In Letter, Hinckley Calls Manson ‘Cool’

Presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. referred to Charles Manson last year as a “cool dude,” the government disclosed in court Wednesday.

Hinckley made the comments in a June 2, 1988, letter in which he thanked a man for sending him a semi-nude caricature of actress Jodie Foster, which Hinckley had requested, according to testimony by psychiatrist Raymond Patterson.

The testimony came in a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge June Green on Hinckley’s request for face-to-face access to the media, which he says will prove that he is sane. Testimony was to continue Monday.

Patterson, who treated Hinckley from 1983 until March, testified that Hinckley is seriously mentally ill, suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder.

Hinckley was acquitted by reason of insanity in the March, 1981, shooting of former President Ronald Reagan, Reagan’s Press Secretary James S. Brady, a Washington police officer and a Secret Service agent.

Hinckley said after his arrest that he attempted the assassination in an effort to attract Foster.

He testified Wednesday that he had not had been “obsessed, fixated, (or) preoccupied” with Foster in five or six years.

In his letter, read in court by Patterson, Hinckley thanked the man for the caricature, then referred to Manson.

Reads Letter Contents

“I am not a follower, but he is one cool dude,” Hinckley said of Manson, the leader of a cult whose members killed actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969.

Psychiatrists treating Hinckley were unaware of the letter until it was turned over by the U.S. attorney’s office, Patterson said. The Secret Service obtained the letter after Hinckley sent it.

Hinckley testified earlier Wednesday that he wants access to the media to prove that he is sane. The Washington Post and ABC News have asked to interview him.

“We have the blackout going where I can never in any way be seen or heard by anybody who is in the least bit impartial,” Hinckley said under questioning by his lawyer. “I think it’s set up that way intentionally. I don’t believe I am this seriously ill person.”