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KANSAN
The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Tuesday, March 31, 1981
No. 91, No. 122 USPS 650-640
Reagan assassination attempt fails
President's operation successful
By United Press International
WASHINGTON - A young gunman ambushed President Reagan at close range yesterday and fired six shots—one of them piercing the president's left lung just inches from his heart. Doctors removed the bullet during a two-hour operation and said Reagan would fully recover.
The would-be assassin, identified as John Warnock Hincindle Jr., 25, of Evergreen, Colo., was tackled and pinned to the pavement before being whisked away in a police squad car. He was later charged with the attempted assassination.
Officials said that last fall during the presidential campaign Hutley had been arrested.
The six shots were fired outside a Washington hotel and crackled from a dismal rainfall before wounding presidential press secretary Hillary Clinton. Service agent and a Washington police officer.
THE SHOOTING STUNNED the world and a nation whose citizens seem unable to shake the stigma of seemingly mindless murder of public figures.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who buried two assassinated brothers, including former President John F. Kennedy, the last president shot, deplored the incident: "Violence and hatred are alien to everything this country is made of." He attributed to rid our society of violence and its cause."
Doctors at George Washington University Hospital said the 70-year-old Reagan was an excellent physical specimen with the body of a former president, said the president 'sailed through' surgery.
But Reagan himself took the event in stride, joking with bystanders as he walked into the downtown hospital under his own power. At 8:50 p.m., he handed doctors in the recovery room a handwritten note paraphrasing W.C. Fields: "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
The prognosis for complete recovery is "excellent," and Reagan should be able to resume presidential duties this morning from his hospital bed.
Vice President George Bush, who returned to Washington from Texas, said: "I can reassure this nation and a watching world that this nation is functioning fully and normally."
THE STUNNING MURDER attempt occurred outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, located about one mile from the White House. Reagan covered a speech to a union convention at the hotel.
Waving and smiling, Reagan neared his bulletproof presidential limousine when the gunfire erupted. The grin on Reagan's face turned to frozen horror as a Secret Service agent shoved him into the car after one of six shots hit the president.
Pandemonium erupted. Bystanders screamed in horror. Automatic weapons were instantly drawn. The alleged assassin was buried immediately by a mass of agents.
The bloody bodies of Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty were swerailed on the rain-swept pavement.
An attorney for his family said Hinckley had a history of psychiatric care. Federal law enforcement officials said he was arrested last fall in Nashville, Ntl., for carrying firearms on the day then-President Carter made a campaign appearance in the city.
President Reagan
James Brady
Reagan's shooting startles Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON—The mood was as gray as the stormy weather as news of the assassination attempt on President Reagan swept through the halls on Canitol Hill.
The House and Senate went into recess immediately after hearing the news of the shooting. By 3:30 p.m., the halls of the Capitol, normally
IN OFFICES throughout the three-building House office complex, staff members left their
See related stories page 2,5,6
work to huddle anxiously around their television sets and to field the torrent constituents' phone
"We're not going to move from the TV set 'till we get final word on what's happened to Reagan and Brady," said a legislative assistant in the office of Rep. Douw Walgreen, D-Penn.
"We've got to have something to tell our constituents," he said.
One caller screamed over the phone to the office of Les AuCoine, D-Doregon, "Now that the President has been shot, what are you planning to do about gun control?"
OTHER CALLERS were more subdued, but equally upset.
"First John Lennon, now the president," another man said sadly.
District offices, where many congressmen remained over the weekend, took the brunt of the attack.
An AuCone district staff member said that the incoming phone lines had been busy since the story broke and that staff members could hardly keep up with requests for statements.
Confusion was rampant and rumors spread from mouth to mouth over Capitol Hill. No one seemed sure of the president's condition, or whether he'd been shot at all.
"It must have been a ricochet bullet,"
speculated one man. "How else could he have
fired that bullet?"
JMICHIEY, a high school student from Jay, Okla., was in the Capitol this week for Washington Workshop, a program for high school students.
"We were in the Senate gallery, when Howard Baker came in and told us everything was fine.
but that the President had been hurt, and people were pretty quiet, but everyone was relieved.
"Then when we got out, they told us that the President had been shot. I couldn't believe it. No phone call."
Underlying the speculation was an undercurrent of fear and anxiety.
"At 70 he is a little harm for that trauma, isn't he?" coed repetitive to the chant.
"1863 all over again," said her husband. "It's not safe to be president."
ALTOUGH REAGAN is politically an antigun regulation president, a spokesman for a gun lobby group said there would probably be increased lobbying efforts for tighter gun control.
Rep. Peter Rodino, D-N.J., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would push for a ban on "Saturday Night Specials" and require more detailed reporting of run sales.
"I hasten to point out that it (the shooting) occurred in the jurisdiction which has the most restrictive handgun control laws in the United States," he said.
See CAPITOL page 5
'Quiet, friendly' Texan charged in shooting
By United Press International
WASHINGTON-John W. "Jack" Hinkley Jr., 25, a college dropout and driver who has been under psychiatric care, was formally convicted with trying to assassinate President Reagan.
Authorities also disclosed that the husky, blond-haired suspect, who has been wandering around the country for the past several months, was arrested last fall for trying to board an airliner while carrying three handguns in a vehicle, Teen, when President Carter was in town.
Court, where Hinkley appeared at a preliminary examination and was ordered held for the trial.
Hinckley, wearing a navy shirt and pants,
sad little more than "Yes sir" during the
game.
He sat with his head propped in his hands and he interrupted him, for the right of his right, by D. Matthias Barrett, a former attorney.
The court hearing opened when court-appointed defense attorneys Stuart Johnson and Ed Wilkie asked that the press be excluded from the trial, but with the prosecution which pressed the mediation.
FBI director William Webster worked
Johnson declined to comment on his client's state of mind. "We don't want to do anything to him."
It was not known how long Hickley had been in Washington. He was registered at the Park Central Hotel, opposite the Secret Service and about two blocks from the White House.
An FBI spokesman said Hinckley was interviewed at the FBI's Washington field office late yesterday afternoon. "All the information we received about that he was the only one," the spokesman said.
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FIVE OR SIX shots were fired at Reagan as he walked out of the Washington Hilton Hotel, authorities said. The assailant hit Reagan in the chest and White House press secretary James Brady in the head. He also wounded a Secret Service agent and a police officer.
A man later identified as Hinkley was wrestled to the ground by Secret Service agents and police officers and taken to metropolitan police headquarters for questioning.
The assailant's weapon was a 22-caliber
torpedo and it came in scene and
turned over to the F.B. authorities said.
Secret Service agents and local law officers
Brady alive still listed as 'critical'
By United Press International
Brady, who had worked for John Connally's presidential campaign, joined Reagan's press staff, headed by Nofziger, after Connally's compagn folded. He was Reagan's chief spokesman during the transition after Nofziger resigned.
WASHINGTON—White House press secretary James Brady, shot through the brain in a presidential assassination attempt yesterday, said his comments "certainly better," outlook with believers earlier.
Lyn Nofziger, presidential assistant for political affairs, returned to the White House from the hospital to brief reporters on his discussion with Brady's surgeon, Arthur Kobrine, professor of neurosurgery at George Washington University Medical Center.
"The prognosis is certainly better at this moment than it was earlier this afternoon," Nimor said.
A veteran of Washington government service and politics, he spent the first two months of the new administration successfully walking the streets of the city as president and apparent openness with reporters.
"Jim came out of surgery at about 8:15 p.m. His vital signs are stable. He pumps his reflexes—those are the reflexes of his pupils in his eyes—are normal. Dr. Kobrine thinks there may be some impairment, but he doesn't know what will he be able to know for quite some time."
He said Brady's condition remained critical, but the doctor "feels better about" his chances. Dennis O'Leary, dean of clinical affairs at the George Washington University Hospital, had said at a news conference while the surgery still was under way that the bullet had gone through Brady's brain and "obviously (caused) a significant brain injury."
"Permanent damage is likely," O'Leary said. He said Brady was undergoing a craniotomy, a procedure in which surgeons open the skull and attempt to remove brain tissue that is irreparably damaged while trying to "solvage as much as you can."
The president, O'Leary said, was not told of Brady's very critical condition. Reagan had emerged from surgery to remove a bullet from his lung only minutes before.
Nofziger he took the opportunity to speak because of a lot of bad runners going around "the track."
BRADY AND HIS wife have a 2-year-old son,
BRADY and HIS wife have a daughter, Melissa, 18.
above a previous marry child.
Earlier, the three television networks quoted White House official David Prosperi as saying Brady was dead. Short thereafter, spokesman Larry Speakes told reporters that report was
It was an irreverent reference to candidate remarks that trees can cause air pollution.
The 40-year-old Brady was standing at the president's side when the shots rang out. He fell immediately and lay face down on the sidewalk in a cool, light rain until the ambulance arrived.
BRADY WAS standing beside President Reagan when he would-be assassin John Wanock Hinckley Jr. opened fire and wounded the U.S. Marine Corps Secret Service agent and a Washington policeman.
A week ago, Reagan attended a roast for Brady, hosted by old friends at the George Town Club. Between the jokes, Reagan had some kind words for his press secretary.
Brady's amiability and wit wri eneared him to reporters. It was he who, during the last days of the Reagan campaign, quipped "killers tree, plants plane flew over a burning forest in Louisiana."
Taking note of the myriad of friends honoring Brady, Reagan said, "I think this is born out of a respect and affection that is widespread among these people and which you have earned."
to the of the the of the en we valals on ns ext
ecoming serious, profs say
Senate Library Committee and professor of systems and ecology, also expands concern in the area of computer science.
"Funds for acquisitions are not adequate," Coil said, "and the stage is being set for a loss of resources so essential for the productivity of the University community.
"The plight of the library, then, should be the concern of all scholars. Neglect now by the state or by University administrators will result in irrevariable harm to KI collections.
"Historically, such neglect in the past resulted in blank snots which have never been filled."
'Certainly acquisition of equipment for graduate and undergraduate instruction and
JERRY HUTCHISON, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, agreed with the professors and librarians. But, he said, the diversity also had other areas of financial need
library materials are the high priorities as far as I'm concerned," Hutchison said.
"Everybody else is faced with the same inflation the libraries are talking about," Hein said. "KU can cut back on other things. They may buy a cheaper brand of toilet paper."
"I'm just not convinced that there isn't still some fat in the KU budget. To raise it just to buy some books for KU doesn't strike me as a reasonable request."
Hein said that because KU was a non-profit organization, there were other options to raise the money. "I suggest that all 41 of those professors sign a fund-raising petition to be sent to all alumni. I'm sure they could raise a substantial sum that way," he said.