John and Jodie?

Taxi Driver (1976)

If you have seen the movie on the left, then you know that little girl is none other that the lovely Jodie Foster. Yes, it's true, 13 year old Jodie played the part of a prostitute in the Martin Scorsese movie. 

In the film, a  mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran (DeNiro) works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute (Foster) in the process. 

Travis Bickle, played by Robert DeNiro tries to assassinate Senator Palantine and save young Iris from the world she's living in. Bickle wasn't the only one captivated by Foster's character. In real life, John Hinckley Jr. wanted to save Iris, although she doesn't really exist. Hinckley couldn't separate fiction from reality, and felt it was his job to protect Jodie and continue Bickle's work.

On March 30th, 1981, Hinckley, who was 25 years old at the time, wrote Foster a letter, expressing his love for her, as well as a final act to impress her. In the letter, John talks about his assassination attempt of President Ronald Reagan, and how it will be the final act to show her how much he loves her. Full Letter Transcript

Similarly to the movie, Hinckley decides to attack a political figure in order to impress Jodie Foster, although in this case it was president Ronald Reagan, not a presidential candidate like Palantino. An hour after he wrote the letter adressed to Foster, Hinckley shot President Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. 

Several shots were fired, the first of which resulted in the death of press secretary James Brady. Other shots wounded police officers and secret service agents, and the last shot went into Reagan's chest. President Reagan survived the incident and Hinckley was found not guilty for reason of insanity. Read Full Story.