Rawhide Down (35 page)

To provide an account of the medical care given to Ronald Reagan and the other wounded men, I relied on interviews with more than thirty doctors and nurses, medical records that I obtained from various sources, and extensive unpublished recollections and journal entries written by several participants. Further, I read many news stories about Reagan’s treatment in the hospital, including articles in both medical journals and the popular press. One of the most comprehensive reports—an article by journalist John Pekkanen—appeared in the August 1981 issue of
Washingtonian
magazine.

Fortunately, I also obtained a copy of a thirty-minute documentary produced by George Washington University Hospital about the events of that day. Called
The Saving of the President
, it featured all of the principal doctors and nurses reenacting their own roles, thus providing an accurate record of what occurred in the hours following the president’s arrival in GW’s emergency room. This documentary—which aired once on national television and once on Washington-area television in 1982—was particularly helpful when describing locations in the hospital, which was torn down in 2003.

In telling John Hinckley’s story, I relied extensively on transcripts from his eight-week trial, which are housed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. I obtained a 638-page confidential psychiatric assessment of Hinckley that was produced by prosecution psychiatrists. This document—which has never been made public—delved into every aspect of Hinckley’s life, from birth until his arrest, and featured interviews with the suspect, his family, his associates, and police and federal agents who confronted him on the day of the shooting. I also benefited from Secret Service and FBI reports that were attached to an appeals court filing and apparently forgotten. Hinckley did not respond to several letters seeking an interview; his attorney, Barry Wm. Levine, said Hinckley and his family members declined to comment for this book.

In writing about Ronald Reagan and his White House, I was fortunate to interview James A. Baker III, Edwin Meese III, and others who worked for the president in that time period. Richard V. Allen was especially helpful; besides providing extensive notes and making himself available for many interviews, he gave me access to the audiotapes he recorded in the Situation Room during that day’s most difficult hours. Unless noted otherwise, every line of dialogue used in the scenes set in the Situation Room comes from Allen’s tapes. I also benefited from a transcript of an interview conducted with Michael Deaver by another White House official the day after the shooting. This transcript provides the most detailed and illuminating account of the assassination attempt from any White House official who followed Reagan to the hospital. In telling the story of Air Force Two, I relied on Chase Untermeyer’s recollection and his diary entry for the day, as well as a transcript of an interview he conducted with Vice President Bush as they flew back to Washington.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has a trove of records—documents, photographs, and audiotapes—that helped me construct this narrative. Among those records were memos produced by key administration figures that described their actions that day. In writing Reagan’s story, I referred to the diaries he kept while president and to his two autobiographies,
Where’s the Rest of Me?
and
An American Life.
Also useful was a detailed account of the events of March 30, 1981, provided by Nancy Reagan in her memoir,
My Turn.
Finally, I benefited from reading hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles about the Reagan administration; biographies of the former president by, among others, Lou Cannon and Garry Wills; and a history of the administration’s first few years by Laurence I. Barrett.

In the interests of clarity, all times in this book are Eastern Standard Time.

Guide to Abbreviations and Shorthand in Notes

Secret Service reports: After the shooting, the Secret Service interviewed dozens of agents, police officers, and witnesses after the shooting. In citing information from these reports, I use the name of the agent or person who was interviewed. For example, Secret Service inspectors interviewed Jerry Parr, the chief of the White House detail. If I relied on information supplied to inspectors in that report, I cited it as Parr Secret Service report. Sometimes, the agent’s name was redacted in the record, but I have determined his or her identity through interviews. In that case, for example, I cite it as Green Secret Service report (redacted).

FBI reports: I obtained hundreds of pages of FBI reports, including the never previously released summary of agents’ interview of Ronald Reagan in the days after the shooting. These documents are cited the same way as the Secret Service reports.

Richard Allen’s tape recordings of the Situation Room: Allen tapes.

Memos by White House officials and cabinet secretaries: cited using the last name of the memo’s author (for example, Weinberger memo).

Unpublished material: I name the person who wrote it and provide a brief description of the record. For example, Dr. Benjamin Aaron wrote a sixteen-page personal reflection in the weeks after the shooting. In the notes, it appears as Aaron reflection. I have included most of these reflections and notes in my bibliography.

The Management Review on the Performance of the U.S. Department of Treasury in Connection with the March 30, 1981, Assassination Attempt on Ronald Reagan
: Treasury report.

“Psychiatric Report in the Case of United States vs. John W. Hinckley, Jr.”: government psychiatric report.

Trial testimony: unless otherwise noted, all references to testimony refer to the trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. in 1982.

Author interviews: unless otherwise noted, all interviews were conducted by the author in 2009 and 2010.

Ronald Reagan,
The Reagan Diaries
:
Reagan Diaries
. All citations in the notes section are from volume 1.

Daily Diary of President Ronald Reagan: DDPRR. Unless otherwise noted, this refers to the diary of March 30, 1981, and was obtained from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: RRPL

George Bush Presidential Library: GBPL

White House Communications Agency: WHCA

Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia: Miller Center

United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia: USAO

Associated Press: AP

United Press International: UPI

Los Angeles Times
:
LAT

Washington Post
:
WP

New York Times
:
NYT

Prologue

Ronald Reagan walked
: Photos, RRPL; DDPRR, March 29, 1981; “Reagans Attend Church, Enjoy Spring Stroll,” AP, March 29, 1981; Dean Reynolds, UPI, April 4, 1981.

had not been able
: Review of Reagan’s diary and the DDPRR for each Sunday since the inauguration.

didn’t want to impose
: Ronald Reagan,
An American Life
, p. 396. Reagan wrote that he also stopped going to church because authorities warned him about terrorist hit squads attacking him during services. This alert most likely occurred four or five months after the assassination attempt. Michael Reagan told me that his father was not happy about missing church. On an Air Force One flight in April 1988, Reagan told his son that he was counting the months until he could return to services. “He shared with me that in nine months he could once again start going to church and how much he was looking forward to it,” Michael Reagan said. Reagan’s other son, Ron, also said his father was a regular churchgoer before and after his presidency.

St. John’s Church
: History provided by Hayden Bryan, executive director of operations for St. John’s Church, and the church’s website.

the Reverend Harper delivered
: John C. Harper, “The Son of the Man,” sermon delivered at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square, Washington, March 29, 1981.

They ate lunch
:
Reagan Diaries
, p. 30; DDPRR, March 29, 1981.

The only event of note
: “The President’s Schedule, March 30, 1981,” RRPL.

By mid-March
: “Reagan Approval Rating Trails Earlier Presidents,”
WP
, March 18, 1981, p. A3.

White House officials and pollsters
: There were numerous press accounts detailing this, including a column that ran on March 30, 1981, in newspapers across the country. It was by the influential Robert Novak and Rowland Evans. “The Reagan honeymoon is truly over,” they declared in discussing the anticipated fight ahead over the administration’s plans to slash federal spending.

The news of the shooting stunned the country
: Many newspapers and wire services published stories describing local reaction to the assassination attempt. Among those I relied on were articles in:
Des Moines Register, Chicago Tribune, Quad-City Times, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, State Journal-Register
(Springfield, Illinois),
Peoria Journal Star, WP, Kansas City Star,
AP, and UPI.

never broke protocol
: Secret Service agents, who reviewed the audiotapes of their radio broadcasts of that day, assured me that they never uttered Reagan’s name on the air, nor used the word “president” to describe him. I requested a copy of this tape from the Secret Service. As this book went to print, I had not yet been granted access to it. However, the Secret Service did provide me with a transcript of the radio calls, which confirms that agents never violated procedure.

Every modern president
: Former president George W. Bush was Trailblazer; President Obama is Renegade.

It was first given
: Interview with Pete Peterson. Peterson and Pete Hannaford, a close Reagan advisor in the 1970s, told me that the Secret Service bestowed the code name in 1976. In a copy of a long-defunct magazine, I found a reference to Rawhide being his code name during that year’s campaign (Richard Reeves, “Brown, Reagan, and Self-Destruction,”
New West
, June 7, 1976, p. 12).

By all accounts
: Several friends, advisors, and Secret Service agents reported this. “The Reagans were amused by and rather liked Rawhide and Rainbow,” Hannaford said. In 1984, while on a break at his ranch, Reagan was rooting around at the base of trees. This greatly concerned Secret Service agent Robert DeProspero, then head of Reagan’s detail, because venomous rattlesnakes were a common sight on the ranch. “Mr. President, you make me really nervous,” DeProspero said. “I really don’t want you getting bitten by a rattlesnake.” Reagan looked up with a big smile. “Well,” he said, “you can’t be afraid with a name like ‘Rawhide.’”

years later, describing
: Ronald Reagan,
An American Life
, p. 104.

Reagan viewed the presidency
: Many biographers have made this point, none better than Lou Cannon in
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
.

1: Rendezvous with Destiny

When President Ronald Reagan awoke
: Several people, including agents and White House staffers, remembered the dreary weather this day, but I also relied on an aviation meteorological report from
www.weatherunderground.com
to chart the weather hour by hour. In describing Reagan’s attire, I utilized FBI inventories of what he wore that day; I also relied on official photographs, RRPL, and an interview with Gary Walters to depict the White House residence and grounds. Michael K. Deaver described Reagan using Brylcreem in
A Different Drummer
, p. 14; the president made a point of informing several nurses that he did not dye his hair and did not wash it that morning. He told at least one that he used Brylcreem. Deaver described the president’s routine that morning in
Nancy: A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan
, p. 121; Reagan’s suit, crafted by his personal tailor Albert Mariani, is on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.