Would-be Ronald Reagan assassin reveals the Gipper planned to visit him in mental hospital: ‘Please don’t do that’

The Gipper was a forgiver!

Former President Ronald Reagan planned to visit his would-be assassin John Hinckley in a mental hospital, according to the gunman and the producer of a biopic on the Republican icon.

But the forgiveness meeting at St, Elizabeth Hospital was not to be because officials there nixed the idea, Hinckley told producer Mark Joseph during an interview on his “Mark Joseph Show” podcast.

Joseph, as part of his research for the “Reagan” film, said he previously spoke to the head of St. Elizabeth’s, who told him he advised Reagan, “please don’t do that” when the president asked about seeing Hinckley.

The filmmaker asked Hinckley if that was true during the podcast.

“I heard that he wanted to meet me… have a meeting with me at the hospital, but the staff at the hospital turned it down, which I wish they hadn’t done,” Hinckley said.

He added that he would have welcomed the opportunity to ask the 40th president’s forgiveness and express the respect and admiration he always held for him.

“Unfortunately, St. Elizabeth’s blocked it,” the would-be assassin said. “I think it would have been a good meeting. It would have gone well. I never disliked Reagan. Even on the day I did what I did. I liked him.

“If I had a meeting with him, I’m sure it would have gone very well. I would have been very respectful of him,” Hinckley, who was released from a mental hospital in 2022, said on the podcast. “I never had any animus at all towards President Reagan.”

Joseph said Hinckley, now 71, seemed “rational, logical and very subdued” during the recent interview.

The “Reagan” producer noted that Pope John Paul II visited Mehmet Ali Agca in prison after he survived an attempted assassination at the hands of the Turkish terrorist.

Joseph theorized that Reagan was moved by the gesture and “wanted to do the same thing with Hinckley.”

Hinckley attacked Reagan outside the Washington, DC Hilton on March 30, 1981, when he opened fire with a .22 and wounded the 40th president, his press secretary James Brady, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim MCarthy.

Reagan recovered from his injuries, but Brady spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair while Delahanty suffered nerve damage. A 1993 gun control bill named the Brady Bill set background checks and a five-day waiting period to buy handguns.

Hinckley, then 25 years old, was reportedly inspired to shoot Reagan early in his first term in a deranged attempt to impress “Taxi Driver” actress Jodi Foster.

He was committed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in DC after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982. In 2016, he lived under supervision with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Hinckley was unconditionally released from court oversight in June 2022, four decades after his failed hit on Reagan, who served two terms as president from 1981 to 1988.

Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 93 after suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease.

Joseph’s “Reagan” film, which depicts the life and legacy of the actor-turned president, was popular with moviegoers but wasn’t up for consideration for Best Picture Oscar from the Academy of Motion Pictures in 2025. Dennis Quaid played Reagan.

Despite its lack of Oscars’ attention, “Reagan” received at one point a glowing 98% audience approval rating on the film-scoring website Rotten Tomatoes, although it also garnered a dismal 18% critics score.

The film company Rawhide Pictures is re-releasing “Reagan” on Sept. 25 with a director’s cut that includes an additional 10 minutes not in the originally released film.

The re-release coincides with America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

Reagan earned the nickname “the Gipper” for his first big role as an actor portraying gravely ill football player George Gipp in the 1940 film classic “Knute Rockne, All American.” Gipp was in his hospital bed, according to legend, when he asked coach Knute Rockne to have the team, “Win just one for the Gipper.”