The Secret Sits

John Hinckley Jr.

October 28, 2021 John W. Dodson Season 1 Episode 39
The Secret Sits
John Hinckley Jr.
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Show Notes Transcript

If you follow The Secret Sits on Instagram, you may have noticed in the 5 facts about me, that Jodi Foster is my all-time favorite actor.  But there is one person whose infatuation with the actor almost caused the assassination of the President of the United States of America.  I am of course talking about John Hinckley Jr.  And even though Jodi almost never speaks of this horrid time in her life, we are going to cover it here today, I’m John Dodson, welcome to The Secret Sits.

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#JohnHinckleyjr #RonaldReagan #JodiFoster #TaxiDriver #ArthurBremer #Stalker #JimmyCarter #Assassination #AssassinsMusical #SecretService #JamesBrady #ThomasDelahanty #AlfredAntenucci #JerryParr #TimMcCarthy #DennisMcCarthy #Rawhide #BreakingPoints #LynetteFromme #CharlesManson

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If you follow The Secret Sits on Instagram, you may have noticed in the 5 facts about me, that Jodi Foster is my all-time favorite actor.  But there is one person whose infatuation with the actor almost caused the assassination of the President of the United States of America.  I am of course talking about John Hinckley Jr.  And even though Jodi almost never speaks of this horrid time in her life, we are going to cover it here today, I’m John Dodson, welcome to The Secret Sits.

John Warnock Hinckley was the chairman and president of the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation.  Now, the Vanderbilt Energy Corporation was a small, successful oil and gas exploration company. The Company was started on May 1st, 1975 and over the company’s first five years, it enjoyed steady and impressive growth, producing record financial and drilling results in 1980 that have made its stock one of the highest dollar-volume issues in the over-the-counter market.

But the executive credited with shaping Vanderbilt's aggressive drilling program - John Warnock Hinckley Sr., had to announce that he would give up his day-to-day management roles because of family problems. The company's shares dropped $1, to $12.75, after the announcement.

Mr. Hinckley's decision came the day after the shooting of President Reagan and the disclosure that Mr. Hinckley's son, John Jr., had been charged as the assailant.

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and moved with his wealthy family to Dallas, Texas at the age of four. His mother was Jo Ann Hinckley.

Hinckley grew up in University Park, Texas, and attended Highland Park High School in Dallas County. After Hinckley graduated from high school in 1973, his family, owners of the Hinckley oil company, moved to Evergreen, Colorado, where the new company headquarters were located. He became an off-and-on student at Texas Tech University from 1974 to 1980 but eventually dropped out. In 1975 he went to Los Angeles in the hope of becoming a songwriter. His efforts were unsuccessful, and he wrote to his parents with tales of misfortune and pleas for money. In his letters, he also spoke of a girlfriend named, Lynn Collins, who turned out to be a fabrication of John’s imagination. In September 1976, he returned to his parents' home in Evergreen. Then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hinckley began purchasing weapons and practicing with them. He was also prescribed anti-depressants and tranquilizers to deal with some of his emotional problems. 

In 1976, the amazing film titled Taxi Driver was released.  If you have not seen this movie yet, I suggest you find it and watch it as soon as possible.  Taxi Driver is an American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. I mean, just look at the cast list! It is set in a decaying and morally bankrupt New York City following the Vietnam War, the film follows Travis Bickle expertly played by Robert De Niro, who is a taxi driver and veteran, and his deteriorating mental state as he works nights in the city.

Scorsese wanted the film to feel like a dream state to the audience. Filming began in the summer of 1975 in New York City, with actors taking pay cuts to ensure that the project could be completed on a low budget of $1.9 million. Production concluded that same year, with a score being composed by Bernard Herrmann in his final score before his death; the film is dedicated to him.

The film was theatrically released by Columbia Pictures on February 8, 1976, where it was a critical and commercial success, despite generating controversy for its graphic violence at the climatic ending, and the casting of then-12-year-old acting prodigy Jodi Foster in the role of a child sex worker. Taxi Driver is still considered one of the greatest films ever made, the film received numerous accolades including the 1976 Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, the highest honor given at the ceremony, and four nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including for Best Picture, Best Actor (for De Niro), and Best Supporting Actress (for Foster).

Hinckley became obsessed with the film, in which the disturbed protagonist Travis Bickle plots to assassinate a presidential candidate. Bickle was partly based on the diaries of Arthur Bremer, who, in 1972, attempted to assassinate Democratic Presidential Candidate George Wallace. Hinckley developed an infatuation with Jodie Foster, who played sexually trafficked 12-year-old child, Iris Steensma, in the film. 

When Foster entered the drama department at Yale University in 1980, Hinckley moved to New Haven, Connecticut, for a short time and began to stalk her. There, he slipped poems and messages under Foster's door, and repeatedly called and left her messages.

Failing to develop any meaningful sort of contact with Foster, Hinckley fantasized about conducting an aircraft hijacking or committing suicide in front of her to get her attention. Eventually, he settled on a scheme to impress her by assassinating the president, thinking that by achieving a place in history, he would appeal to her as an equal. Hinckley trailed President Jimmy Carter from state to state, and was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, on a firearms charge. Penniless, he returned home. Despite psychiatric treatment for depression, his mental health did not improve. He began to target the newly elected president Ronald Reagan in 1981. For this purpose, he collected material on the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Hinckley wrote this to Foster just before his assassination attempt on Reagan's life: 

Over the past seven months I've left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. ... The reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I cannot wait any longer to impress you.

— John Hinckley Jr.

On March 28, Hinckley arrived in Washington, D.C. by bus and checked into the Park Central Hotel. He originally intended to continue on to New Haven in another attempt to meet Jodi Foster. He noticed Reagan's schedule that was published in The Washington Star and decided it was time to act. Hinckley knew that he might be killed during the assassination attempt, and he wrote but did not mail a letter to Foster about two hours prior to his attempt on the president's life. In the letter, he said that he hoped to impress her with the magnitude of his action and that he would "abandon the idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you." 

On March 30, Reagan delivered a luncheon address to AFL–CIO representatives at the Washington Hilton.  The Secret Service was very familiar with the hotel, having inspected it more than 100 times for presidential visits since the early 1970s. The Hilton was considered the safest venue in Washington because of its secure, enclosed passageway called "President's Walk", built after the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. Reagan entered the building through the passageway at about 1:45 p.m., waving to a crowd of news media and citizens. The Secret Service had required him to wear a bulletproof vest for some events, but Reagan was not wearing one for the speech, because his only public exposure would be the 30 feet between the hotel and his limousine, and the agency did not require vests for agents that day. No one saw Hinckley behaving in an unusual way; witnesses who reported him as "fidgety" and "agitated" apparently confused Hinckley with another person that the Secret Service had been monitoring.

At 2:27 p.m., Reagan exited the hotel through "President's Walk" on Florida Avenue, where reporters waited.  He left the T Street NW exit toward his waiting limousine as Hinckley waited within the crowd of admirers. The Secret Service had extensively screened those attending the president's speech, but greatly erred by allowing an unscreened group to stand within 15 ft of the president, behind a rope line. The agency uses multiple layers of protection; local police in the outer layer briefly check people, Secret Service agents in the middle layer check for weapons, and more agents form the inner layer immediately around the president. Hinckley somehow penetrated the first two layers of protection.

As several hundred people applauded Reagan, the president unexpectedly passed right in front of Hinckley. Reporters standing behind a rope barricade 20 feet away asked questions. As Mike Putzel of the Associated Press shouted "Mr. President—", Hinckley, believing he would never get a better chance, assumed a crouch position and rapidly fired a Röhm RG 14 .22 LR blue steel revolver six times in 1.7 seconds, missing the president with all six shots.

 

The first round hit White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head above his left eye, passing through underneath his brain and shattering his brain cavity; the small explosive charge in the round exploded on impact. District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty recognized the sound as a gunshot and turned his head sharply to the left to identify the shooter. As he did so, he was struck in the back of his neck by the second shot, the bullet ricocheting off his spine. Delahanty fell on top of Brady, screaming "I am hit!". Hinckley now had a clear shot at the president, but Alfred Antenucci, a Cleveland, Ohio, labor official who was standing nearby, saw Hinckley fire the first two shots, hit him in the head, and began to wrestle him to the ground. Upon hearing the shots, Special Agent in Charge Jerry Parr almost instantly grabbed Reagan by the shoulders and dove with him toward the open rear door of the limousine. Agent Ray Shaddick trailed just behind Parr to assist in throwing both men into the car. The third round overshot the president, instead hitting the window of a building across the street. Parr's actions likely saved Reagan from being hit in the head. As Parr pushed Reagan into the limousine, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy snapped his attention toward the sound of the gunfire, pivoted to his right, and put himself in the line of fire. McCarthy spread his arms and legs, taking a wide stance directly in front of Reagan and Parr to make himself a target. McCarthy was struck in the lower abdomen by the fourth round, the bullet traversing his right lung, diaphragm, and right lobe of the liver. The fifth round hit the bullet-resistant glass of the window on the open rear door of the limousine as Reagan and Parr were passing behind it. The sixth and final bullet ricocheted off the armored side of the limousine, passed between the space of the open rear door and vehicle frame, and hit the president in the left underarm. The round grazed a rib and lodged in his lung, causing it to partially collapse before stopping less than an inch from his heart.

Within moments of the first shots, Secret Service agent Dennis McCarthy (no relation to agent Timothy McCarthy) dove across the sidewalk and landed directly on Hinckley as others pushed him to the ground. Another Cleveland-area labor official, Frank J. McNamara, joined Antenucci and started punching Hinckley in the head, striking him so hard he drew blood. Agent McCarthy later reported that he had to "strike two citizens" to force them to release Hinckley. Secret Service Agent Robert Wanko deployed an Uzi submachine gun concealed in a briefcase to cover the president's evacuation and to deter a potential group attack.

The day after the shooting, Hinckley's gun was given to the ATF, which traced its origin. In just 16 minutes, agents found that the gun had been purchased at Rocky's Pawn Shop in Dallas, Texas. It had been loaded with six "Devastator" brand cartridges, which contained small aluminum and lead azide explosive charges designed to explode on contact; the bullet that hit Brady was the only one that exploded. On April 2, after learning that the others could explode at any time, volunteer doctors wearing bulletproof vests removed the bullet from Delahanty's neck.

After the Secret Service first announced "shots fired" over its radio network at 2:27 p.m. Reagan—codename "Rawhide"—was taken away by the agents in the limousine code named "Stagecoach". No one knew that Reagan had been shot. After Parr searched Reagan's body and found no blood, he stated that "Rawhide is OK...we're going to Crown" (the White House), as he preferred its medical facilities to an unsecured hospital.

Reagan was in great pain from the bullet that struck his rib, and believed that his rib had cracked when Parr pushed him into the limousine. When the agent checked him for gunshot wounds, however, Reagan coughed up bright, frothy blood. Although the president believed that he had cut his lip, Parr believed that the cracked rib had punctured Reagan's lung and ordered the motorcade to divert to nearby George Washington University Hospital, which the Secret Service periodically inspected for use. The limousine arrived there less than four minutes after leaving the hotel, while other agents took Hinckley to a DC jail, and Nancy Reagan code named "Rainbow" left the White House for the hospital.

Although Parr had requested a stretcher, none were ready at the hospital, and it did not normally keep a stretcher at the emergency department's entrance. Reagan exited the limousine and insisted on walking. Reagan acted casually and smiled at onlookers as he walked in. While he entered the hospital unassisted, once inside the president complained of difficulty breathing, his knees buckled, and he went down on one knee; Parr and others assisted him into the emergency department. The Physician to the President, Daniel Ruge, had been near Reagan during the shooting and arrived in a separate car. Believing that the president might have had a heart attack, he insisted that the hospital's trauma team, and not himself or specialists from elsewhere, operate on him as they would any other patient. When a hospital employee asked Reagan aide Michael Deaver for the patient's name and address, only when Deaver stated "1600 Pennsylvania" did the worker realize that the president of the United States was in the emergency department.

 

The medical team, led by Joseph Giordano, cut off Reagan's "thousand dollar" custom-made suit to examine him; Reagan complained about the cost of the ruined suit, which was cited by an assistant in a press briefing to reassure the public that the president was in stable health. Military officers, including the one who carried the nuclear football, unsuccessfully tried to prevent FBI agents from confiscating the suit, Reagan's wallet, and other possessions as evidence; the Gold Codes card was in the wallet, and the FBI did not return it until two days later. The medical personnel found that Reagan's systolic blood pressure was 60 compared to the normal 140, indicating that he was in shock, and knew that most 70-year-olds in the president's condition would not survive. Reagan was in excellent physical health, however, and also was shot by the .22 caliber instead of a larger .38 as was first feared. They treated him with intravenous fluids, oxygen, tetanus toxoid, and chest tubes, and surprised Parr—who still believed that he had cracked the president's rib—by finding the entrance of the gunshot wound. Brady and the wounded agent McCarthy were operated on near the president.  When his wife arrived in the emergency department, Reagan remarked to her, "Honey, I forgot to duck", borrowing boxer Jack Dempsey's line to his wife the night he was beaten by Gene Tunney. While intubated, he scribbled to a nurse, "All in all, I'd rather be in Philadelphia", borrowing a line from W. C. Fields. Although Reagan came close to death, the team's quick action—and Parr's decision to drive to the hospital instead of the White House—likely saved the president's life, and within 30 minutes Reagan left the emergency department for surgery with normal blood pressure.

The chief of thoracic surgery, Benjamin L. Aaron, decided to perform a thoracotomy lasting 105 minutes because the bleeding persisted. Ultimately, Reagan lost over half of his blood volume in the emergency department and during surgery, which removed the bullet. In the operating room, Reagan removed his oxygen mask to joke, "I hope you are all Republicans". The doctors and nurses laughed, and Giordano, a Democrat, replied, "Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans". Reagan's post-operative course was complicated by fever, which was treated with antibiotics.  His entering the operating room conscious and not in shock, and the surgery being routine, caused Reagan's doctors and others to predict that he would be able to leave the hospital in two weeks, return to work at the Oval Office in a month, and completely heal in six to eight weeks with no long-term effects.

With regards to Jodi Foster, this incident attracted intense media attention, and she was accompanied by bodyguards while on campus. Although Judge Barrington D. Parker confirmed that Foster was completely innocent in the case and had been "unwittingly ensnared in a third party's alleged attempt to assassinate an American President", her videotaped testimony was played at Hinckley's trial. While at Yale, Foster also had other stalkers, including a man who planned to kill her but changed his mind after watching her perform in a college play. 

The experience was difficult for Foster, and she has rarely commented publicly about it. In the aftermath of the events, she wrote an essay, "Why Me?", which was published in 1982 by Esquire on the condition that "there be no cover lines, no publicity and no photos". In 1991, she canceled an interview with NBC's Today Show when she discovered Hinckley would be mentioned in the introduction, and the producers were unwilling to change it. She discussed Hinckley with Charlie Rose of 60 Minutes II in 1999, explaining that she does not "like to dwell on it too much... I never wanted to be the actress who was remembered for that event. Because it didn't have anything to do with me. I was kind of a hapless bystander. But... what a scarring, strange moment in history for me, to be 17 years old, 18 years old, and to be caught up in a drama like that." She stated that the incident had a major impact on her career choices, and acknowledged that her experience was minimal compared to the suffering of Reagan's press secretary James Brady, who was permanently disabled in the shooting and died as a result of his injuries 33 years later, and his loved ones: "whatever bad moments that I had certainly could never compare to that family". Foster said

At his 1982 trial in Washington, D.C., having been charged with 13 offenses, John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity on June 21. The defense psychiatric reports portrayed Hinckley as insane while the prosecution reports characterized him as legally sane. Hinckley was transferred into psychiatric care from Bureau of Prisons custody on August 18, 1981. Soon after his trial, Hinckley wrote that the shooting was "the greatest love offering in the history of the world" and was disappointed that Foster did not reciprocate his love. 

The verdict resulted in widespread dismay. As a consequence, the United States Congress and a number of states revised laws governing when a defendant may use the insanity defense in a criminal prosecution. Idaho, Montana, and Utah abolished the defense altogether. In the United States, before the Hinckley case, the insanity defense had been used in less than 2% of all felony cases and was unsuccessful in almost 75% of those trials. Public outcry over the verdict led to the Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984, which altered the rules for consideration of mental illness of defendants in federal criminal court proceedings. In 1985, Hinckley's parents wrote Breaking Points, a book detailing their son's mental condition. 

Changes in federal and some state rules of evidence laws have since excluded or restricted the use of testimony of an expert witness, such as a psychologist or psychiatrist, regarding conclusions on "ultimate" issues in insanity defense cases, including whether a criminal defendant is legally "insane", but this is not the rule in most states. 

Vincent J. Fuller, an attorney who represented Hinckley during his trial and for several years afterward, said Hinckley has schizophrenia. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution, diagnosed Hinckley with narcissistic and schizoid personality disorders and dysthymia, as well as borderline and passive-aggressive features. At the hospital Hinckley was treated for narcissistic and schizotypal personality disorder and major depressive disorder.

Hinckley was confined at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.  After Hinckley was admitted, tests found that he was an "unpredictably dangerous" man who might harm himself or any third party. In 1983, he told Penthouse that on a normal day he would "see a therapist, answer mail, play guitar, listen to music, play pool, watch television, eat lousy food and take delicious medication". Around 1987, Hinckley applied for a court order allowing him periodic home visits. As part of the consideration of the request, the judge ordered Hinckley's hospital room searched. Hospital officials found photographs and letters in Hinckley's room that showed a continued obsession with Foster, as well as evidence that Hinckley had exchanged letters with serial killer Ted Bundy and sought the address of the incarcerated Charles Manson, who had inspired Lynette Fromme to try to kill President of the United States Gerald Ford. Based on this, the court denied Hinckley's request for additional privileges.

After this, in 1990 legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim premiered his new Musical Assassins on Broadway.  In the show, all about US President assassins, or would be assassins, Sondheim has a scene and a song between John Hinkley jr. and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, although the piece is a duet, the two characters are not singing to one another, Hinkley is singing to Jody Foster and Fromme is singing to Charles Manson.  The lyrics written for the actor playing Hinkley include the phrase:

 I am unworthy of your love
 Jodie, Jodie
 Let me prove worthy of your love
 Tell me how I can earn your love
 Set me free
 How can I turn your love to me?

In 1999, Hinckley was permitted to leave the hospital for supervised visits with his parents. In April 2000, the hospital recommended allowing unsupervised releases but a month later they removed the request. Hinckley was allowed supervised visits with his parents again during 2004 and 2005. Court hearings were held in September 2005 on whether he could have expanded privileges to leave the hospital.

On December 30, 2005, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley would be allowed visits, supervised by his parents, to their home in Williamsburg, Virginia. The judge ruled that Hinckley could have up to three visits of three nights and then four visits of four nights, each depending on the successful completion of the last. All of the experts who testified at Hinckley's 2005 conditional release hearing, including the government experts, agreed that his depression and psychotic disorder were in full remission and that he should have some expanded conditions of release. 

In 2007, Hinckley requested further freedoms, including two one-week visits with his parents, and a month-long visit. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman denied that request on June 6, 2007.

On June 17, 2009, Judge Friedman ruled that Hinckley would be permitted to visit his mother for a dozen visits of 10 days at a time, rather than six, to spend more time outside of the hospital, and to have a driver's license. The court also ordered that Hinckley be required to carry a GPS-enabled cell phone to track him whenever he was outside of his parents' home. He was prohibited from speaking with the news media. The prosecutors objected to this ruling, saying that Hinckley was still a danger to others and had unhealthy and inappropriate thoughts about women. Hinckley recorded a song, "Ballad of an Outlaw", which the prosecutors claim is "reflecting suicide and lawlessness".

In March 2011, it was reported that a forensic psychologist at the hospital testified that "Hinckley has recovered to the point that he poses no imminent risk of danger to himself or others". On March 29, 2011, the day before the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt, Hinckley's attorney filed a court petition requesting more freedom for his client, including additional unsupervised visits to the Virginia home of Hinckley's mother, Joanne. On November 30, 2011, a hearing in Washington was held to consider whether he could live full-time outside the hospital. The Justice Department opposed this, stating that Hinckley still poses a danger to the public. Justice Department counsel argued that Hinckley had been known to deceive his doctors in the past. 

By December 2013, the court ordered that visit be extended to his mother, who lives near Williamsburg. Hinckley was permitted up to eight 17-day visits, with evaluation after the completion of each one. 

On August 4, 2014, James Brady died. As Hinckley had critically wounded Brady in 1981, the death was ruled a homicide. Hinckley did not face charges as a result of Brady's death because he had been found not guilty of the original crime by reason of insanity. In addition, since Brady's death occurred more than 33 years after the shooting, prosecution of Hinckley was barred under the year and a day law in effect in the District of Columbia at the time of the shooting.

On July 27, 2016, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley could be released from St. Elizabeths on August 5, as he was no longer considered a threat to himself or others.

Hinckley was released from institutional psychiatric care on September 10, 2016, with many conditions. He was required to live full-time at his mother's home in Williamsburg.

And this is where he stayed for the past 5 years, Hinckley volunteered to do landscaping at a Unitarian church, and he worked in the library and cafeteria of a psychiatric hospital. He also took up bowling, attended lectures and concerts, and exercised at a community center.

A federal judge agreed on Monday September 27, 2021 to lift all remaining restrictions on John Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, next year if he stays mentally stable and continues to follow the conditions that he has been living under, prosecutors said.

Judge Paul L. Friedman, during a hearing in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, said he would issue his written order on the plan this week, his office said.

“If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” The Associated Press quoted the judge as saying during the hearing. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews, and all of the experience with Mr. Hinckley.”

At the hearing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said it would agree to Mr. Hinckley’s unconditional release in June 2022 “if he continues to comply with the conditions of his current release order and maintains his mental stability between now and then,” Bill Miller, a spokesman for the office, said in a statement.

Barry Levine, a lawyer for Mr. Hinckley, now 66, said in a telephone interview that he and prosecutors had agreed before the hearing on the unconditional release and that Judge Friedman granted their joint request. He said the reason to wait until June was related to two major events in Mr. Hinckley’s life: Mr. Hinckley’s mother died in July, and his therapist is retiring in January 2022.

“The court wants to just see how he does,” Mr. Levine said.

For the decision to be reviewed again would require prosecutors to file a new motion and show that previous terms of the release had been violated, such as traveling more than 75 miles from Williamsburg, Va., without telling the court, Mr. Levine said

“It is self-executing,” Mr. Levine said. “The judge will pick what day it will be.”

I would like to end this episode with the ending passage from Jodi Fosters essay Why Me? From esquire magazine.

Someday I will look back and muse upon the curiosities of history: acting and politics all mixed up together. Anything's possible in a world in which media rules all. But for the time being the wounds still ache, the battle goes on. It seems that things calm down just as you think you can't take anymore. Then something else happens, some new event, and I find myself "taking it" once again. A stranger will approach me in the street and say, "Ain't you the girl who shot the President?"

I’m John Dodson, this has been, The Secret Sits.  Audio Eng by Gabriel Dodson.  Orig artwork provided by Tony Ley.