Hinckley, Three Victims Agree to Settlement

John W. Hinckley Jr., who attempted to assassinate former President Ronald Reagan, has agreed to furnish up to $2.9 million in potential book and movie proceeds to former White House Press Secretary James S. Brady and two law enforcement officers wounded in his 1981 attack, an attorney for Brady disclosed Thursday.

Under a negotiated settlement that concludes a lengthy legal battle waged by the three men, Hinckley would keep only a small portion of any proceeds realized from an account of his life and motives, attorney Frederic W. Schwartz Jr. said.

Schwartz said Hinckley signed the agreement earlier this week at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, the mental institution where he has been confined since a federal court jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity in June, 1982.

Although no contract has been offered to Hinckley, the $2.9-million figure was arrived at by all those involved in the dispute as the highest possible amount Hinckley might realize that would fairly compensate the victims for their severe injuries. Brady, permanently disabled by head wounds from the attack, has served as a spokesman for gun control, along with his wife, Sarah.

The others who would share in the proceeds are Timothy J. McCarthy, then a Secret Service agent assigned to Reagan’s protective detail, and former District of Columbia Police Officer Thomas K. Delahanty.

Attorneys said the key to the settlement was obtaining the rights to Hinckley’s life story because Hinckley, 39, has no other potential assets. One of Hinckley’s lawyers, B.J. Jones-Terrell, said the assailant signed the agreement because he wants to compensate the three men.

“He wanted to let people know that for many years now he’s wanted to make some sort of restitution,” Jones-Terrell said.

Under the settlement, Hinckley will surrender all legal rights to his life story to a trust controlled by Brady, McCarthy and Delahanty.