John Hinckley Jr. Claims He Influenced Jodie Foster’s Sexuality After Reagan Assassination Attempt

John Hinckley Jr., the man who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, has made a controversial new claim while promoting his memoir, John Hinckley Jr.: Who I Really Am. He says he believes his obsession with Jodie Foster and his failed attack on the former president traumatized her and led her to later identify as gay.

In an interview with TMZ, Hinckley said he has a personal theory that Foster’s sexuality was shaped by the events surrounding his assassination attempt. He claims that Foster was dating men in the early 1980s and that she only came out publicly years later, during the 2013 Golden Globe Awards. According to Hinckley, the fear and attention caused by his actions may have pushed her away from men. He says this is the first time he has spoken publicly about this belief.

Hinckley’s fixation on Foster began in 1976 after seeing her in the film Taxi Driver. He says the movie deeply affected him, particularly the character Travis Bickle, a disturbed loner who plans political violence after being rejected by a woman he desires. Hinckley claims he saw himself in that character.

While Foster was a student at Yale University, Hinckley says he tracked down her dorm and phone number through the registrar’s office. He admits to repeatedly calling her, sending poems, and slipping notes under her door. He says he never asked her out because she appeared uninterested, which fueled his depression and delusions.

Hinckley claims that, in his distorted thinking at the time, he believed killing the president would impress Foster, similar to how violence in Taxi Driver leads to public praise for its main character. Acting on that belief, he traveled by bus from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in March 1981 with the intention of assassinating Ronald Reagan.

Outside the Hilton Hotel, where Reagan was delivering a speech, Hinckley fired six shots with a .22 caliber revolver. Reagan was wounded, along with police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and White House press secretary James Brady. Brady was left permanently disabled and later died from complications related to the shooting.

Hinckley says he believed he would be killed at the scene by the Secret Service. Instead, bystanders tackled and beat him until authorities arrested him.

He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent more than 30 years in a mental institution. Hinckley now says the jury made the correct decision. He reports that he has been on antidepressants for many years and is currently taking Zoloft and Risperdal for anxiety.

Foster has never suggested that Hinckley had any influence on her sexuality. Her representatives have not commented on his latest claims.