Jodie Foster may not give her former stalker another thought nowadays. It’s been over 30 years since the troubled man formed his obsession with her, then set out to impress her.
But Jodie Foster’s stalker is different from most others. Only Jodie Foster can say that her stalker shot a United States president.
The name John Hinckley is much more associated with the shooting of President Reagan than with Jodie Foster, but that is where the whole thing started.
In fact, the psychiatric team that examined Hinckley commented on his obsession with her.
“Her presence dominates every interview; it is conceivable that he could spend every minute of every interview speaking about her.”
They spoke about how his obsession with Foster continued to grow after he shot President Reagan.
“Before the shooting, he experienced ambivalent feelings and fantasies about her, but then his positive feelings dominated. On March 30, 1982, when Ms. Foster gave her deposition and ignored him even though they were in the same courtroom, his negative feelings became much stronger and have continued to the present day. For Mr. Hinckley, it is better to be hated by Jodie Foster than not to have an attachment at all. He believes that she has become attached forever in history to him because of his shooting of the President.
“In the more recent past, he has expressed sexual and aggressive ideas about Ms. Foster. He has more frequent thoughts of murdering her; he now has thoughts of raping her. Following Ms. Foster’s deposition on March 30, 1982, he wrote a poem, entitled ”Bloody Love.’ In this writing, he imagines himself visiting Jodie in New Haven. She is surprised and frightened: ‘She is scared to death about me. She knew I had bad intentions in my eyes. She couldn’t come to me so I raped her and killed her and shot myself.’ (The sequence of rape, consummation, murder and suicide is described as ‘perfect love.’ He removes them from a corrupt society and they can be happy in the hereafter.) When asked if he were dangerous to Jodie, he replied, ‘Not now, if released I would go the other way but in one or two years if things go on the same, no response from her then I’ll kill her.'”
John Hinckley spends 17 days per month outside of the walls of the psychiatric centers he was confined to for decades. Those days are usually spent at his mother’s home in Williamsburg, Virginia. The home overlooks a golf course in a gated community. Some residents are nrevous about his being there, but most seem not to care.
His doctors have insisted for many years that he is no longer a threat — not to the president, and not to Jodie Foster. Still, the Secret Service frequently follows Hinckley when he goes out. He is also not allowed near the president or members of Congress.