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Would-be assassin turned musician, John Hinckley Jr., says he’s a victim of cancel culture

Since the end of his court supervision in 2022, Hinckley is having a hard time holding on to gigs

Senior Culture Editor

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John Hinckley Jr. sits for a portrait with his guitar in Williamsburg, Virginia, on September 14, 2022. (RYAN M. KELLY/AFP via Getty Images)
John Hinckley Jr. sits for a portrait with his guitar in Williamsburg, Virginia, on September 14, 2022. (RYAN M. KELLY/AFP via Getty Images)

John Hinckley Jr. spent 41 years 2 months and 15 days under one form of supervision or another — primarily during a lengthy stay in a Washington mental hospital — as a result of his attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. And since entering back into society as a free man in 2022, he's been trying to make a go of it as a professional musician. But it's not going very well.

On average, as soon as Hinckley books a show — be it in Brooklyn, NY or Naugatuck, CT, where he was scheduled to perform at Hotel Huxley on a date that would've marked 43 years, to the day, since shooting Reagan — the venue finds reason to shut it down before he even takes the stage. In a recent post to X (formerly Twitter) he offers his theory on why that is.

"With all of my concerts canceled, it’s a fair statement to say I’m a victim of cancel culture!," he writes, to which user @UsingCigarettes replied, "You should think about alternative venue options like house shows."

“It keeps happening over and over again,” Hinckley said in a recent interview with New York Post. “They book me and then the show gets announced and then the venue starts getting backlash. The owners always cave, they cancel. It’s happened so many times, it’s kinda what I expect. I don’t really get upset."

Watch his video announcement for the latest ill-fated show here:

By Kelly McClure

Kelly McClure is Salon's Senior Culture Editor, where she helps further coverage of TV, film, music, books and culture trends from a unique and thoughtful angle. Her work has also appeared in Vulture, Vanity Fair, Vice and many other outlets that don't start with the letter V. She is the author of one sad book called "Something Is Always Happening Somewhere." Follow her on Bluesky: @WolfieVibes

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