Essay on Criminology Project John Hinckley Jr. - 996 Words

Some may ask themselves, â€Å"Who is John Hinckley Jr.?† For most people, they know him as being the man who tried to assassinate former President Ronald Reagan. But why did John feel the need to kill the president and what drove him to do it. While doing the research to answer those questions into why the crime was committed, some information and fact were brought up to the surface that is quite disturbing. To begin, John grew up in a pretty normal household as a privileged child. He had a father, John Hinckley Sr., who devoted to his family, a mother, and two other siblings. Hinckley Sr., his father, formed Vanderbilt Energy Corp. as a publicly owned, independent oil and gas exploration company with operations from south Texas to Canada. In†¦show more content†¦Unfortunately for Bickle, he is never able to get close enough to get to the candidate. After his plan completely fails, Bickle then begins to form an interest in saving a young 12-year-old prostitute by the name of Iris, played by Jodie Foster. In order to save her, Travis goes to the hotel that Iris works at and shoots her ‘pimp’ and murders him along with the hotel manager and the client of Iris. After seeing this film, Hinckley Jr. starts to form an obsession for Jodie Foster. He also began to believe that he saw himself in Travis Bickle. Hinckley Jr. was so infatuated with Taxi Driver that he saw the movie a total of fifteen times. He felt that in order to win Jodie Foster over, and to get her to even know he existed, was to assassinate the president of the United States. This would be the start of something that would lead to the attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan. Hinckley Jr.’s first step, like Travis Bickle, to win over Jodie Foster’s heart was to get his hands on firearms. Once he received these guns, his objective when to follow and kill Jimmy Carter during the 1979 presidential campaign. While following him to the Nashville airport, where Carter had one of his campaign stops, he was fortunately stopped by the authorities and arrested for the possession of firearms. Following the arrest, Hinckley Jr.’s family decided that it was in the best