The rambling message detailed his obsession with Lennon's murder, and Foster, and lays out his intentions to make "some kind of statement". In Hinckley's hotel room, police officers later found a copy of The Catcher In the Rye along with a cassette tape he had recorded on New Year's Eve, while drinking peach brandy alone in his room. Nobody was killed, but Reagan and three other men were wounded - a Secret Service agent, a policeman, and White House press secretary.Īs Hinckley was led away by police, he asked one of the officers if he thought that evening's Academy Awards ceremony would be postponed – which it was. As Reagan exited the building and walked towards a waiting limousine, he fired six shots at the President, one of which ricocheted off the side of the limo and hit him in the chest. Two hours later, he milled around the Hilton Hotel, and waited as the President made a speech inside. ![]() Jodie, I'm asking you to please look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this historical deed, to gain your respect and love." "This letter is being written only an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. "I've got to do something now to make you understand, in no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake! By sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change your mind about me. The final paragraph explains his twisted reasoning for the shooting: "I will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress you. Travelling to Washington, he booked a hotel room and wrote a letter to Foster, in which he references leaving dozens of poems, letters and love messages under the door of her college dorm. ![]() Salinger's The Catcher In the Rye but will also help many to understand what has happened." Related articles ![]() In all caps, he wrote: "It is my sincere belief that presenting this written statement will not only stimulate the reading of J.D. In early February, 1981, Mark David Chapman wrote a statement in ballpoint point on a yellow legal pad and sent it to the New York Times. Caulfield rallied against "phonies" and saw society as being a broken place where adults lose the innocence they once had as children.Ĭhapman's copy of the book, which he was still reading as he was arrested, contained his own handwritten words on the inner cover: "This is my statement." WHAT DRIVES A KILLER? When police came to arrest Chapman, he was doing something that shocked officers to their core – calmly sitting outside the Dakota reading a copy of The Catcher In the Rye.Īlthough Lennon was his target, Chapman's larger obsession was Holden Caulfield, the disgruntled narrator of J.D.
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