On election day: Owen Ullmann, “Labor Leaders See GOP Senate as Nightmare,” AP, November 6, 1981.
already being dubbed: The first reference to “Reagan Democrats” that I could find appears in a UPI story on March 12, 1981. In a story on March 24, 1981, the Christian Science Monitor refers to a group of conservative Democratic lawmakers as “Reagan Democrats.”
But the speech mattered: Reagan wrote at length in Where’s the Rest of Me? about his time as president of the Screen Actors Guild; he was known to regale advisors and friends with stories about his time negotiating contracts with the major Hollywood studios.
The text of Reagan’s talk: Interview with Maseng, first draft of speech, RRPL.
Reagan read the text: Copy of Reagan’s rewrite of speech, as well as his editing marks on the rest of the draft, RRPL.
Now, as he reviewed the final draft of the speech: Reagan summoned Maseng and Khachigian to his office to point out errors in the quote from Gompers as it appeared on his speech cards, according to Maseng. Maseng does not recall the nature of the error, but believes the president indeed found a mistake that had been introduced by someone else. In truth, Reagan most likely made the mistake. The Gompers quote is included on his stack of index cards of quotations, but Reagan’s version has the two errors that were later corrected by a researcher in the speech-writing office, according to various drafts of the address (RRPL). Joanne Drake, chief of staff of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, provided me with the quote as it appears on Reagan’s cards. The full and correct Gompers quote (I will note Reagan’s errors in parentheses): “Doing for People what they can and ought to do for themselves is a dangerous experiment. In the last analysis the welfare of the workers depends upon (Reagan used ‘on’ instead of ‘upon’) their own initiative. Whatever is done under the guise of philanthropy or social morality, which in any way lessens initiative, is the greatest crime that can be committed against the toilers. Let social busybodies and professional public (Reagan left out ‘public’) morals experts in their fads reflect upon the perils they rashly invite under the pretense of social welfare.” Darryl Borgquist, the researcher who discovered Reagan’s errors in the draft, eventually obtained a photocopy of the president’s quotation cards, greatly aiding his fact-checking efforts. Still, Borgquist said, he often struggled to verify quotations inserted into addresses by the president, especially those attributed to authors. Then the researcher realized that the president was culling the language from movie scripts, not books or magazine articles. Invariably, a call to Warner Bros. would reveal that an author had also submitted a screenplay to the studio, and Reagan had likely read it. The future president had committed it to memory.
One of the city’s prime venues: The history of the Hilton was culled from various stories in the archives of the Washington Post, and an interview with Frank Passanante, a Hilton regional vice president of sales and marketing.
At eleven that Monday morning: Interview with Bill Green; Green Secret Service report (redacted).
Green had been working on the visit since Wednesday: Treasury report; Green Secret Service report (redacted); interview with Green.
Green read a standard security survey: Green Secret Service report (redacted); interview with Green.
On Friday, he went to the Hilton: Interviews with Rick Ahearn, Al Fury, and Green; Ahearn Secret Service report (redacted), Green Secret Service report (redacted), Fury Secret Service report (redacted); Treasury report.
But union officials did not: Interview with Ahearn; Ahearn Secret Service report (redacted).
Green, Ahearn, and the others: Interviews with Green and Ahearn; their Secret Service reports (redacted).
they agreed to place a rope line: Treasury report; Green and Ahearn Secret Service reports (redacted); interviews with Green and Ahearn.
This was the rope line’s usual location: In their interviews with Secret Service inspectors, agents said the rope was positioned where it had usually been placed during past presidential visits.
about thirty-five to forty feet: Treasury report.
On at least one previous visit: An unidentified agent told inspectors this, according to a Secret Service report. “It was done on that occasion due to the size of the crowd,” the report said. The agent believed the dignitary was from China, according to the report.
On Saturday, Green visited: Interview with Green; Green Secret Service report (redacted).
This news pleased him: Green Secret Service report (redacted).
Later, he would be disappointed: Green Secret Service report (redacted).
A little before eleven: Green Secret Service report (redacted).
giving his most experienced agents: Green Secret Service report (redacted).
5: The Rope Line
By 1:10 p.m.: Interview with Mary Ann Gordon; Gordon Secret Service report.
The 21½-foot car, code-named Stagecoach: Interviews with Parr, Ray Shaddick, and other agents, as well as two Ford Motor Co. press releases provided by the Secret Service. Derek Moore, a conservation specialist at the Henry Ford museum, which now has the limousine on display, said the Lincoln was recently weighed and it topped out at 10,400 pounds. The museum’s records indicate that the limousine weighed 13,000 pounds before it was delivered in 1992. Moore could not explain the discrepancy. More than likely, the Secret Service removed something before the limousine was delivered to the museum or the limousine’s weight dropped after a refurbishment in the years following the shooting.
He was quickly assigned: “Reagan Gets Secret Service Protection,” LAT, June 22, 1968, p. 13; Tom Goff, “Reagan Blames Bomb Attempt on Hoodlums,” LAT, July 11, 1968, p. 3.
At his seventieth birthday party: David Broder, “Outsider Quietly Moves to Inside Lane,” WP, March 30, 1981, p. A1.
A month and a half later: Reagan Diaries, p. 28; Ronald Reagan, An American Life, p. 262; Joseph McLellan, “Stars and Austerity at Ford’s Theater Gala,” WP, March 23, 1981, p. C1.
Now, at 1:45: DDPRR; Treasury report; various Secret Service reports.
Riding next to Reagan in the passenger: Interview with Donovan; Treasury report.
got a chilly reception: Interview with Donovan.
Reagan and Donovan chatted briefly: Interview with Donovan; Tom Matthews, “Reagan’s Close Call,” Newsweek, April 13, 1981, p. 31.
Riding in the front passenger: Interviews with Parr and Drew Unrue; Parr Secret Service report and Unrue Secret Service report (redacted).
Directly ahead of Stagecoach: Interviews with Secret Service agents; Secret Service reports.
riding in the passenger seat of a marked cruiser: Interview with Gordon; Gordon Secret Service report.
she’d chauffeured Jimmy Carter: Interview with Gordon; “Carter Feels ‘Safe’ with Woman at Wheel,” AP, September 4, 1980.
Gordon had driven: Gordon Secret Service report.
wielded handguns: Interview with Shaddick.
In the front passenger seat: Interviews with Shaddick, Tim McCarthy, Jim Varey, and Joe Trainor. Trainor won the coin toss with McCarthy and Dalton McIntosh. Trainor stayed behind at the Secret Service command post, called W-16, under the Oval Office.
Behind Halfback: Interviews with Fischer and Muratti; Deaver, Behind the Scenes, p. 16; in later books and interviews, Deaver said he rode in the limousine with Donovan and the president to the hotel. The Treasury report identified only Donovan and Reagan as passengers in the limousine.
made up the “escape package”: Interview with Parr.
staff car ferrying: Interview with Maseng, who rode with Brady to the speech in the staff car. The motorcade assignments were also specified in the president’s daily schedule, RRPL.
As the scheduled departure: Larry Speakes, Speaking Out, p. 7; Mollie Dickenson details Brady’s life and work at the White House and describes his day on March 30, 1981, in her thorough book, Thumbs Up.
The string of limousines: Tim McCarthy testimony.
The ride had covered 1.
3 miles in about four minutes: Treasury report.
A few minutes before the president’s arrival: Interview with Herbert Granger; Granger Secret Service report (redacted); Thomas Delahanty FBI report.
seven reporters and ten spectators: Green Secret Service report (redacted).
At seven that morning: Interview with Granger; Granger’s Secret Service report; Delahanty FBI report. Few others were wearing bulletproof vests that day. Tim McCarthy wasn’t wearing one, nor was Parr. Reagan was not wearing one, either. Before the attempt on his life, the president rarely donned one, according to agents. After the shooting, at the request of the Secret Service, Reagan wore a bullet-proof vest or bulletproof clothing more often.
Hell … it’s just the Hilton: Interview with Granger.
but his dog, Kirk: Mailed response by Delahanty to questions by the author; Alfred E. Lewis, “In Recuperation, Delahanty Recalls Reagan Shooting,” WP, May 11, 1981, p. A10.
About forty-five minutes: Granger Secret Service report (redacted); interview with Granger; Treasury report; interview with D.C. police officer Richard Hardesty, who was deployed above the VIP entrance.
“They’re coming”: Delahanty FBI report.
Granger, a former: Interview with Granger.
Looking back at the police sergeant: Government psychiatric report; testimony of psychiatrists who interviewed Hinckley.
His RG 14 revolver: The FBI allowed me to hold the gun. It has a very heavy trigger pull. An FBI agent testified to this same fact at Hinckley’s trial.
He removed the six Devastator: Hinckley described these bullets as “stingers,” and FBI agent Gerald Wilkes testified that these bullets were more deadly than others in the would-be assassin’s possession because they explode on contact. “Upon detonation, the bullet is fragmented, producing a shrapnel-type effect,” Wilkes testified. “This vastly increases the area of contact of that bullet with the medium through which it is passing. Also a new kinetic energy is produced by the explosion of the explosive agent. Not only that, the intensely high temperature produced by the detonation of [the bullet] can produce damage to the local areas where it” exploded. Wilkes testified that only one bullet exploded on impact—the one that struck Brady. The others most likely did not explode because they did not reach high enough speeds, hit soft targets, or struck objects at an angle, reducing the force of impact required to set off the explosion, according to John Finor, a firearms examiner for a police force in Pennsylvania and president of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners. Finor said such bullets have since gone out of favor; they are less likely to inflict mortal wounds because they fragment and disperse much of their energy at impact and do not penetrate as far as conventional bullets, he said.
This was also not the first time: Testimony at Hinckley’s trial; government psychiatric report. I could find no public record of how many guns Hinckley brought with him to Dayton. Just a few days later—without ever stopping at home—he was arrested at a Nashville airport, where authorities seized three revolvers from his luggage. It’s safe to surmise that he had those same three guns with him in Dayton.
The rally was a test run: Carpenter and Johnson testimony: “He felt clearly that if he would have had a gun he could have succeeded in shooting President Carter,” Johnson testified. “He said at one point that he was only about a foot away. And he was very surprised at how easy it was to get in a position to do this.”
Five days later: Hinckley flew from Columbus, Ohio, to New York City on October 2. On October 6, he flew from New York City to Lincoln, Nebraska. Carpenter testified that Hinckley traveled to Lincoln to “make contact with the person he describes as one of the leading [ideologues] of the Nazi Party and hopes to have some shared recognition with them of the importance of what he is doing in his life.… If I can just say what he in fact had was a post office box address in Lincoln, so that he sort of showed up in Lincoln and didn’t know where to find this person, what to look for. He spent the day in Lincoln but did not make contact.” On October 7, he flew from Lincoln to Nashville.
A security officer noticed what she: Testimony of Officer John A. Lynch, who arrested Hinckley at the airport.
Hinckley felt especially lucky: Government psychiatric report.
In November, Hinckley turned: Hinckley was home in Evergreen, Colorado, with his parents on election night. When it was clear that Ronald Reagan was a big winner, Hinckley was pleased. “Maybe there is hope for the country yet,” he told his father (Hinckley and Hinckley, Breaking Points, p. 119).
He flew to Washington: Photographs introduced at trial; government psychiatric report; testimony of Johnson. NBC News reported in 1982 that Hinckley had stalked Reagan during the inauguration.
With a gun in his pocket: Johnson testimony.
On December 8, while standing outside Blair House: Government psychiatric report.
He bought a postcard: Postcard introduced at trial.
After loading the gun in his hotel room: Government psychiatric report.
On the way, he thought about: Johnson testimony.
Once the cab pulled to a stop near the hotel: Government psychiatric report.
He didn’t think: Johnson testimony.
Hinckley felt as if the president were staring right at him: Government psychiatric report.
Jerry Parr hovered by Reagan’s: Interviews with Parr, Fury, Tim McCarthy, other agents, and a review of numerous Secret Service reports, as well as videos of Reagan’s arrival at the hotel.
At two p.m., Reagan walked down the short: DDPRR.
Reagan popped out one of his contact lenses: Reagan always gave speeches this way, according to Fischer and Ryan; Deaver, A Different Drummer, pp. 73–74.
At the sound of “Hail to the Chief”: Videotape and audio recordings of speech, RRPL.
about a young baseball player: In an interview, Danny Villanueva said he met Reagan as the former actor was gearing up for a gubernatorial run in the mid-1960s. Reagan was courting Hispanic voters, and Villanueva was placekicking for the Los Angeles Rams, a professional football team. At their first lunch, the pair hit it off, and soon Villanueva was introducing Reagan at speeches across the state. At one event, Reagan overheard Villanueva tell a humorous story about an up-and-coming minor leaguer whose wife gave him a hard time for refusing to change their baby’s diaper. Reagan appropriated the joke and inserted Villanueva into it for good measure.
Outside the Hilton: Interview with Unrue; Unrue Secret Service report (redacted); Treasury report; interviews with Parr, Gordon, and other agents.
fifteen to twenty feet: Treasury report.
peculiar design of the Hilton: Treasury report; interviews with Unrue, Gordon, Parr, and Shaddick; multiple Secret Service reports.
Herbert Granger decided: Treasury report; interview with Granger; Granger Secret Service report (redacted).
would still be about fifteen feet: Granger testified at trial that the gunman was between ten and fifteen feet from Reagan when he started shooting.
Unrue, having parked: Interviews with Unrue and Dennis Fabel, who was driving the follow-up car, as well as their Secret Service reports, FBI reports, and Treasury report.
A heckler had caused: Interview with Fury; Fury testimony; Secret Service reports. In this photograph, you can clearly make out Hinckley’s face in the back of the crowd, as if he is standing on his tiptoes to see over the heads of those in front of him.
they allowed the Hilton’s: Hilton security officer Secret Service report.
As departure time neared: Interviews with Unrue, Gordon, and Fabel; those agents’ Secret Service and FBI reports; Treasury report.
to about twenty-five people: Interview with Granger; an unnamed D.C. police officer estimated the crowd size at twenty-five, according to a Secret Service report.
6: 2:27 P.M.
Agent Jerry Parr stood backstage: Interview with Parr.
the four thousand union members: Treasury report.
The crowd rose to its f
eet: Audio and video of event, RRPL.
Parr moved to the edge: Interview with Parr; video of event, RRPL.
They took the stairs up from the ground: Interviews with various Secret Service agents.
One agent aimed for the rope line: Dennis McCarthy Secret Service report.
another trotted along: Green Secret Service report (redacted).
a third angled for the limousine’s right front fender: Varey Secret Service report; interview with Varey.
A fifth, carrying an Uzi: Bob Wanko Secret Service report.
A sixth, Tim McCarthy: Interview with Tim McCarthy; Tim McCarthy Secret Service report.
Jerry Parr’s wife, Carolyn: Interview with Carolyn Parr.
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