Closer to Reagan

Today I discovered that I am two people away from knowing Jodie Foster, which, technically, because of John Hinckley, Jr., puts me ever closer to Ronald Reagan. A friend in Philadelphia studied for a time under John Douglas, the former FBI profiler who was a consultant for Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. Douglas gave Foster tips on how exactly one gets into the mind of a serial killer. The tips worked. Jodie Foster even thanked Douglas in her acceptance speech for the 1992 Best Actress Academy Award.

Incidentally, Douglas told my friend that the morning Hinckley shot Reagan in 1981 he (Hinckley) woke up with two plans in his head. The first plan was to assassinate Reagan in order to impress Foster, then a student at Yale University. The alternative plan was to head to National Airport (ironically, now known as Reagan National), hijack a plane, land it on the green at Yale and exchange all his hostages for Jodie. Then they’d fly off into the sunset. Hinckley was weighing both plans equally, but finally chose the first plan, simply because it was more convenient.

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