John Hinckley Jr.’s unlikely aim to go from would-be presidential assassin to touring musician met with local resistance this week after a booking in Athens was canceled shortly after it was announced .
Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan and three others in Washington, DC in 1981. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity the following year and was held in a government mental hospital until his release in 2016. All post-release restrictions were fully lifted in June this year.
Hinckley’s “lifetime dream,” according to a Washington Post article earlier this month, was to perform music in front of a live audience. But a string of dates in the North East and Midwest on his self-proclaimed ‘Redemption Tour’ have been abruptly canceled, with clubs citing security concerns after receiving online threats.
Hinckley announced on Twitter Tuesday that he had been booked to play a show in October at World Famous, a club in downtown Athens, Georgia. On Wednesday he tweeted a show poster which appears to incorporate his FBI mugshot from 1981. The show ended several hours later.
An employee who answered the phone at World Famous on Thursday confirmed to WABE that the show was cancelled. Club management did not respond to other requests for comment.
A representative for the club told WGAU that the show was canceled “after listening to some of the responses to [the] view the ad and gather more information.
“It was never intended to cause harm to the community or offend anyone,” they said. “We apologize for ignoring the implications of the show.”
