Context:
So, again:
This below is the official blow-by-blow of the even using the Secret Service radio traffic, declassified under FOIA for Del Wilber's book, Rawhide Down.
The decision to go to GW and not to Crown (the White House) or Bethesda (as called for under Standard Operating procedure) saved Reagan's life.
The X-factor here was Gerry Parr -who was not supposed to be there there that day.
He was head of Rawhide's detail, but he had not ridden with the client (i.e. Reagan) since the inaugural, over two months and just decided on a whim, to personally ride with Reagan that day, as he felt he needed to get to know him better.
He was head of Rawhide's detail, but he had not ridden with the client (i.e. Reagan) since the inaugural, over two months and just decided on a whim, to personally ride with Reagan that day, as he felt he needed to get to know him better.
It was Parr who got Reagan into the car, it was Parr who was able to deflect the other Secret Service agent in front of him and Reagan to take one of the shots, and it was Parr who made the judgement call forget procedure breach normal operational security drills and take Reagan to the (civilian) ER at George Washington Hospital - which saved his life.
George Bush, meanwhile, was away from Washington on some prefunctory excuse, but Wilbur's book further notes than upon hearing the news, Bush refused point blank to get back on his plane and return to Washington - again, standard operating procedure (as witnessed with Dick Cheney on 9/11) was for the Secret Service to physically pick up the Vice President and manhandle him aboard Air Force Two, take off immediately, put him inside the White House and secure him inside the Special Operations, In-Extremis Situation Room bunker in the White House basement.
Bush flatly refused to set foot on his, or any other plane and OVERRULED his Head of Detail - which is unthinkable.
Reagan still arrived at the ER AFTER Bill Brady, who had been left on the ground with a brain injury for an additional 10 mins following the departure of the limo before being put into the back of an ambulance.
Someone wasn't running all the red lights they could have that day.
Notice also, the idea that the bullet richoeted into Reagan's left side from hitting the car on his right side and followed a downward path is ridiculous - the bullets hitting the upper windows of the building across the street provide good and clear evidence that Hinkley was shooting straight ahead and then UP (presumably once he was spotted and tackled);
Someone ELSE was shooting DOWN....
Hinkley was not taken to a police station, or even a Secret Service or FBI field office.
He was taken to an Army base for his initial interrogation / debrief, where it seems (in the least) his Miranda rights were waived.
Hinkley was not taken to a police station, or even a Secret Service or FBI field office.
He was taken to an Army base for his initial interrogation / debrief, where it seems (in the least) his Miranda rights were waived.
Aftermath:
Presents circumstantial evidence suggesting that then Vice- President George Bush may have been involved with the attempt on the life of former President Reagan. Discussion centers on the close connections between the family of convicted would-be assassin John Hinckley and the Bush family as well as Hinckley's Nazi background.
Revisionism:
Amazingly, this TV Movie dramatisation DOES feature the sniper on the balcony - there is no effort made to suggest that he wasn't there.
The official line being pushed of course here is that this man was one of the Secret Service's own sharp-shooters; deployed to TAKE DOWN shooters in the crowd like Hinkley.
These sharp shooters may or may not exist and they may or may not have been deployed on the day Reagan was shot - the point is moot, in as much as the place where the Secret Service retroactively want to SAY they had one of their guys stationed with a rife is the place where the bullet that hit Reagan clearly can be said to have originated from.
According to official legend, Hinkley fired into Reagan with illegal "Devastator" bullets, soft-nose anti-personnel hollow-point round.
Wouldn't hollow-point or soft-nosed rifle round be just what you would expect a sniper rifle to be loaded with where stopping power is a priority?
Irrespective of what Secret Service may say now, or how they attempt to rationalise away the apparent rifleman crouched in the hotel balcony along the line of sight to Reagan's injury, it's fairly implausible that a trained and presumably top-rated government sharp-shooter would miss the Presidential assassin and instead pop POTUS in the armpit, right at his heart (but for the grace of God and a well-placed rib), so it defies belief that the shot - if indeed it originated from there - was accidental.
We might note, however, that the fictionalised West Wing assassination attempt, (patterned VERY closely in all respects on the March 31st incident, right down to the actions of Secret Service in the limo and the Virigina location) features multiple shooters, firing downwards, from an elevated position in an adjacent building - who then get taken out by Secret Service sharpshooters.
We might note, however, that the fictionalised West Wing assassination attempt, (patterned VERY closely in all respects on the March 31st incident, right down to the actions of Secret Service in the limo and the Virigina location) features multiple shooters, firing downwards, from an elevated position in an adjacent building - who then get taken out by Secret Service sharpshooters.
