Post by jonnygemini on Jan 1, 2006 14:26:31 GMT -5
www.sploid.com/news/2005/12/the_strange_cas.php
[The Hinckleys and the Bushes, sittin' in a tree, K I S S I N G ...]
John W. Hinckley Jr., the gunman who nearly ended Ronald Reagan's presidency in 1981, will now be allowed to roam freely in his parents' Virginia neighborhood. A federal judge in Washington made the ruling on Friday, giving the failed assassin permission to stay with his elderly parents in Williamsburg.
Because Reagan survived the assassination attempt and served two full terms as president, the twisted backstory of the crime has mostly been forgotten -- leaving nothing but Hinckley's sensational "Jodie Foster obsession." Hinckley was a lone nut, one in a long line of singular wackos whose own twisted mind was enough -- nearly enough, in his case -- to change the course of American history.
In reality, Hinckley is the son of a mighty Texas oilman who was a top backer of George H.W. Bush's first bid for the presidency. Hinckley's brother Scott actually had dinner plans with Neil Bush (the career-criminal son of Bush Sr. and brother of George W.) in Denver the night after Reagan was shot.
(Neil Bush's ex-wife Sharon, who has been a source of great embarrassment for the Bush Dynasty, described the Bush-Hinckley relationship this way: "From what I know and I've heard, they are a very nice family and have given a lot of money to the Bush campaign.")
The would-be assassin and George W. Bush were even neighbors in Lubbock, Texas. After the attempt on Reagan's life, George W. was asked if he knew John Hinckley Jr.
"It's certainly conceivable that I met him or might have been introduced to him," he told UPI on March 31, 1981. "I don't recognize his face from the brief, kind of distorted thing they had on TV and the name doesn't ring any bells."
George W. had run a failed race for Lubbock's congressional seat in 1978, which is the only possible explanation for his next quote in the UPI interview: "I know he wasn't on our staff. I could check our volunteer rolls."
Stranger still, Ronald Reagan endorsed young Bush's opponent in the 1978 race -- Texas state Sen. Kent Hance, who was a Democrat at the time. Hance dismissed George W. as a rich-kid Yalie pretending to be a Texan, and it worked.
Then there are the meaningless yet odd coincidences: Young George was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Young John briefly moved to New Haven, reportedly to stalk Jodie Foster. Both Bush Jr. and Hinckley Jr. went to Yale, although Hinckley lasted about a day while George W. graudated and (more importantly for his political career) was tapped as a member of the secret Skull & Bones order.
The Bush and Hinckley clans had been close for more than a decade before young John tried to kill Reagan. (John Hinckley Jr. also was found guilty of shooting press secretary James Brady and two Secret Service men.) Hinckley Sr. didn't back Bush Sr. for the presidency simply out of neighborliness; both oilmen wanted to protect the oil industry's tax breaks, which Reagan hoped to revoke.
The families are actually related: Both clans descended from Thomas Hinckley, who died in Massachusetts in 1706 and was governor of Plymouth Colony from 1658 to 1681.
But Reagan smashed Bush in the early primaries and seized the GOP nomination. Along the campaign trail, the personable and idealistic Reagan developed an intense hatred of George H.W. Bush, the cold-blooded Yankee CIA boss who made a fortune on the Texas oilfields. With behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Texas & Middle East oilmen and the intelligence agency elite in Northern Virginia, Bush Sr. seized the vice-presidential slot even though he claimed not to want it.
Reagan's victory was ensured by the Iran-Contra arms deal made by Bush Sr. and William Casey, the OSS/CIA agent and Reagan campaign chief who would become CIA director in 1981. Known as the "October Surprise" -- even though the scheme was to prevent the October Surprise of Carter's White House getting the U.S. hostages in Iran released before the election -- the real story didn't start to emerge until 1986. Even then, most of the scandal focused on small fish like Col. Oliver North and his blonde secretary.
Only a handful of conspiracy theorists have latched onto the Hinckley-Bush connections, while the successful assassinations of JFK and Bobby Kennedy remain in the American consciousness.
[The Hinckleys and the Bushes, sittin' in a tree, K I S S I N G ...]
John W. Hinckley Jr., the gunman who nearly ended Ronald Reagan's presidency in 1981, will now be allowed to roam freely in his parents' Virginia neighborhood. A federal judge in Washington made the ruling on Friday, giving the failed assassin permission to stay with his elderly parents in Williamsburg.
Because Reagan survived the assassination attempt and served two full terms as president, the twisted backstory of the crime has mostly been forgotten -- leaving nothing but Hinckley's sensational "Jodie Foster obsession." Hinckley was a lone nut, one in a long line of singular wackos whose own twisted mind was enough -- nearly enough, in his case -- to change the course of American history.
In reality, Hinckley is the son of a mighty Texas oilman who was a top backer of George H.W. Bush's first bid for the presidency. Hinckley's brother Scott actually had dinner plans with Neil Bush (the career-criminal son of Bush Sr. and brother of George W.) in Denver the night after Reagan was shot.
(Neil Bush's ex-wife Sharon, who has been a source of great embarrassment for the Bush Dynasty, described the Bush-Hinckley relationship this way: "From what I know and I've heard, they are a very nice family and have given a lot of money to the Bush campaign.")
The would-be assassin and George W. Bush were even neighbors in Lubbock, Texas. After the attempt on Reagan's life, George W. was asked if he knew John Hinckley Jr.
"It's certainly conceivable that I met him or might have been introduced to him," he told UPI on March 31, 1981. "I don't recognize his face from the brief, kind of distorted thing they had on TV and the name doesn't ring any bells."
George W. had run a failed race for Lubbock's congressional seat in 1978, which is the only possible explanation for his next quote in the UPI interview: "I know he wasn't on our staff. I could check our volunteer rolls."
Stranger still, Ronald Reagan endorsed young Bush's opponent in the 1978 race -- Texas state Sen. Kent Hance, who was a Democrat at the time. Hance dismissed George W. as a rich-kid Yalie pretending to be a Texan, and it worked.
Then there are the meaningless yet odd coincidences: Young George was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Young John briefly moved to New Haven, reportedly to stalk Jodie Foster. Both Bush Jr. and Hinckley Jr. went to Yale, although Hinckley lasted about a day while George W. graudated and (more importantly for his political career) was tapped as a member of the secret Skull & Bones order.
The Bush and Hinckley clans had been close for more than a decade before young John tried to kill Reagan. (John Hinckley Jr. also was found guilty of shooting press secretary James Brady and two Secret Service men.) Hinckley Sr. didn't back Bush Sr. for the presidency simply out of neighborliness; both oilmen wanted to protect the oil industry's tax breaks, which Reagan hoped to revoke.
The families are actually related: Both clans descended from Thomas Hinckley, who died in Massachusetts in 1706 and was governor of Plymouth Colony from 1658 to 1681.
But Reagan smashed Bush in the early primaries and seized the GOP nomination. Along the campaign trail, the personable and idealistic Reagan developed an intense hatred of George H.W. Bush, the cold-blooded Yankee CIA boss who made a fortune on the Texas oilfields. With behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Texas & Middle East oilmen and the intelligence agency elite in Northern Virginia, Bush Sr. seized the vice-presidential slot even though he claimed not to want it.
Reagan's victory was ensured by the Iran-Contra arms deal made by Bush Sr. and William Casey, the OSS/CIA agent and Reagan campaign chief who would become CIA director in 1981. Known as the "October Surprise" -- even though the scheme was to prevent the October Surprise of Carter's White House getting the U.S. hostages in Iran released before the election -- the real story didn't start to emerge until 1986. Even then, most of the scandal focused on small fish like Col. Oliver North and his blonde secretary.
Only a handful of conspiracy theorists have latched onto the Hinckley-Bush connections, while the successful assassinations of JFK and Bobby Kennedy remain in the American consciousness.
