Mr and Mrs. Hinckley's Defense Witness Statements at Trial

JoAnn Hinckley, Defense Witness

On direct examination:

John seemed to be going downhill, downhill, downhill and becoming more withdrawn, more antisocial, more depressed, and more down on himself. He was just discouraged and we were just terribly worried about him....We didn't know what was wrong, but we knew something wasn't right....We wanted John to be self-supporting, to be a happy child, to stand on his own two feet....The harder we tried to push him from us, the harder he tried to stay....

Dr. Hopper strongly advised us not to do it [to institutionalize John]. He talked us out of it....Dr. Hopper said, "No, don't do it. It will really make a cripple out of John if you put him in an institution."

[On the last trip with John to the Denver Airport, three days before the shootings:]
I broke down for the first time and gave him some money of my own. I just couldn't stand to see him go off without any money...[At the airport], John got out of the car and I couldn't even look at him. He said, "Well, Mom, I want to thank you for everything you've done for me." I said, "You're very welcome" and I said it so coldly...and then I drove off and that was the last I saw of John....On March 30, I received a telephone call. It was a reporter from the Washington Post. He said, "Mrs. Hinckley, do you have your television set on?....Did you know your son John Hinckley is the man they have identified as shooting the President?

Jack Hinckley, Defense Witness

On direct examination:

[ Jack Hinckley met John at the Denver Airport on March 7, 1981, and informed him of the family's decision to cut off his financial support. Testimony concerning that meeting follows:]

I prayed all the way [to the airport] that we were doing the right thing....He was in very bad shape. He needed a shave. He was wiped out. He could hardly walk from the plane. We sat down and I told him how disappointed I was in him. How he had let us down, how he had not followed the plan [for independence] we had all agreed on. He had left us no choice but to not take him back in the house again, but force him to go on his own. So that's what I did. I took him to his car which was parked at the airport. It was an old car and the radiator leaked. And I put some antifreeze in it and we got the car started. And I had a couple of hundred dollars with me that I had brought from the house. And I gave that to him and I suggested that he go to the YMCA. He said he didn't want to do that. I said, "Okay, you are on your own. Do whatever you want to do." In looking back on that, I'm sure it was the greatest mistake in my life. We forced him out at a time when he just couldn't cope. I am the cause of John's tragedy. I wish to God I could trade places with him right now.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hinckleytranscript.htm