by Mike Rockett

On February 15, 1933, at Miami’s Baby Front Park, then Governor and president-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt was shot by Giuseppe Zangara, a deranged” 5′ tall unemployed brick layer packing a .32 caliber pistol. Story has it that Giuseppe stood atop a wobbly metal chair and fired five shots each missing their mark, instead hitting Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak and four others.

Mr. Cermak died the following month, and Giuseppe Zangara was executed on March 20, 1933, after spending only 10 days on Death Row. Now who says justice isn’t swift? Of course, that was “old school” justice 78 long years ago – and it would seem to me that they certainly didn’t play around back then!

In 1981, John Hinckley Jr., attempts to assassinate the 40th President of the United States, wounding his “mark” and three others, including the Secretary to the President, James Brady, who was shot in the head! Recently, Hinckley was found to have “recovered to the point that he poses no imminent risk of danger to himself or others.”

In fact, in 1999 Hinckley was permitted to leave the mental hospital on supervised visits and eventually some unsupervised visits in 2000. In the spring of 2011, Hinckley was authorized additional family visits.

So let me get this correct: Zangara gets “old sparky” and Hinckley gets to play guitar, swim, attend daily therapy sessions, and visit friends & family outside the mental hospital on the taxpayers’ dime? And I can’t help but wonder how things might have played out if Taxi was never released or if Hinckley knew Jodie Foster was gay or if Giuseppe’s wobbly chair simply folded.