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<ul class="summary-list"><li>In his first interview since his release from custody, <keyword id="14315053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="john-hinckley-jr" source="Orion">John Hinckley Jr</keyword>. apologized for trying to kill <keyword id="12188910" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ronald-reagan" source="Orion">Ronald Reagan</keyword> in 1981. </li><li>He told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-hinckley-jr-ronald-reagan-i-have-true-remorse-for-what-i-did/">CBS</a> he was unable to tell right from wrong at the time, saying: "I have true remorse for what I did." </li></ul>During his first interview since his release from a psychiatric hospital in Washington, DC, <keyword id="12188911" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="john-hinckley" source="Orion">John Hinckley</keyword> Jr. apologized for trying to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981. "I have true remorse for what I did," Hinckley <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-hinckley-jr-ronald-reagan-i-have-true-remorse-for-what-i-did/">told CBS News'</a> Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett. "I know that [the victims] probably can't forgive me now, but I just want them to know that I am sorry for what I did."On March 30, 1981, Hinckley fired six shots toward then-president Ronald Reagan as he left a speech at the Washington Hilton hotel. While Reagan was not struck directly, one of the bullets ricocheted off the waiting presidential limo and struck him under the arm, breaking a rib and puncturing a lung. Reagan underwent emergency surgery and was released from the hospital 12 days later. "I was right there and I fired shots at him, which, so unfortunately hit other people too," Hinckley <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-hinckley-jr-ronald-reagan-i-have-true-remorse-for-what-i-did/">told CBS</a> as he described the <keyword id="11922278" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="shooting" source="Orion">shooting</keyword>. He said he could not remember how he was feeling at the time and described the incident as "traumatic."White House Press Secretary John Brady was paralyzed by the shooting. Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy, and a police officer named Thomas Delahanty were also wounded. All four men survived.Hinckley, who was found not guilty of the shooting by reason of insanity, was sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. At the time, Hinckley said the attack was meant to impress then-18-year-old actress Jodie Foster. He had a romantic obsession with the actress after seeing her play a 12-year-old sex trafficking survivor in the movie "Taxi Driver" and was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/jodie-foster-john-hinckley-jr-shooting-b1824353.html">stalking her, repeatedly calling and sending letters.</a>Foster has rarely spoken about the incident, even canceling interviews where the topic may be brought up. In a 1982 essay for Esquire titled "<a href="https://classic.esquire.com/article/share/c1181497-63fa-453a-b940-525cdde8d344">Why Me?</a>", Foster wrote of the attack: "I started to cry a bit, then my tears turned to laughter. I couldn't stop laughing. It was simply too funny, too incredibly bizarre, too painful...My laughter was strange and hollow, and I couldn't control it. It was beyond me. My body jerked in painful convulsions. I hurt. I was no longer thinking of the President, of the assailant, of the crime, of the press. I was crying for myself. Me, the unwilling victim. The one who would pay in the end. The one who paid all along—and, yes, keeps paying. That kind of pain doesn't go away." The former director of forensics services at St. Elizabeth's hospital, the psychiatric facility where Hinckley was incarcerated for decades, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/24/justice/hinckley-hearing/index.html">told CNN</a> that Hinckley suffers from narcissistic and schizoid personality disorders. He underwent extensive individual and group therapy while in custody and was granted conditional release in 2016 after it was determined he was no longer a threat to himself or others. Hinckley acknowledged to CBS he remains on medication to manage his illnesses. Last year, a judge <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-hinckley-jr-unconditional-release-reagan-attempted-assassin-2021-9">granted his unconditional release</a> from custody."After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!," Hinckley <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnHinckley20/status/1537105834571976704">tweeted</a> on June 15, after a judge <a href="https://apnews.com/article/john-hinckley-jr-freed-9db1af865b01dc956cb33291438392dc">freed him entirely from court oversight</a>.The 67-year-old now aspires to become <a href="https://www.fox5ny.com/news/john-hinckley-jr-nyc-concert-sold-out">a touring musician</a>, though several planned shows have been <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/06/john-hinckley-jr-brooklyn-concert-canceled-market-hotel-1235046409/">canceled</a> due to security concerns. As Hinckley continues to reintegrate into his Williamsburg, Virginia, community, he maintains that he is "not just some crazy person" and wants to show people he is "kind of an ordinary guy.""If I could take it all back, I would," Hinckley <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-hinckley-jr-ronald-reagan-i-have-true-remorse-for-what-i-did/">told CBS</a>. "I swear I would take it all back."

In his first interview since being released from a mental hospital, John Hinckley Jr. talks Jodie Foster, becoming a touring musician, and feeling 'true remorse' for trying to kill Ronald Reagan

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President <keyword id="12188910" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ronald-reagan" source="Orion">Ronald Reagan</keyword>'s attempted assassin will be granted "unconditional release" in 2022.</li><li><keyword id="12188911" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="john-hinckley" source="Orion">John Hinckley</keyword> Jr shot Reagan and several others in 1981 in an attempt to woo actress Jodie Foster.</li><li>The court is waiting until June 2022 to see how Hinckley reacts to his mother's recent death.</li></ul>President Ronald Reagan's attempted assassin John Hinckley Jr. will be granted "unconditional release" in 2022."'I'm going to after all these years grant unconditional release to Mr. Hinckley," Judge Paul L. Friedman said during a court hearing on Monday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.<a href="https://www.secretservice.gov/reagan40thanniversary">Hinckley Jr. shot Reagan, a police officer, a secret service agent, and Reagan's press secretary</a> in an attempt to win over child actress Jodie Foster in 1981. The court accepted Hinckley's insanity plea, leading the government to place Hinckley in a DC-based psychiatric facility, St. Elizabeth's Hospital."He was ravaged by mental illness at the time," Hinckley's attorney, Barry William Levine, said in Monday's court hearing. "It was that mental illness that was the basis of his acquittal."Friedman said the court has granted Hinckley several additional freedoms in the past two decades, ultimately letting him live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2016.Hinckley's lawyer and US Attorney Kacie McCoy Weston both agreed with the judge's decision for a full and unconditional release. Both parties said they wanted to wait until June 2022 to release Hinckley to see how he responds to the recent death of his mother, which will result in him being by himself for the first time in decades."The ball is completely in Mr. Hinckley's hands," Weston said.In addition to lobbying from his attorneys, the Department of Behavioral Health at St. Elizabeth's Hospital wrote letters in 2020 and 2021 recommending Hinckley's unconditional release.Friedman called Hinckley one of the most studied patients in the history of the institution, noting that very few people have been subjected to as many interviews, risk assessments, and testing as Hinckley."If he hadn't tried to kill the president he would have been granted unconditional release a long, long time ago," Friedman said.The judge finished Monday's hearing to say that after adjudicating Hinckley's case for many years, it's time for a change.Hinckley "should be able to live out his life productively in Williamsburg interacting with people doing his art, his music, and all will be right with the world," Friedman said. The judge said he'd issue his final order later in the week.

Reagan's attempted assassin, John Hinckley Jr, will be granted 'unconditional release' in 2022

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="20346186" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Secret-Service" source="keywords">Secret Service</keyword> is under scrutiny after a would-be assassin got in close range of <keyword id="19918985" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Donald-Trump" source="keywords">Donald Trump</keyword>.</li><li>After <keyword id="20347466" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ronald-Reagan" source="keywords">Ronald Reagan</keyword> was the target of an <keyword id="20039518" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="assassination-attempt" source="keywords">assassination attempt</keyword>, the agency faced a lesser reckoning.</li></ul>As a gunman fired shots at former President Donald Trump at a rally Saturday, nicking his right ear, US Secret Service agents instantly sprung into action. The agents surrounding Trump dove on top of him, covering his body to protect him from any more bullets. Another agent, his eye looking through the lens of a sniper rifle, shot the would-be assassin in the head, killing him. A major question remained: How did the Secret Service let a guy with a rifle <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-secret-service-agents-how-trump-assassin-could-fire-shots-2024-7">get so close to Trump</a> in the first place? The last time a president or presidential candidate was the subject of a similar <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reagan-secret-service-agent-says-trump-shooting-failure-for-agency-2024-7">assassination attempt</a> was Ronald Reagan. Back then, the Secret Service faced less of a reckoning. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. got within a few feet of Reagan outside a Washington, DC, hotel where the president gave a speech to union representatives. Hinckley Jr. fired six times with his pistol. As Secret Service members shoved Reagan into his limousine, one bullet ricocheted off the side of the vehicle, went through the one-inch gap between the limo's body and open door, and penetrated Reagan's left side, breaking a rib and puncturing a lung, according to government records from the time. The Secret Service came under some scrutiny at that time, too. The US Senate and US House of Representatives <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://time.com/archive/6700383/protecting-the-president/">each held hearings</a>the following month to evaluate how well the agency did its job. But members of Congress mostly praised agents for their performance and mused on the nature of protecting politicians in open societies. Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.congress.gov/97/crecb/1981/11/12/GPO-CRECB-1981-pt21-1-2.pdf ">advocated for gun control legislation</a>. The Treasury Department, which housed the Secret Service at the time, prepared its own report. The 100-page document, completed in about five months, reviewed its own procedures and was full of praise for itself, writing that the agents protecting Reagan "reacted in precisely the manner required by their training and the applicable procedures," and recommending awards for the four agents who protected him. The report, prepared by Treasury Department General Counsel Peter J. Wallison, offered a few recommendations for the future, including better ways for the Secret Service to communicate with other federal agencies and having a paramedic travel with the presidential detail. "In many ways, that transfixing encounter with fate was an easy case: the gunman acted alone; on a weekday; with a low-caliber weapon; in Washington, D.C.; while the President was at the door of his limousine; within a mile or two of a fully equipped and staffed metropolitan hospital; above all, the President's wound was not mortal," the report read. "Anyone can imagine less favorable circumstances, and it is for these that Treasury and other agencies must be prepared." <h2>The Secret Service has been plagued by scandal</h2>Reagan was seriously injured in the <keyword id="19909929" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shooting" source="keywords">shooting</keyword>, as were a Secret Service agent and DC police officer on the scene. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gun-control-advocate-james-brady-dies-2014-8">James Brady</a>, his press secretary, suffered the worst injuries, with a bullet to the head that caused lifelong neurological issues. On Saturday, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-was-thomas-matthew-crooks-the-trump-rally-shooter-2024-7">Thomas Matthew Crooks</a> shot and killed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/victim-trump-rally-shooting-corey-comperatore-shielded-family-from-gunfire-2024-7">Corey Comperatore</a>, an attendee of the Trump rally in Pennsylvania, and injured two other bystanders, even as he failed at his attempt to kill Trump himself. By 2024, the Secret Service's longstanding reputation as an elite force has been damaged by controversies in recent years. Members of the agency <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/secret-service-messages-deleted-three-weeks-after-jan-6-attack-2022-7">deleted text messages</a> from January 6, 2021, making them unavailable for a congressional panel investigating the pro-Trump insurrection attempt. Earlier this year, an agent was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/30/us-news/kamala-harris-secret-service-agent-had-screws-loose-ex-colleague/">removed from Vice President Kamala Harris's detail</a> after reportedly assaulting a superior officer. In 2022, two agents were placed on leave after <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-secret-service-agents-seoul-incident/">reportedly getting into a fight with a cab driver</a> in Seoul. A 2015 House panel report faulted the Secret Service for numerous security breaches, which more recent agency leaders have tried to clean up. <div type="image" title="donald trump after being shot" height="536" width="715" msid="111792212" hostid="261"></div>Already, congressional oversight is more intense after the Trump shooting than it was after the Reagan shooting. Six committees have demanded answers from the Secret Service, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/inside-congress/2024/07/15/trump-shooting-probes-sweep-capitol-hill-00168451">according to Politico</a>: the House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee, House Homeland Security Committee, House Intelligence Committee, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Senate Judiciary Committee. Members of each committee received briefings from law enforcement Monday or were scheduled to receive them Tuesday, Politico reported. Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, is scheduled to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee on July 22. Some members of Congress are considering whether to create an independent commission to examine the Trump shooting in the same mold as the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/15/us/politics/house-inquiries-trump-assassination-attempt.html">according to The New York Times</a>. The Department of Homeland Security — which took over control of the Secret Service from the Treasury Department when it was created in 2003 — has already announced a beefed-up security detail for Trump. President Joe Biden also ordered a Secret Service detail for independent presidential candidate <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-robert-kennedy-jr-leaked-call-bullet-mosquito-2024-7">Robert F. Kennedy Jr.</a>, whose father was killed in a political assassination in 1968 and whose previous requests for Secret Service protection had been denied. <h2>The Reagan assassination attempt investigations focused on Hinckley</h2>The main difference in the government agency reactions in 1981 compared to now is that Reagan's would-be killer was still alive. Hinckley Jr. was arrested immediately. His motives were readily apparent: He wanted to impress actor Jodie Foster by killing a US president. At trial, a jury found him not guilty, agreeing with his insanity defense. Hinckley Jr. was placed in a mental health institution and ultimately released in 2016. The FBI is investigating the Trump shooting, and it isn't clear what actions they'll ultimately take. The motive of Crooks, a registered Republican and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-shooting-suspect-rejected-from-school-rifle-team-ex-classmate-2024-7">reported gun enthusiast</a>, is much less evident. Representatives for the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment on whether they'd publish reports about the Trump shooting. <div type="image" title="Police and Secret Service diving to protect then-president Ronald Reagan during the attempted assassination in 1981." height="1683" width="2500" msid="111792214" hostid="261"></div>The FBI investigation into Hinckley Jr. was overseen by then-Assistant Attorney General <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/04/05/080499.html?pageNumber=30">Rudy Giuliani</a>. That investigation focused on building the criminal case against Hinckley Jr. A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://vault.fbi.gov/president-ronald-reagan-assassination-attempt">1,000-page report</a> — completed just two months after the Reagan shooting — featured interviews with eyewitnesses, medical records, forensic evidence, and a deep dive into Hinckley's past. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, members of Congress and the media focused on an earlier incident with Hinckley. He was arrested in Nashville the prior October on weapons charges, possessing guns and handcuffs, when then-President Jimmy Carter visited the city. Journalists immediately found records related to the arrest, which <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1981/03/31/064339.html?pageNumber=1">took up prominent space on the front page of The New York Times</a> a day after the shooting. But Hinckley <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/03/us/fbi-notice-on-hinckley-arrest-at-issue.html">hadn't been on the Secret Service's internal watchlist</a>, and members of Congress <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.congress.gov/bound-congressional-record/1981/04/01/127/house-section/article/5948-5975?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22John+Hinckley+Jr.%22%7D&amp;s=6&amp;r=37">demanded to know</a> why the FBI didn't inform the Secret Service about the earlier arrest. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms played a role in the investigation, too, tracing the purchase of Hinckley's handgun to a pawnshop in Dallas. The Justice Department also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.justice.gov/file/149506/dl?inline">prepared a memorandum on presidential succession</a> after then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig falsely claimed he was "in charge" at the White House until then-Vice President George HW Bush arrived (the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate were in line before him). Congress later passed two significant laws following the shooting. After Hinckley's acquittal, Reagan signed a law in 1984 restricting the use of the insanity defense — shifting the burden from prosecution to the defense in criminal cases. In 1993, with support from Brady and his family, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady Act, which regulated handgun purchases, after versions of the law floated through Congress in the aftermath of the shooting. The Reagan shooting took place in a period of history when attempted and successful assassinations were not uncommon. John Lennon was killed just a few months earlier, and Pope John Paul II was shot a couple of months later. In the Treasury Department report, Wallison wrote that violence struck at the heart of democracy itself. "What is already clear is that a democratic system which values an orderly transfer of authority through free elections cannot allow the results of these processes to be redirected or reversed by violence," he wrote. Correction: July 24, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated how long it took for the Treasury Department to complete its report into the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. It took five months, not less than one.

The public is outraged the Secret Service appeared to allow a shooter a clear shot of Trump. After Reagan was shot, the agency was widely praised.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="22406325" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Trump-shooting" source="keywords">Trump shooting</keyword> was Secret Service's worst failure in decades, director says.</li><li>Secret Service head <keyword id="22406147" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kimberly-Cheatle" source="keywords">Kimberly Cheatle</keyword> declined to answer specific questions about what went wrong.</li><li>She said an investigation would take 60 days.</li></ul>The director of the US Secret Service admitted in a <keyword id="20568525" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="House-of-Representatives" source="keywords">House of Representatives</keyword> committee hearing Monday that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-shooting-assassination-attempt-secret-service-past-scandals-2024-7">shooting of former President Donald Trump</a> was a disaster for the agency. "The assassination attempt of former President Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades," Kimberly Cheatle said Monday morning. Cheatle had been called to testify before the House's Oversight and Accountability Committee to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/secret-service-scrutiny-shooting-donald-trump-pennsylvania-rally-2024-7">explain</a> how <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-secret-service-agents-how-trump-assassin-could-fire-shots-2024-7">the Secret Service allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to get close enough to Trump</a> at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, nine days ago to shoot at him. The event had been the first time a president or former president was shot since <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-shooting-reagan-assassination-attempt-parallels-secret-service-2024-7">John Hinckley Jr. shot and injured Ronald Reagan in 1981</a>, two months into his first term. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-crooks-academic-transcript-good-grades-chewing-gum-2024-7">Crooks</a>, 20, climbed onto the rooftop of a building 400 feet away from where Trump stood at the rally podium. With an AR-15, he injured Trump's ear, killed attendee Corey Comperatore, and injured two others before a Secret Service countersniper killed him. At the public hearing Monday, Cheatle said she would "move Heaven and Earth" to ensure a shooting like that never happened again, but she offered few answers about the Secret Service's failure. Cheatle declined to answer substantive questions, citing an "ongoing investigation" from the FBI as well as the Secret Service. Cheatle said the agency would complete its own investigation "within 60 days." Neither the FBI nor the Secret Service have said whether they would make the investigation results public, as the agencies did in the aftermath of the Reagan shooting. The FBI completed and made public its 1,000-page into the Reagan shooting in two months, while the Treasury Department, which oversaw the Secret Service at the time, took five months to complete and publish its own report. Cheatle said Monday that her agency was "still looking into the advance process" plan that the Secret Service used to determine why the roof wasn't properly secured ahead of the rally, and that no employees have been disciplined. She said she had spoken to the countersniper who killed Crooks — with one shot — along with other agency members at Trump's rally, but refused to disclose the content of their conversations. According to Cheatle, Crooks was recognized earlier in the day as a "suspicious" person but not a "threat." Had he been identified as a threat, she said, the rally would have been shut down. Crooks was reportedly on the rooftop for 20 minutes before shooting at Trump. The Secret Service has been criticized for previously denying Trump additional protection at events. At the Pennsylvania rally, however, Cheatle said, "there were no assets denied." Trump has also been the subject of an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/political-assassinations-the-rise-symptom-new-era-global-chaos-trump-2024-7">Iranian assassination plot</a>, according to national security officials. Correction: July 24, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated how long it took for the Treasury Department to complete its report into the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. It took five months, not less than one.

Secret Service director admits Trump shooting was agency's 'most significant failure' in decades

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Parasocial relationships are imagined friendships or relationships with a celebrity or public figure.</li><li>As long as healthy boundaries are implemented, parasocial relationships can actually be beneficial. </li></ul>If you've been on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@joe.bartolozzi/video/6969255895163227397?q=parasocial%20relationships&amp;t=1676045412038" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> lately, you've probably heard about <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00255/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parasocial relationships</a>: one-way, imaginary friendships with celebrities.People in parasocial relationships may feel proud of their favorite celebrity's success, look to them as a role model, and engage in imaginary conversations with them. There's a common misconception that this is unhealthy, but it's actually quite common and more healthy than you think.The vast majority of parasocial relationships are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/joc/article-abstract/70/6/868/5964783" target="_blank" rel="noopener">healthy and beneficial</a>, says <a href="https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/psychology/faculty/faculty-directory/gabriel.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shira Gabriel</a>, a psychology professor at the <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University at Buffalo</a>. Anyone can have a parasocial relationship with <a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/news/2021/stories/node/189826" target="_blank" rel="noopener">any</a> <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00255/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">famous figure</a> – from musicians to football players to <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.596663/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">politicians</a>.<h2>Signs of a parasocial relationship</h2>Just because you're a fan of someone famous doesn't mean you have a parasocial relationship with them — the distinction is a bit murky, Gabriel says. But the main thing to look at is the degree of emotional involvement. For example, if you feel proud of them when they succeed and annoyed when someone hurts them, that indicates a parasocial relationship, whereas not feeling particularly affected by what happens to them means you're a fan.Other key signs of parasocial relationships include:<ul><li>You're interested in a celebrity's life, and want to read articles about them.</li><li>You root for good things to happen to the celebrity.</li><li>You admire the celebrity and want to develop more of their positive attributes.</li><li>You imagine meeting the celebrity and having conversations with them where you take their advice.</li><li>It feels like the celebrity keeps you company.</li><li>You write letters or a diary directed at the celebrity.</li><li>If you don't see the celebrity in the news or on TV for a while, you miss them.</li></ul>For example, a football fan who has a parasocial relationship with Tom Brady might cry when he loses a game.One simple way to look at it: If you think of a celebrity the same way you think of your friends, that's a sign of a parasocial relationship, Gabriel says.<h2>How a parasocial relationship can help someone</h2>Parasocial relationships can help you in a bunch of different ways, including:<h3>They can help you feel less alone</h3>Parasocial relationships may <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000082" target="_blank" rel="noopener">help you feel connected</a> to others and like you have someone to talk to, providing comfort and <a href="https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&amp;context=intlbus_facpub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">companionship</a>, says <a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/psychology/faculty/theran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sally Theran</a>, an associate professor of psychology at <a href="https://www.wellesley.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wellesley College</a>.For instance, one <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-87836-001" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 study</a> suggested that the number of parasocial relationships increased during the pandemic, possibly helping people to cope when they had limited opportunities to see friends and family.However, it's best to have both parasocial and traditional relationships, Gabriel notes. After all, parasocial relationships can offer a sense of connection and emotional attachment, but there are certain things only a real-life friend can give you, like a hug when you're feeling down.<h3>They're low-effort and low-risk</h3>You can choose when you want to engage with parasocial relationships and when you don't – so when you're feeling tired or worn down, you don't have to be worrying about someone else, Gabriel says.Parasocial relationships can also be <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/parasocial-relationships/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less risky</a> than real relationships, since celebrities aren't going to reject you, Gabriel says. <h3>They can inspire you to improve yourself</h3>People who have parasocial relationships may use their chosen celebrity as a role model to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000082" target="_blank" rel="noopener">improve their own lives</a>. For instance, Theran notes that someone who has a parasocial relationship with Reese Witherspoon may look up to her when making career decisions. When offered a new gig, you might consider, "what would Reese do and would Reese take this job," Theran says. Witherspoon, who has had a very successful career, can be a good model for professional women. In other words, having a parasocial relationship with her has the potential to help you grow.<h3>They can make you feel more confident</h3>People tend to admire the celebrities they have parasocial relationships with, Gabriel says. For example, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mike-Parent/publication/347462449_Parasocial_relationships_and_depression_among_LGBQ_emerging_adults_living_with_their_parents_during_COVID-19_The_potential_for_online_support/links/638a7f2f7d9b40514e0b22f5/Parasocial-relationships-and-depression-among-LGBQ-emerging-adults-living-with-their-parents-during-COVID-19-The-potential-for-online-support.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">if you're LGBTQ+</a> and live in a conservative area, you might form a bond with a singer who is openly gay.Subsequently, you might actually <a href="https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2008/09/9626.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">feel good about yourself</a> because of your attachment to that celebrity.It's like feeling proud when someone from your hometown wins a medal in the Olympics, Gabriel says. Because you identify with those around you, having a relationship with someone you admire can make you feel better and more confident."Celebrities provide a way for people who want to feel a certain way about themselves to feel that way," Gabriel says, "Just by linking the celebrity to the self."<h2>When to be worried about a parasocial relationship</h2>For the most part, there's little evidence that parasocial relationships are harmful. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/joc/article-abstract/70/6/868/5964783" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One 2020 meta analysis</a> suggested there are no strong correlations between social deficiencies and parasocial relationships.It's very rare for a parasocial relationship to turn dangerous, Theran says. When parasocial relationships do become concerning, the fault is usually due to an underlying mental health concern, not the parasocial relationship itself.For instance, <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hinckleyaccount.html#:~:text=All%20the%20government%20psychiatrists%20concluded,the%20time%20of%20the%20shooting." target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Hinckley Jr.</a>, Ronald Reagan's would-be assassin, shot the former president in 1981 because he wanted to impress famous actress Jodie Foster, Theran says. But that's because he had other severe mental health issues: his actions weren't the result of the potential parasocial relationship."You can certainly find pathology in anything," Gabriel says, but it isn't more common in parasocial relationships "than it is for any other thing in this world."If you are worried about someone in your life who's engaged in a parasocial relationship, keep an eye out to see if they seem to be losing contact with reality, Theran says.That could show up as someone believing that Taylor Swift is sending them messages in her songwriting, or becoming convinced that they will one day marry Selena Gomez, Theran says.If these signs pop up, it could indicate delusions connected to a more serious mental health condition. If this is the case, it's worth speaking to a mental health professional. And remember, much of a celebrity's image is carefully curated, Theran says. "You're having a parasocial relationship not necessarily with that celebrity but with the images that they present," she says.She advises that parents and guardians of adolescents remind their kids to be critical about images and depictions of a celebrity, particularly in social media.Parasocial relationships may also become dangerous when they involve stalking, obsessing, or cause distress or impairment to yourself or those around you.<h2>Insider's takeaway</h2>Parasocial relationships get a bad rap online, but for most people, these bonds are nothing to be concerned about. In fact, they can actually help people feel more connected and less alone."This is a very healthy, very normal way to interact with the modern world," Gabriel says. "We see very little evidence at all that these things are harmful to people." Of course, take any parasocial relationship with a grain of salt. If engaging in the relationship involves a disconnect from reality, it could be time to speak to a professional.

What are parasocial relationships? Why an imaginary friendship with a celebrity can actually be healthy, according to experts

Welcome back to <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">10 Things in Politics</a>. <a href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/10-things-in-politics">Sign up here to receive this newsletter</a>. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - click <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576">here for iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider">here for Android</a>. Send tips to <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.Here's what we're talking about:<ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-for-president-2024-congress-constitution-reforms-2021-9">Legal experts sketch out their nightmare scenarios if Trump is president again in 2025</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-senate-gop-national-debt-ceiling-default-government-shutdown-2021-9">Senate Republicans block a bill meant to avoid a debt default</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-without-borders-faces-with-allegations-of-racism-and-segregation-2021-9">Insiders say nonwhite Doctors Without Borders workers get worse pay, less security, and inferior medical care</a></li></ul>With Phil Rosen.1. THE PRESIDENCY: Democrats fear the presidency has grown too powerful. Party leaders like Rep. Adam Schiff of California crafted an array of proposals designed to give lawmakers more tools to thwart any president who tries to mimic Donald Trump's pursuit of sweeping executive power. But nine months into the Biden administration, and with Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress, none of the legislation introduced to prevent a Trump 2.0 - perhaps literally, should Trump run again - has been enacted. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-for-president-2024-congress-constitution-reforms-2021-9">It doesn't appear likely to pass anytime soon either</a>.Here's a look at where things stand:Democrats' attention is focused elsewhere: "For the moment, the Biden administration and congressional leadership appear more focused on domestic-policy spending, and even supporters of the anti-Trump measures acknowledge that they'd be tough to pass through a Senate with a slim Democratic majority," my colleague writes.Legal experts worry about the legacy of Trump's actions: "There is a road map for any president to abuse any of these powers in the same way or potentially worse ways," said Elizabeth Hempowicz, the director of public policy at the Project on Government Oversight.<ul><li>This clash is nothing new: Congress and the White House have long butted heads over issues of oversight and even presidential power. Legal fights continue to be waged over the subject. For instance, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/politics/daca-biden.html">a Texas federal judge ruled over the summer</a> that President Barack Obama overstepped his authority in creating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-for-president-2024-congress-constitution-reforms-2021-9">Read more about why experts think Trump would be even more brazen if he returns to power.</a>2. Senate Republicans block a bill meant to avoid a debt default: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell led all of his fellow GOP lawmakers to block a measure that would have averted both a debt default and a government shutdown. Since GOP lawmakers filibustered the proposal, it failed to get the necessary 60 votes to pass. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mcconnell-senate-gop-national-debt-ceiling-default-government-shutdown-2021-9">Lawmakers now have just days to avoid a government shutdown and perhaps only weeks to avoid a catastrophic default</a>.<ul><li>Democrats may be changing their debt-ceiling strategy: Top lawmakers have made clear the party can't afford to have the government shut down on its watch, Politico reports. It's still unclear what they'll pursue, but it could involve nixing a debt-ceiling hike for now so they can focus on the more-immediate shutdown threat. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/27/republicans-block-bill-shutdown-debt-ceiling-514405">More on where things stand</a>.</li></ul><div type="image" title="Ali N'Simbo stands with his arms crossed, with a body of water behind him." height="1666" width="2222" msid="86582388" hostid="261"></div>3. Insiders say Doctors Without Borders reserves some high-risk assignments for nonwhite workers: Doctors Without Borders is perhaps the best known of all international relief organizations. But an Insider investigation in collaboration with the nonprofit radio show and podcast "Reveal," based on interviews with about 100 current and former staffers in nearly 30 countries and a review of thousands of pages of documents, has found that a segregated, two-tiered workplace is firmly ingrained within the organization. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-without-borders-faces-with-allegations-of-racism-and-segregation-2021-9">Read the full investigation about what life is really like for some doctors inside the massively popular nonprofit</a>.4. R. Kelly faces life in prison after being found guilty in his sex-crimes trial: Jurors in Kelly's federal criminal trial convicted the R&amp;B singer of racketeering and sex trafficking. Prosecutors said he directed employees to procure women for sex and sexually abused women over nearly 25 years. <a href="https://www.insider.com/r-kelly-verdict-sex-crimes-trial-2021-9">More on the verdict</a>.<ul><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/r-kelly-accuser-reacts-sex-crimes-conviction-2021-9">An accuser reacts</a>: "I've been hiding from Robert Kelly due to fear and threats made against me, and I'm ready to start living my life free from fear and start the healing process," a woman who testified under the pseudonym "Sonya" said of the verdict.</li></ul>5. Killings spiked in cities across the country: The US in 2020 saw one of its largest-ever one-year increases in homicides, per new FBI data, The New York Times reports. "Although major crimes were down overall," The Times said, "there were an additional 4,901 homicides in 2020 compared with the year before, the largest leap since national records started in 1960." <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/fbi-murders-2020-cities.html">Some cities including Milwaukee; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Memphis, Tennessee, recorded their most homicides ever, but police chiefs and criminal experts say it's hard to pinpoint a single cause for the spikes</a>.<div type="image" title="US President Joe Biden receives a third shot of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as a booster on the White House campus September 27, 2021, in Washington, DC." height="640" width="1280" msid="86582391" hostid="261"></div>6. Biden touts booster shots by getting one: He received a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on live TV, encouraging eligible Americans to follow suit too. Biden, who is 78, is eligible for the booster because he's over 65 and it's been more than six months since he received his second jab (on January 11). <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-will-get-a-pfizer-booster-shot-on-monday-2021-9">More on the president's defense of the US's vaccination strategy</a>.<ul><li>There is a bipartisan hue to the latest shots: McConnell announced soon after Biden's jab that he too had received a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mitch-mcconnell-covid-19-booster-shot-2021-9">It was an easy decision to receive a booster</a>," one of the nation's most powerful Republicans said on the Senate floor.</li></ul>7. Reagan's attempted assassin to be granted "unconditional release" next year. John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan, a police officer, a Secret Service agent, and the White House press secretary James Brady in 1981. The court accepted Hinckley's insanity plea and in recent years has granted him increasingly more freedom, ultimately letting him live full time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2016. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-hinckley-jr-unconditional-release-reagan-attempted-assassin-2021-9">Here's what his lawyer and the judge have said about the case</a>.8. Top Fed officials exit amid stock-trading scandal: The Boston Federal Reserve's president, Eric Rosengren, and the Dallas Fed's president, Robert Kaplan, announced plans to resign amid controversy over their trading, though Rosengren cited health reasons for his exit. The two men had purchased stock in several big-name firms including Apple, Alibaba, and Tesla, which prompted calls by activists and former Fed officials for them to step down or be fired. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/fed-eric-rosengren-stock-trading-kaplan-health-jerome-powell-federal-reserve-2021-09">Fed Chair Jerome Powell previously said "no one" at the central bank was happy about the situation</a>.9. New York hospital workers face the first major test of a vaccine mandate: Several hospitals in the state have said the mandate is causing staffing shortages that will force them to curtail care, The Washington Post reports. Thousands of unvaccinated employees are likely to lose their jobs after the mandate kicked in early this morning. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/27/new-york-state-vaccine-mandate/">New York is one of six states that have said healthcare workers must get the shot or lose their job</a>.10. Can you solve Insider's crossword?: Check out our new puzzle, which will challenge your knowledge and provide some much-needed stress relief. <a href="https://www.insider.com/play-the-insider-crossword-puzzle-2021-9">Inside you'll find clues on politics, tech, pop culture, and more</a>.<ul><li>Check out today's puzzle:</li></ul><a href="https://www.insider.com/play-the-insider-crossword-puzzle-2021-9"><div type="image" title="Insider" height="1154" width="1376" msid="86582393" hostid="261"></div></a>Today's trivia question: This week marks the anniversary of the first televised presidential debate. Where did it take place? Email your guess and a suggested question to me at <a href="mailto:bgriffiths@insider.com">bgriffiths@insider.com</a>.<ul><li>Yesterday's answer: President Richard Nixon's special White House investigations unit went by many names. A grandma of David Young, who was part of the unit, heard he was tasked with stopping leaks and told him that her late husband, who was a New York plumber, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CIQcCgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA499&amp;lpg=PA499&amp;dq=david+young+grandma+plumber&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=rWh8dils9N&amp;sig=ACfU3U2snCf4zzCd65ZxHdi0jQjQ4JX_Xg&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwipirPIk6HzAhWktTEKHZiSDMAQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&amp;q=david%20young%20grandma%20plumber&amp;f=falseavid%20young%20grandma%20plumber&amp;f=false">would be proud that Young was returning to the family trade</a>. Young later hung a "Plumber" sign on the door to his office, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/22/like-trump-nixon-was-obsessed-with-leaks-it-led-to-watergate-and-ruin/">and the rest is history</a>.</li></ul>

10 Things in Politics: Dems failing to Trump-proof the presidency

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>John Hinckley has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-john-hinckley-spends-his-time-2015-4">lived a shockingly normal life</a> the past year, especially for someone who shot a US president and spends much of his time in a psychiatric hospital.He already spends 17 days a month at his mother's house, away from the hospital where he's been committed for shooting president Ronald Reagan.Now, the hospital has formally petitioned for his complete release. "Every witness agrees that he's ready and every witness agrees that the risk of danger is decidedly low," Hinckley's lawyer Barry William Levine told the court on Tuesday, according to <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/05/12/406175445/reagan-shooter-john-hinckleys-lawyers-say-hes-ready-to-be-free">NPR</a>.In 1981, Hinckley, then 25, shot President Ronald Reagan, press secretary James Brady, and two others in an attempt to impress actress Jodi Foster, whom Hinckley became obsessed with after seeing "Taxi Driver." The next year, a jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity, sentencing him to psychiatric treatment, which he has undergone for more than 30 years.Reagan survived with <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/30/34-years-ago-today-ronald-reagan-survived-an-attempted-assassination-heres-what-the-front-pages-looked-like-the-next-day/">one shot to the lung</a>, just barely avoiding his heart. In 2014, however, a medical examiner ruled Brady's death, at age 73, a homicide and that it occurred as a <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/james-bradys-death-ruled-homicide-by-dc-medical-examiner/2014/08/08/686de224-1f41-11e4-82f9-2cd6fa8da5c4_story.html">direct result</a> of the gunshot wound he suffered decades earlier. Hinckley, however, avoided murder charges.But the psychosis and depression that fueled Hinckley's violence, his lawyer argues, according to NPR, has dissipated. Even the government's experts think Hinckley might deserve release - with appropriate supervision."We all know that Mr. Hinckley is not any person and he never will be," Assistant US Attorney Colleen Kennedy said, NPR reports. Hinckley accomplished a feat no other person in US history has: shooting a president without death or prison time. Doubts against Hinckley's recovery exist though. For example, in a 1987 journal entry, Hinckley wrote his psychiatrists would "never know the true John Hinckley," the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-john-hinckley-spends-his-time-2015-4">Associated Press reports</a>, hinting at a history of deceptive behavior. As recent as 2011, the Secret Service, which frequently follows Hinckley on stints about town, reported that he went to Barnes &amp; Noble to look at books about Reagan instead of going to see a movie. Regardless of these potential red flags, in 2013, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley could have extended visits to his mother's home <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/federal-judge-grants-more-freedom-to-reagans-would-be-assassin/2013/12/20/efdd2c60-68e9-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html">for up to 17 days</a> a month. There, Hinckley drives around in a Toyota, going to dinner and movies. Those cushy circumstances, coupled with psychiatry appointments and volunteer work, mean to prepare Hinckley for freedom.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div> The hospital has proposed Hinckley's doctors should award his full release after completing two 17-day and six 24-day visits to his mother's place, <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-it-time-to-let-john-hinckley-go-free/">CBS reports</a>. The judge, however, seems reluctant to give his doctors the power to determine his fate.<keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">Law</keyword>rence Fitch, a professor of mental health law at the University of Maryland called these terms "stricter" than parole and said in these circumstances, people are closely watched to make sure they receive continued treatment. As a result, the "recidivism rate tends to be low," he told CBS.Under Supreme Court precedent, according to NPR, the judge must give Hinckley, now 59, the least restrictive conditions while still protecting public safety. The judge, however, gave no timeline for his decision. Aside from shocking the nation, Hinckley crime and sentence served as a milestone for the "insanity defense" as well as leading to the passage of the Brady Bill, a landmark control on the purchase of firearms in the United States. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/video-earthquake-damage-nepal-2015-4">Stunning video shows the earthquake damage across Nepal</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="8xMzdydDrBxdQLqopn9H4eNVL_xUBiWS" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The last man to shoot a US president could soon be free

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">Reuters/Jane Rosenburg Former New York City police officer Gilberto Valle, dubbed by local media as the "Cannibal Cop", appears in this courtroom sketch during opening arguments of his federal trial in New York February 25, 2013.</div></div>New York Magazine's Robert Kolker has a <a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/cannibal-cop-2014-1/">thought-provoking article</a> that questions whether a 28-year-old cop should have been convicted in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/nyregion/gilberto-valle-is-found-guilty-in-cannibal-case.html">twisted plot to kidnap and eat women</a>.
Now-disgraced cop <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cannibal-faces-life-guilty-conspiracy-kidnap-illegal-databases-article-1.1286075">Gilberto Valle</a> - who visited violent fetish websites like darkfetishnet.com - had unbelievably disturbing email conversations with three people about the ways he wanted to kidnap, assault, kill, and even cook specific women. One of those women was his own wife.
But prosecutors never found any physical evidence at his home that would have enabled him to carry out these plots (or fantasies, as Valle's lawyers would call them), Kolker writes. He didn't have an oven big enough for a human or a cleaver to chop the "<a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cannibal-craved-girl-meat-thanksgiving-prosecutors-article-1.1205464">girl meat</a>" he allegedly wanted to eat. A jury still convicted him of kidnapping conspiracy, for which he could get life in prison.
Without physical evidence suggesting he would actually kidnap anybody, Valle's conviction could represent the "fullest realization yet of our justice system's march toward something out of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minority_Report_%28film%29">Minority Report</a>" - the investigation and prosecution of pre-crime," Kolker writes.
To be sure, one could argue that the police should try to catch criminals before they kidnap or kill people. In December, a 15-year-old boy was arrested for <a href="http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&amp;SubSectionID=1086&amp;ArticleID=126017">allegedly plotting to shoot up an Arizona school</a>.
While the boy didn't have a gun yet, he did have 100 rounds of ammo. Should police have waited until he got a gun and tried to kill people before arresting him? Or should they have let him go because he never had a chance to commit the crime he was allegedly plotting?
It does seem fair to argue that cops should try to stop crimes before they happen, but in the Valle case, the New York Magazine article makes a pretty compelling argument that Valle never intended to carry out his crimes.
New York Mag's Kolker caught up with forensic psychiatrist named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Dietz">Park Dietz</a> who interviewed Valle for 18 hours before the trial. Dietz - who has interviewed John Hinckley, Jr., Andrea Yates, and serial killer Joel Rifkin in his 30-year career - seems fairly convinced that Valle's cannibalism was pure fantasy.
From the New York Magazine article:
"I see him as many, many steps removed from the kind of person that might start to take action." [Dietz said] Dietz is convinced that "to become a sex criminal acting on your paraphilia, you need more than your paraphilia." He searched for evidence of something in Valle's personality-"all the past actions and aggressive actions and character flaws that show us that he's that one-in-1,000 monster. And I couldn't find them."
By Dietz's reckoning, the circumstances surrounding the chats speak volumes about how ludicrous they were. If Valle ever had a fleeting thought of actually harming a woman, Dietz says, "he certainly did everything in his power to ensure that he would be immediately identified as the offender if he did so," using a traceable IP address and a shared computer.
In stark contrast to the monster the media has made him out to be, Dietz described Valle as "the nicest guy you'd ever meet."
Dietz didn't end up testifying in the trial; Valle's lawyers thought his analysis of the ex-cop's dark fetish might distract the jury from the lack of evidence in the case. In the end, the jury may have still had a hard time believing that somebody who could fantasize about killing and eating women was anything but a monster.

The Case Of The 'Cannibal Cop' Is Troubling, But Not For The Reason You Might Think

<div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image on-image">Alex Wong / Getty ImagesSaint Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C.</div></div>In 1971, Franklin H. Frye was accused of stealing a $20 necklace from a woman on the street, and the court found him not guilty by reason of insanity. He was committed to <a href="http://dmh.dc.gov/page/saint-elizabeths-hospital" target="_blank">Saint Elizabeths Hospital</a>, where he has spent almost all of the past four decades, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/22/man-spends-four-decades-mental-hospital-for-steali/?page=all" target="_blank">The Washington Times reports</a>.
His lawyers have been trying to free him for many years. In 2005, his lawyer asserted in a motion that "Mr. Frye has recovered his sanity and no longer suffers from a mental illness as defined by law." It wasn't the first time he's sought release. 
So how exactly did a man accused of a petty, nonviolent crime end up spending most of his life legally committed to a mental hospital? Digging into Frye's case, it seems to be an unfortunate combination of difficult circumstances, bad luck, and bureaucracy. Here's what we found. 
<h3>The long and winding paper trail</h3>
The director of Saint Elizabeths first recommended Frye's unconditional release in 1973, <a href="http://media.washtimes.com/media/misc/2014/01/22/frye.pdf">a motion filed on Jan. 8 notes</a>. At that time, the court instead granted Frye a conditional release, giving him permission to seek employment. Still, if all had gone well, this should have led to Frye transitioning into the community and out of the hospital on a permanent basis.
It's not entirely clear why that conditional release, as well as others in subsequent years, always ended up with Frye back at Saint Elizabeths full-time. But the 2005 court order explains what went wrong with one such release, granted more than a decade ago:
On January 8, 2001, he was placed in the community in an Intensive Rehabilitative Residence. However, his mental condition deteriorated rapidly. He violated the home's smoking regulations and concealed a knife in his room. Thus, he was returned to inpatient status on April 23, 2001.
In the document the judge acknowledged that Frye had been "intrusive and oppositional," known to distort reality and struggle with hospital rules. Yet, Frye worked five days a week in the Hospital's Work Adjustment Training Program and regularly went on trips to visit his family without incident.
The judge then ordered Frye's conditional release into outpatient treatment, concluding that he is medicated, "mentally stable," and "will not, in the reasonably foreseeable future, present a danger to himself or others because of mental illness."
It's unclear whether or exactly how that release went wrong, but it specifies that "if [the] defendant's mental condition deteriorates, or if he violates the conditions of this release he shall be returned to inpatient care at the Hospital."
In 2008, Frye's lawyer again petitioned the court for his unconditional release, saying he no longer suffered from a mental illness. The most recent motion, filed on Jan. 8, was submitted after five years passed with no response from the court to the 2008 filing.
Silvana Naguib, the public defender now representing Frye, argues in <a href="http://media.washtimes.com/media/misc/2014/01/22/frye.pdf">the Jan. 8 motion</a> that there is no reason for her client to remain at Saint Elizabeths:
In the early years of Mr. Frye's hospitalization, Mr. Frye would sometimes get in fights with other patients, often over money, food, clothing, and the other hotly-desired commodities of institutional life. However, in the last decade, as Mr. Frye has aged, these conflicts have all but vanished. Now, nearing 70, Mr. Frye displays no dangerous behavior of any kind.
We reached out to Naguib for comment but have not heard back.
Frye currently has permission to leave the hospital to visit his family and attend a now-shuttered day program, but he still lives at Saint Elizabeths.
<h3>The hospital</h3>
The D.C. Department of Mental Health, which oversees Saint Elizabeths, declined a request for comment about Frye from The Washington Times. A spokesperson said the hospital considers the release of each patient "not guilty by reason of insanity" at least once a year.
But its procedure for successful releases has been called into question.
After a review of Saint Elizabeths in 2005, the Department of Justice <a href="http://dmh.dc.gov/page/saint-elizabeths-hospital" target="_blank">signed a settlement agreement</a> with the D.C. government, compelling Saint Elizabeths to address several alleged deficiencies. In the DOJ's <a href="http://dmh.dc.gov/node/125352" target="_blank">2008 progress report</a> on the settlement, it noted several problems with the hospital's psychiatric care, psychiatric diagnoses, and discharge planning.
<a href="http://dmh.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dmh/publication/attachments/USDOJAgreementBaselineReport2.pdf" target="_blank">The DOJ report</a> went into some detail on what was going wrong with Saint Elizabeths' discharges:
Due to a lack of adequate assessment and documentation upon admission and throughout the treatment planning process, the hospital is not able to adequately determine if individuals are being appropriately discharged to settings commensurate with their needs. Additionally, the hospital currently lacks a mechanism for follow up with discharged individuals and/or their community case managers to determine if the discharge was successful and necessary community-based services and supports were implemented and utilized.
Still, Frye might be a particularly challenging case.
<h3>His diagnosis</h3>
While we don't know all the details of Frye's circumstances, a 2005 court order said he received "a diagnosis of Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Type; Alcohol Abuse, in a controlled environment; and Borderline Intellectual Functioning."
Schizoaffective Disorder shares some symptoms with schizophrenia and some with mood disorders, and Borderline Intellectual Functioning designates those with IQs above the range for intellectual disability (once called mental retardation) but below the range for "normal."
Such a dual diagnosis can <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16507033" target="_blank">exacerbate the symptoms of both disorders</a> and make proper care and treatment especially complicated and difficult. When people have "a psychiatric diagnosis in addition to their intellectual disability," Susan Hayes of The University of Sydney writes in the <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471497096.html" target="_blank">International Handbook of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities</a>, "they may fall through the gap between intellectual disability services and mental health services."
<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10638784" target="_blank">One Missouri study</a> found that having either "a psychotic disorder, a mood disorder, a substance abuse disorder, or mental retardation/borderline intellectual functioning" decreased the odds that someone committed after using the insanity defense would be unconditionally released.
Frye has a combination of all four.
His stay at Saint Elizabeths now has been longer than that of <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hinckley/hinckleyeliz.HTM" target="_blank">the Hospital's most famous resident</a>, John Hinckley Jr., who was committed to Saint Elizabeths after his 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/federal-judge-grants-more-freedom-to-reagans-would-be-assassin/2013/12/20/efdd2c60-68e9-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html" target="_blank">was recently granted a conditional release</a>.

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