remove a cancerous growth earlier this week. He was recovering on schedule and doctors were pleased with his progress, church spokesman Dale Bills said Friday on the faith's Web site, lds.org. Aryn Nelson, a gastroenterologist technician, said she was terminated on Wednesday because she had given her log-in information to a...

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge Friday loosened the restrictions on John W. Hinckley Jr., allowing the hospitalized presidential assailant to spend seven overnight visits with his parents in Williamsburg, Va. Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, had been permitted to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington for outings around the nation's capital. He wanted to make longer trips and travel outside the area to his parents' community in southeastern Virginia. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Hinckley could be allowed initially three, three-night visits and later another four, four-night visits. It was not known Friday when Hinckley...

WASHINGTON - A federal judge Friday loosened the restrictions on John W. Hinckley Jr., allowing the hospitalized presidential assailant to spend seven overnight visits with his parents in Williamsburg, Va. Hinckley, who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, had been permitted to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington for outings around the nation's capital. He wanted to make longer trips and travel outside the area to his parents' community in southeastern Virginia. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Hinckley could be allowed three, three-night visits and another four, four-night visits. "He is not permitted to leave one or both...

ONCE AGAIN, John Hinckley wants to spend more time outside the mental institution he has been locked up in since 1982. He wants to visit his parents and, one of his psychologists now says, “to have a girlfriend” and “intimate contact with a female.” And you can’t blame him. Which is the problem. You can’t blame him for anything. Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan and three other people on March 30, 1981. But Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has been locked up in St. Elizabeth’s mental hospital in Washington, D.C., for the last 23 years. This...

Posted on Tue, Sep. 20, 2005 Reagan shooter Hinckley wants somebody to love The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The man who shot President Ronald Reagan would like a new girlfriend, and his father would like him to get married. John Hinckley’s desires, along with his thwarted efforts to woo women, unfolded Monday in a federal court hearing into his bid for visits to his parents’ Virginia home. That home is a three-hour drive away from the Washington hospital where he has spent more than two decades since shooting Reagan and four other persons. Paul Montalbano, a hospital psychologist, testified that...

"John Hinckley's relationships with women are normal, two of his therapists testified Tuesday, disagreeing with suggestions by government attorneys that the presidential assailant is not yet ready for lengthy visits to his parents' home in Virginia...His family lives a three-hour drive from the Washington hospital where he has spent more than two decades for shooting President Reagan and three other people in 1981...

<p>Lawyers for the man who shot President Reagan in 1981 are scheduled to return to a federal courtroom in Washington today to renew his efforts to make overnight visits to his parents' home near Williamsburg.</p> <p>A judge last fall denied John Hinckley Jr.'s request, citing a continuing relationship with a former girlfriend.</p>

WASHINGTON &#8212; Presidential assailant John Hinckley will be allowed periodic overnight visits with his parents in the Washington area until a court decides whether to grant his request for longer out-of-town trips, a federal judge ruled Monday. Hinckley, who was acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1981 shooting of President Reagan, is seeking permission for six overnight stays with his parents at their home in Virginia. The first would last two nights, increasing one night each time to seven nights for the sixth.

Just blocks from the downtown Cathedral, the 175th annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was being conducted at the Conference Center. President Gordon B. Hinckley opened the afternoon session Saturday by announcing the pope's death to 21,000 faithful at the center and millions more listening or watching the conference worldwide. "We join those throughout the world who mourn the passing of Pope John Paul II, an extraordinary man of faith, vision and intellect, whose courageous actions have touched the world in ways that will be felt for generations to come," President Hinckley said. "The pope's...

1981: President Reagan is shot President Ronald Reagan has been shot and wounded after a lone gunman opened fire in Washington. He is currently undergoing emergency surgery at George Washington University Hospital but there are unconfirmed reports he walked in unaided. Initial reports claim he may have a punctured lung. Five to six shots were fired as he left the Washington Hilton Hotel where he had been addressing a union convention, about one mile from the White House. A man, firing at close range, also wounded White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head. A Secret Service official and...

Hinckley's Bid for Out-of-Town Trips Rejected A federal judge in Washington yesterday turned down a request by presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. to leave a psychiatric hospital for a series of unsupervised visits at his parents' home in Williamsburg. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said he needed more information about Hinckley's relationship with a former girlfriend before he could consider expanding his freedom to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital. The decision thwarts, for now at least, Hinckley's hopes of regularly visiting his parents for four days at a stretch with no hospital escort. In a ruling, the judge criticized...

The sister of John Hinckley Jr. told a federal judge yesterday she could travel from her home in Dallas to help supervise her brother if he is allowed to leave the St. Elizabeths Hospital to visit their parents in Virginia.

WASHINGTON - A federal judge is considering whether to allow more freedom for John Hinckley Jr., who has lived at a psychiatric hospital since trying to assassinate President Reagan in 1981. His attorneys are asking a federal judge Monday to allow five-day, unsupervised visits every two weeks at his parents' home in Virginia. Since late last year, Hinckley has been allowed shorter visits with them, and now his lawyers say he is ready for longer trips. Government attorneys oppose the request, saying these trips are not appropriate. In court filings, they reminded the judge that in trying to kill Reagan...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate President Reagan in 1981, is seeking five-day, unsupervised visits with his parents at their home in Virginia. Late last year, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman granted Hinckley shorter visits, limited to the Washington area, with his elderly parents. Hinckley, who has lived at St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital in Washington since he was acquitted in 1982 by reason of insanity, now wants to expand those visits to five-day trips every two weeks to Williamsburg, Va., about three hours south of the nation's capital. The judge denied a similar request by...

John Edwards once claimed he was channeling the soul of a dead baby before a jury in a medical malpractice case. But if that seems in poor taste, consider the depths to which the tort lawyers' friends in Congress will sink to preserve maximum latitude for lawsuits. Exploiting the families of suicide victims? Fair game, it would seem. ... You get the idea: the usual Republican administration serving big business shtick. But remarkably, the House GOP couldn't summon the courage to defend itself and allowed passage on a voice vote of a Hinchey-sponsored amendment that would strip $500,000 from the...

He touched so many lives As we received the news this week of former President Ronald Reagan’s death, I am reminded of the man and president he was and the impact he had on so many, including my then-seven year old son. I remember when he campaigned for presidency. I was a junior in high school. I was upset, since I was not yet 18, I would not be eligible to vote for him. He would, of course, become our 40th president even without my vote. I recall hearing my parents speak about his career as a movie and television...

Today is Tuesday, March 30, the 90th day of 2004. There are 276 days left in the year. Related Links · Today in Entertainment History - AP Today's Highlight in History: On March 30, 1981, President Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, D.C. hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr. Also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia police officer. On this date: In 1822, Florida became a United States territory. In 1842, Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, Ga., first used ether as an anesthetic during a...

WHEN JOHN W. HINCKLEY JR. SHOT PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN to win fame and impress the actress Jodie Foster in March 1981, he caused appalling damage. He wounded a Washington, D.C., police officer and a Secret Service agent, left Reagan's well-liked press secretary James Brady with severe brain damage, and nearly killed the president. At Hinckley's trial for attempted assassination and other crimes, both the prosecution and the defense depicted him as bizarre, miserable, and repellant. He was a deceitful, suicidal loner who wrote creepy poems with unsettling titles ("Guns Are Fun!"). He fantasized that he was living out the movie...

It was a dark dream full of movement: The jury walks in and hands up the verdict, the judge mouths the words on the paper, the assassin nods his head forward and backward and closes his eyes. The parents cry in happiness, and the government lawyers are struck dumb. The spectators look at each other in astonishment. The dream jumps. In a suburban home sits a witty and competent man whose life was quite ruined by the young man who nods and closes his eyes and hears that he is not guilty of committing ruin. The dream ends with a...

John W. Hinckley Jr., who in 1982 was acquitted by reason of insanity in his attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, has been granted court permission to have unsupervised visits with his parents. Hinckley has been held in St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital in Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years. He’d been previously granted only supervised visits. The court’s decision has angered many people, including the former first lady, Nancy Reagan, and James Brady, who was severely wounded in Hinckley’s attack. (Two others were also injured.) Former Reagan aides, such as Patrick Buchanan, have expressed outrage. Ad hoc outrage, however,...

Judges who make unpopular decisions typically say, with a shrug, the law made them do it. More often it's just a matter of using ideology as a scales for weighing the evidence. Thus is it possible for a creature like John Hinckley to walk free. Mr. Hinckley shot President Reagan, Press Secretary James Brady and two lawmen on March 30, 1982, in a bizarre attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster. Thankfully, he seasoned his malevolence with incompetence. Unlike would-be assassins Sarah Jane Moore and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who used .38- and .45-caliber pistols, respectively, to attempt to assassinate President Ford...

7 a.m.: "Twas the Night Before John Hinckley Jr.'s unsupervised visit"'Twas the night before Christmas, in Jodie Foster's house; Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; A shotgun was loaded by the front door with care, In case John Hinckley Jr. soon would be there.What happens when a Washington, D.C., judge lets a would-be assassin out of a mental hospital for unsupervised visits with his folks? John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Reagan and three others, is hitting the streets. Horror mixes with the holiday cheer in this feature about a schizophrenic Star Trek convention reject...

Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy doesn't know if the man who shot him and President Ronald Reagan in 1981 is sane enough to have unsupervised visits. But McCarthy, who served on the Secret Service's presidential detail at the time, knows who he will hold responsible if the would-be assassin hurts anyone outside of the mental institution where he's spent the past 21 years. "The people pushing for his release need to be real sure he is not a danger to himself or others," McCarthy, 54, said. "What this individual tried to do was to change the results of an...

<p>The would-be assassin who almost killed President Reagan is a free man. After four days of weighing various legal and medical opinions, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman decided that John Hinckley Jr. could leave the custody of a mental hospital for unsupervised visits with his parents. For the first time in 21 years, he will be allowed six day-long and two overnight visits, which will be spent in the Washington area. The leniency for this shooter is wrong on many counts.</p>

Hinckley allowed unsupervised visits 1 hour, 19 minutes ago By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY John Hinckley, the man who shot President Reagan in a failed assassination attempt more than two decades ago, will be allowed to leave the mental hospital grounds for a series of unsupervised visits with his parents, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Over the objections of the federal government, the Reagan family and the former president's press secretary who was badly wounded in the 1981 attack, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman concluded that Hinckley, 48, no longer posed a danger and that all the medical evidence weighed...

<p>A team of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental-health experts agree that John W. Hinckley Jr. should be granted unsupervised leaves from St. Elizabeths Hospital, where he has been confined since trying to kill President Reagan in 1981, a psychiatrist testified yesterday in U.S. District Court.</p>

PONTEFICATIONS THE MAN WHO SHOT PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN in March 1981 will be able to take unsupervised outings from the psychiatric facility where he was sent after being found not guilty by reason of insanity. This ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman has caused widespread outrage. It will cause more when Americans learn that this highly-partisan judge was himself involved in an attempt to “assassinate” President Reagan politically. Prior to his 1994 appointment to the Federal bench by President Bill Clinton, Paul L. Friedman in 1987-1988 was one of five Associate Independent Counsels assisting Lefty Lawrence Walsh’s political...

Michael Reagan, son of ailing President Ronald Reagan, said Wednesday that he doesn't think his father's would-be assassin will be able to stay out of trouble once doctors let him out for unsupervised leaves from the Washington, D.C., psychiatric hospital where he has resided since 1981. "I don't trust the fact that he's out," Reagan told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "He still should spend the rest of his life in that mental institution." Reagan noted that the man who nearly killed the 40th president has yet to demonstrate that he even regrets the attack. "The first thing you...

<p>U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman yesterday freed John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Reagan, for unsupervised trips from the mental hospital where he has been confined for more than two decades.</p> <p>Judge Friedman granted the trips over the objections of the U.S. government and the family of the former president.</p>

Just breaking on MSNBC: John Hinckley has been granted unsupervised visits with his parents.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for the former Colorado man who shot President Reagan said Thursday that psychiatrists support letting him leave a mental hospital for visits with his parents. Government attorneys insisted the would-be assassin was still dangerous and trying to deceive his doctors. Both sides completed their arguments on the fifth day of a hearing on John Hinckley Jr.'s request for permission to leave St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington for the visits. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman declined to say when he would issue a ruling. Hinckley, 48, has been at the hospital since he was acquitted in...