Rawhide Down (51 page)

Authors: Del Quentin Wilber

BOOK: Rawhide Down

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EXPERTS

Michael Bohn, former director of the Situation Room.

Dr. David Boyd, former director of Emergency Medical Services Systems, a division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

John D. Feerick, professor of law, Fordham University Law School.

John Finor, president of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners.

Harry Teter, executive director of the American Trauma Society.

Dr. Donald Trunkey, professor of surgery, Oregon Health & Science University.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I came to this book quite unexpectedly. One day in July 2008, I attended a hearing at which doctors and lawyers for John W. Hinckley Jr. were urging a federal judge to grant the would-be assassin more freedom from St. Elizabeths Hospital. I had just started covering the D.C. federal court beat for my newspaper, the
Washington Post,
and when I took a seat in the front row of courtroom 29A, I didn’t know much about Hinckley or his attempt to kill President Ronald Reagan in March 1981. About all I remembered was that Hinckley had wounded Reagan and three other men, including press secretary Jim Brady, outside of the “Hinckley Hilton,” the moniker given to the sprawling hotel by many Washingtonians, and that later Hinckley had been found not guilty by reason of insanity. But there I was—just fifteen feet from a man who nearly assassinated a president—as his lawyers and the court’s prosecutors argued over the scope of potential privileges, and Hinckley’s siblings testified about his life in recent years.

As the hearing wore on, I found myself closely studying the psychiatric patient sitting at the defense table. Dressed in a dark blazer and gray slacks, Hinckley spent much of the hearing resting his chin on his hand while wearing a blank expression on his face. He neither frowned nor smiled, even when testimony delved into his sex life and the meaning of his music. It was as if a costume maker had cast an impression from Hinckley’s face while he was sleeping, and he was now wearing that emotionless mask for the world to see.

When that long day of testimony ended—the hearings would stretch over four more days—I went back to my office and filed a rather perfunctory story that described how Hinckley’s brother and sister did not view him as a danger to the community and thought he would benefit from getting a driver’s license and having more unsupervised time at their mother’s home. After finishing the article, I gave Hinckley no further thought.

A few days later, however, I was summoned to the FBI’s Washington field office by its top agent, Joseph Persichini Jr., who wanted to discuss an undercover investigation that he knew I had recently stumbled upon. A press aide joined us, and while we were sitting at the large conference table in Persichini’s office, Persichini abruptly stood up, walked over to his desk, and opened a drawer. A moment later, he slapped something heavy into my hand. I looked down: it was a revolver. “That’s Hinckley’s gun,” Persichini said, smiling.

I was stunned. Why was the gun that had nearly killed a president of the United States being stored in an FBI agent’s desk drawer instead of a museum?

Intrigued by these two chance encounters with a dramatic day in American history, I soon paid a visit to the D.C. public library, looking for books about the assassination attempt and its aftermath. I found exactly two—one that focused on the Twenty-fifth Amendment and another about Hinckley’s trial and the insanity defense. This greatly surprised me, especially since numerous books had been written about our fortieth president; later, I decided that most scholars were probably not interested in the events of that day because Reagan had survived his wound, gone on to serve two terms, and ultimately become one of the most significant presidents of the twentieth century. By now, though, I was curious to learn more about what happened that day and I began reading everything I could find about the assassination attempt—in newspaper and magazine archives, in government publications, and in medical journals. Then I began calling former federal agents, former White House aides, and a number of doctors who had treated Reagan after he was shot, all of whom provided me with their recollections.

Looking back, I now realize it was those interviews that opened my eyes to the possibility of writing a book about the shooting and its aftermath, and for that I owe a great debt to those who took the time to talk with someone who at that early stage had a limited understanding of how to research and write a book. First, I must thank former Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, who spent countless hours answering my questions (even while on vacation in Europe), helping me track down other agents and then answering even more questions. Other Secret Service and FBI agents were also extremely helpful, and without their assistance I could never have told the full story of the assassination attempt. In particular, I thank John Simpson, Ray Shaddick, Mary Ann Gordon, Drew Unrue, Bill Green, Russell Miller, Stephen T. Colo, and George Chmiel. I was also aided by former Secret Service agents Ernest Kun, Paul Kelly, and Larry Dominguez, who do not appear by name in the narrative of this book but without whom I could not have achieved a comprehensive understanding of the history of the Secret Service.

This endeavor also owes much to the many doctors and nurses who took so much time to explain Reagan’s care, describe his medical procedures, and translate emergency and operating room jargon into English. For this, I must first thank several former nurses at George Washington University Hospital who spent a great deal of time with me and are too often not given sufficient credit for their extraordinary work that day. They include Kathy Paul (Stevens), Judith Whinerey (Goss), Wendy Koenig, Marisa Mize, Denise Sullivan, and Cathy Edmondson. I am also grateful to a number of GW’s doctors: David Gens, Benjamin Aaron, Joseph Giordano, and Jack Zimmerman, among many others, spoke to me for hours in person and by telephone.

I must also thank Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Zeno and Margaret McCabe, a paralegal, in the District of Columbia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. At my request and while juggling the demands of a busy job, McCabe dug through dusty and poorly labeled files and boxes in search of records, transcripts, and trial exhibits. She almost always returned with a trove of useful documents. Without McCabe’s help, I would not have been able to tell Hinckley’s story in such detail. I also must thank the clerks of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia—and Bryant Johnson, in particular—for tracking down Hinckley’s long-missing trial transcript, even after I had sadly concluded that it had been misplaced and lost to history.

I could not possibly have written about President Reagan and his experience of the assassination attempt without interviewing those who served him. I am enormously grateful to former national security advisor Richard V. Allen for always taking my calls, answering my questions, and letting me read his extensive notes from his time in the White House (he is one of the most fastidious note takers I have ever met). He also graciously granted me access to more than four hours of audiotape recordings he made in the Situation Room on the afternoon of the assassination attempt. The tapes provide a remarkable record—not only of what transpired in one of the government’s most sensitive rooms but also of what was happening around the world. I also must thank James A. Baker III, Edwin Meese III, Richard Williamson, Mari Maseng (Will), Ken Khachigian, Margaret Tutwiler, and David Gergen, among others, all of whom offered vivid recollections of March 30, 1981, and who helped me better understand Reagan and his presidency.

At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Ray Wilson, Michael Pinckney, and Steve Branch deserve special recognition for pointing me to documents, photographs, and audio recordings that would have taken me weeks of sleuthing to find on my own. I would also like to thank Joanne Drake, the chief of staff for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, for allowing me to inspect the handwritten notes passed to GW’s doctors and nurses by the president after the shooting. It is difficult to describe the extraordinary experience of holding one of these notes and tracing Reagan’s scribbles across the page with a finger.

This book could never have been written without those who taught me to report and write: Don Cheeseman, the late Richard Drozd, John Kupetz, Tom McGinty, Joel Bewley, Peter Callas, John Fairhall, Bill Ordine, Michael James, Michael Gray, Tony Barbieri, Bill Marimow, Bill Miller, Gabe Escobar, Andy Mosher, Steven Levingston, Gene Fynes, the late Marcia Greene, Lynn Medford, Carol Morello, Mike Semel, and Kevin Merida. At the
Washington Post
, my professional home for the last six years, I received constant support and encouragement from the best newspapering staff in the world. Marcus Brauchli and Emilio Garcia-Ruiz did not hesitate to grant me an extended leave to write this book; James McLaughlin, the
Post
’s associate general counsel, was instrumental in helping me obtain records from the normally tightfisted Secret Service; and Eddy Palanzo, a researcher, helped me find many of the wonderful photographs that appear in the book. And like every
Post
reporter who has come before me and written a book, I owe heartfelt thanks to the company’s chairman, Donald E. Graham—a tireless advocate for aggressive local news coverage and a close reader of crime stories—for providing an amazing place for reporters to practice their craft.

To say that writing a book is a team effort is an understatement. My own squad of able researchers and transcriptionists—James de Haan, Matt Castello, Julie Tate, and Marian Sullivan—were instrumental in ensuring that this project was completed on time. My agent, Rafe Sagalyn, taught me how to write a book proposal and got me to think like an author, not a newspaper reporter. My publisher, Henry Holt and Company, showed a surprising degree of confidence in a first-time author, and for that I must thank its president, Stephen Rubin. Others at Holt, including Maggie Richards, Maggie Sivon, Emi Ikkanda, Meryl Levavi, and Chris O’Connell, put in long hours to streamline, package, and market the book; meanwhile, copy editor Jolanta Benal gave the manuscript a thorough and much-appreciated scrubbing. Finally, I owe an unquantifiable debt to my editor, John Sterling, who taught me how to write a narrative history and was always levelheaded, optimistic, and understanding—especially when I was not. The readers of this book have benefited greatly from his keen eye and deft pen.

The most important tributes belong to those who have supported me throughout this two-year odyssey, especially my mother and father, Kay and Del Wilber Jr.; my sister, Lindsay Guthrie, and her husband, Phillip Guthrie; my uncle, Rick Wilber; and my good friends Diane Sullivan and Zachary Coile. My two young boys, Quentin and Ryan, always made me smile when I walked in the front door, no matter how frustrating the day. But one person more than any other deserves thanks for helping me complete this project: my wife, Laura Sullivan. She never failed to offer candid advice, critical assessments, and unflagging encouragement. She was the first to bet on me, and I can confidently say that without her there would be no
Rawhide Down
.

INDEX

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Aaron, Benjamin