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More than four decades after he tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, John Hinckley Jr. is now a traveling musician and he’s bringing his show to New York.
In a post on Twitter Saturday, Oct. 22, the 67-year-old revealed that he’s planning an upcoming performance in Albany.
“Big news! I will be doing a show in Albany, NY in January! More details to come,” he said.
Hinckley later added that he’s not specifying a venue yet in an attempt to “minimize backlash.”
“In a couple of weeks, you’ll know the venue and date,” he said.
This won’t be Hinckley’s first attempt at drawing a crowd in New York. In the spring of 2022, he claimed to have sold out the 450-capacity Market Hotel in Brooklyn, but the venue later canceled the show over safety concerns.
“There was a time when a place could host a thing like this, maybe a little offensive, and the reaction would be ‘it’s just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt – it’s a free country,’” the venue later posted on Instagram.
“We aren’t living in that kind of free country anymore, for better or for worse.”
Hinckley was 25 years old on March 30, 1981 when he opened fire on President Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, two months after Reagan’s first inauguration.
Using a .22 caliber revolver, he wounded Reagan along with Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, police officer Thomas Delahanty, and White House Press Secretary James Brady. Brady’s injuries left him permanently disabled.
Reagan was initially described as being “close to death,” but ultimately survived the attack. He was released from the hospital nearly two weeks later.
Investigators determined that Hinckley was seeking fame, hoping to get the attention of actress Jodie Foster, who was 18 years old at the time.
He was later found not guilty in the shooting by reason of insanity and spent more than three decades under institutional psychiatric care.
In 2016, a federal judge ordered Hinckley’s release, saying he was no longer considered a threat to himself or others. All further court-ordered restrictions were completely lifted in June 2022.
Hinckley has since tried reinventing himself as a musician, launching a YouTube channel that has garnered more than 30,000 subscribers.
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