Secret Service actions to protect, evaluated
Secret Service and, as governor
Secret Service and, before shooting
sense of mission of, after shooting
seventieth birthday party for
Soviet Union and
speech-making skill of
transfer of authority question and
Thatcher and
Reagan Democrats
Red Scare
Regan, Donald
Republican Party
Resolute desk
Revere, Paul
Reynolds, Frank
Rockoff, David
Rogers, Ginger
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
assassination attempt on
Ruge, Daniel
background of
Brady and
St. Elizabeths Hospital for the mentally ill
St. John’s Episcopal Church
St. Louis Cardinals
Salinger, J. D.
Saudi Arabia
Scheele, Drew
Schmidt, Helmut
Schrader, Paul
Scorsese, Martin
Scouten, Rex
Screen Actors Guild
Secret Service
assassination attempt and
Bush and
code names and
errors of, evaluated
Hilton security checks by
Hinckley arrest and
history of
Nancy and
Parr’s early career in
Reagan aides guarded by
Reagan brought to hospital by
Reagan children and
Reagan guarded by, at hospital
Reagan’s inauguration and
Reagan’s recovery and
training of
women in
Seeger, Alan
Shaddick, Ray
Shakespeare, William
Simpson, John
Sinatra, Frank
Situation Room
Allen, Haig, and aides in, during operation
Bush and
dairy bill and
Fielding and consideration of transfer of power to Bush
Smith, William French
Smith & Wesson Model 19
Social Security
Solidarity movement
Soviet Union
Allen and
collapse of
Reagan attempts to end Cold War with
submarines and
Speakes, Larry
Spriggs, Danny
Stahl, Lesley
Stalin, Joseph
Star Wars
Stewart, Jimmy
Strategic Air Command
Strawberry Fields Forever (Garbarini and Cullman)
Sullivan, Denise
taxes
Taxi Driver (film)
Ted Bundy (Winn)
“Ten Minute Medicine” course
terrorism
Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association
Thatcher, Margaret
Today (TV show)
Trainor, Joe
trauma care, improvements in
Treasury Department
Truman, Harry S.
assassination attempt on
Tsangaris, Neofytos
U.S. Congress
U.S. Constitution
Twenty-fifth Amendment
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Senate
Unrue, Drew
Untermeyer, Chase
Ursomarso, Frank
Varey, Jim
Villaneuva, Danny
Wallace, George
assassination attempt on
Warner, Jack
Washington Hilton
advance security team at
exit plan from
Washington Hospital Center (WHC)
Washington Post
Washington Star
Watergate scandal
Weinberger, Caspar
West Germany
Whinerey, Judith
White, Frederick
White House Communications Agency
Wilson, Edith
Wilson, Woodrow
World War II
Wright, Jim
Zimmerman, Jack
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DEL QUENTIN WILBER is an award-winning reporter for The Washington Post. He has spent most of his career covering law enforcement and sensitive security issues, and his work has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and two sons.
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
Publishers since 1866
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New York, New York 10010
www.henryholt.com
Henry Holt® and ® are registered trademarks of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Copyright © 2011 by Del Quentin Wilber
All rights reserved.
Photograph here courtesy of U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wilber, Del Quentin.
Rawhide down : the near assassination of Ronald Reagan / Del Quentin Wilber. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8050-9346-9
1. Reagan, Ronald—Assassination attempt, 1981. I. Title.
E877.3.W55 2011
973.927092—dc22 2010049808
First Edition 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-1931-9
First Henry Holt eBook Edition: March 2011
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
On March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech to a branch of the AFL-CIO at the Washington Hilton hotel. The president, a former union leader in Hollywood, thought the address was important enough to rewrite the beginning by hand. Reagan began his twenty-minute speech just after two p.m.
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
At 2:27 p.m., just seconds before a would-be assassin opened fire on Reagan and his entourage, the president waved to spectators across the street. Walking on the president’s right, wearing a light-colored raincoat, was Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, head of Reagan’s protective detail.
James K. W. Atherton/The Washington Post
Hoping to get to know Reagan better, Jerry Parr had switched shifts so he could accompany the president to the speech. Parr saved the president’s life that day—twice.
Alexander Fury/Courtesy U.S. Attorney’s Office
That morning, John W. Hinckley Jr. spotted Reagan’s schedule in a local newspaper and at the last minute decided to go to the Hilton and attempt to kill the president. Clearly visible in back of several journalists and onlookers, Hinckley was inadvertently captured in this photograph by a hotel security official concerned about a noisy heckler.
Courtesy Eddie Myers
Federal agents and D.C. police detectives were confounded by Hinckley’s calm demeanor as they pressed him for information in the hours after the shooting. In this photograph taken by an FBI agent at the bureau’s Washington field office, D.C. police detective Eddie Myers is keeping a close eye on his suspect.
Author’s collection
Hinckley bought this R.G. Industries model RG 14 for about forty-five dollars at a Texas pawnshop in the fall of 1980, soon after three other handguns were taken from him at the Nashville airport following his stalking of then president Jimmy Carter. Before leaving for the Hilton, Hinckley loaded the revolver with explosive bullets.
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
Secret Service agents and D.C. police officers rushed at Hinckley as he unleashed a fusillade of bullets, but they were too late. Hinckley got off six shots in just 1.7 seconds; his bullets struck four people, including the president.
Respected by reporters and White House staff members alike, press secretary James Brady made a last-second decision to attend Reagan’s speech at the Washington Hilton hotel. He was the first person wounded by one of Hinckley’s bullets and suffered a devastating head wound.
AP Images
That morning, D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty had this official photograph taken in case anything bad should ever happen to him. Stationed at the rope line, he had just turned to orient himself to the president when he heard gunshots. He was struck in the back by Hinckley’s second shot.
AP Images
Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy had hoped to avoid duty at the Hilton so his brand- new suit wouldn’t get wet in the rain. After opening the limousine’s door, McCarthy heard gunfire; swiveling, he became a human shield for the president. He was struck in the chest by Hinckley’s fourth bullet.
Jack Buxbaum/The Washington Post
After a frantic car ride from the White House, Nancy Reagan rushed into the emergency room entrance of George Washington University Hospital, where she learned that her husband had been wounded. A few steps behind Mrs. Reagan’s left shoulder was Secret Service agent George Opfer, who had told the first lady about the shooting.
Frank Johnston/The Washington Post
At a press conference a few days after the shooting, Dr. Benjamin Aaron, who had performed surgery on the president, pointed to a spot on Dr. Joseph Giordano’s left side to demonstrate where Hinckley’s sixth bullet had struck Reagan. Giordano, head of GW’s trauma teams, had led a recent effort to improve the hospital’s emergency medical care.
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation
In the hours after his surgery, Reagan jotted a number of notes to doctors and nurses, and this was one of his first. The president also wrote about his difficulty breathing. “Why can’t I...”—visible just above “All in all I’d rather be in Phil.”—was almost certainly the beginning of a question about why he couldn’t breathe.
James Thresher/The Washington Post
Lyn Nofziger, a gruff White House aide, provided the first confirmation that the president had been wounded to reporters during a press conference outside the hospital. Watching Nofziger was Larry Speakes, a deputy White House press secretary. Nofizger later told reporters about the jokes delivered by the president while he was in the emergency room.
D. Gorton/The New York Times/Redux
Secretary of State Alexander Haig addressed reporters in the White House press room and famously asserted that he was “in control.” Standing next to Haig was National Security Advisor Richard V. Allen, who struggled to contain his shock when Haig mangled the order of presidential succession during the briefing.
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
The atmosphere in the Situation Room—a secure conference room on the ground floor of the White House—was tense throughout the afternoon, and the attention of the country’s leaders was often riveted on slow-motion replays of the shooting on the conference room’s single television.
Courtesy George Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Before issuing a statement to the press shortly after eight o’clock that evening, Vice President George H. W. Bush (left) conferred with top Reagan administration advisors. Clockwise from Bush’s left are Edwin Meese, James Baker, Caspar Weinberger, Fred Fielding, and William French Smith.
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
President Reagan, hugging the first lady, waved to a crowd of supporters who cheered his return to the White House on April 11, only twelve days after the assassination attempt. One advisor later commented that Reagan resembled a championship golfer strolling toward the eighteenth green.
Courtesy Ronald Reagan Library
On April 28, 1981, just four weeks after nearly being assassinated, the president delivered an address to a joint session of Congress following what one reporter called a “rafter-shaking ovation.” With his behavior immediately after the shooting and this speech to Congress, Reagan turned a near tragedy into a political triumph.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
1. Rendezvous with Destiny
2. The Man
3. Without Fail
4. “I’m Not Dangerous”
5. The Rope Line
6. 2:27 P.M.
7. “I Can’t Breathe”
8. The Trauma Bay
9. STAT to the ER
10. “My God. The President Was Hit?”
11. Operating Room 2
12. A Question of Authority
13. “I Am in Control Here”
14. The Waiting Room
15. “What Does the Future Hold?”
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Copyright
Photo insert
here
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