Criminology Project: John Hinckley Jr.

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Some may ask themselves, “Who is John Hinckley Jr.?” For most people, they know him as being the man who tried to assassinated former President Ronald Reagan. But why did John feel the need to kill the president and what drove him to do it. While doing the research to answer those questions into why the crime was committed, some information and fact were brought up to the surface that is quite disturbing. To begin, John grew up in a pretty normal household as a privileged child. He had a father, John Hinckley Sr., who devoted to his family, a mother, and two other siblings. Hinckley Sr., his father, formed Vanderbilt Energy Corp. as a publicly owned independent oil and gas exploration company with operations from south Texas to Canada. In 1983, he sold Vanderbilt Energy Corp. and retired from the oil business. Soon after, he founded the American Mental Health Fund to raise public awareness of the prevalence and warning signs of mental illness and to erase its terrible stigma (Vaughan). Growing up, Hinckley Jr. had always seemed like he was going to grow up as a popular kid; he was involved with many sports, which he was a quarterback and also played basketball, and even became class president for a few years. But as John got older, he started to stray away from society and began to stay to himself. His family liked to think of it as him just being shy instead of lacking in social interaction (Linder). As a tennager, John Hinckley Jr. was always fascinated with celebrities. So in 1976 after leaving Texas Tech, where he went to college and would return never receiving a degree after the seven years he was in and out, Hinckley Jr. left his home in Colorado for Hollywood to fulfill his dream as a songwriter ("Biography: John Hinckle... ... middle of paper ... ...hiatrist by the name of John Hopper. Although John Hinckley Jr. was already taking antidepressants, the psychiatrist felt that John did not contain a mental illness, but rather was suffering from "emotional immaturity”. Hopper felt that the best solution to correct this immaturity was to completely cut of John Hinckley Jr. from the family. Putting their faith in the psychiatrist, the family did just that. Works Cited "Biography: John Hinckley, Jr.." PBS. N.p.. Web. 19 Apr 2014. . Linder, Douglas. "Famous American Trials." . N.p.. Web. 19 Apr 2014. . Vaughan, Joyce. "John (J.W.) "Jack" Hinckley, Sr." Find a Grave. N.p., 31 Jan 2008. Web. 19 Apr 2014. .

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