http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/taxidriver.htm

After doing some research on “Taxi Driver,” I stumbled upon a website about the assassination attempt on former President Ronald Reagan. Apparently he was shot by a man named John Hinckley Jr., who was obsessed with the movie and Robert DeNiro’s character, Travis Bickle. According to the article on the website, Hinckley imitated many aspects of Travis’ life. He wore the same outfits that Travis wore in the movie, wrote letters to his parents about his imaginary girlfriend, was obsessed with Jodie Foster, and of course, he tried to assassinate Reagan. Another point to note was that both Travis and Hinckley were both loners and outsiders within their society. It amazes me how the level of insanity consumed Hinckley’s life and how it paralleled with Travis’ character.

Not only did Hinckley imitate Travis’ looks but he also imitated Travis’ psychotic state of mind. According to the article, Hinckley believed that he could escape his loneliness and be rewarded for his actions by killing others, just as Travis had done when he killed Sport, the hotel manager, and the pimp. When looking at Hinckley’s attempted assassination on Reagan and the ruthless murders that Travis committed, we see that there was no justifiable reason for killing the victims of these crimes. The only driving force behind any of these killings was the suspects’ psychotic thinking and their false assumptions that killing these individuals would somehow cure their loneliness.

Ironically, it was determined that both Travis and Hinckley would not be severely punished for their crimes. Hinckley was acquitted because he was clearly insane while Travis was never sent to jail for murdering all of his victims. So in a literal sense, the crimes committed by Travis and Hinckley did free them in some way. It makes one reassess our legal system when murderers are free to once again roam the streets just because they plead insanity.