Hinckley shoots pimps instead of politicians

overoceans

IOW rather than emulating the crimes that Travis Bickle TRIED to commit, he emulates the ones that he actually DID commit.

And let's say he actually goes to the trouble of researching his targets, finding pimps who really are involved with child-prostitution and similar crimes. AND let's give him a particularly high body count, even if it's just half a dozen flesh-peddlers and their sleazoid customers lying dead on skid-row somewhere. Point is, it's a mass shooting that makes the national news.

I'm guessing it's still not gonna sweep Jodie Foster off her feet, but what might it do for the gunman's long-term reputation? Could he become some sort of folk-hero to the law-and-order Right? Tabloid editorials along the lines of "Looks like it took a so-called madman to do what our liberal elites are too gutless to do themselves"?

Bonus points if Reagan, in an unguarded moment, expresses sympathy for Hinckley.
 
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overoceans

Snowstalker said:
Briefly becomes right-wing tabloid hero, probably gunned down unceremoniously at some point.
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Makes sense. I was thinking he might be treated something like Bernard Goetz was in the mid-80s. His cult extended into t-shirts and lunch with local NY celebrities as I recall.

A difference would be that people debated whether Goetz was just an honest citizen acting in self-defense, or a racist vigilante. With Hinckley killing child-rapists, there'd be no self-defense argument, but also more villification of his victims.
 
PNWKing

PNWKing

Banned
This might influence Gerry Conway in terms of his creation of a certain comic book character.
 

Bob in Pittsburgh

I doubt that we would ever know of John Hinckley. Eventually he would have been caught or shot. Either way he is memorialized by about 3 inches of news on an inside page of the Washington Post.
 
Aisha Clan-Clan

Aisha Clan-Clan

Both parties at least slightly less pro-gun control than OTL. GOP shifts against gun control slightly faster than OTL.

No brady Bill.
 

Thomas Jefferson

He would have briefly been a media hero until his mental issues became apparent, at which point he would probably have been committed to a mental facility much as IOTL.
 

Arkenfolm

Bob in Pittsburgh said:
I doubt that we would ever know of John Hinckley. Eventually he would have been caught or shot. Either way he is memorialized by about 3 inches of news on an inside page of the Washington Post.
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I don't know, "I gunned down some pimps and child sex traffickers and their clients to impress Jodie Foster" is something that makes an enduring story, especially if he survives. Not as big as trying to assassinate the president but a crazy guy gunning down the lowest scum in society makes for a story people will keep telling. Wouldn't be surprised if he'd get lots of interviews over the years, lots of people demanding he get paroled, and a book or even movie, plus of course being the inspiration for lots of fictional characters.
 

overoceans

PNWKing said:
This might influence Gerry Conway in terms of his creation of a certain comic book character.
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Do you mean The Punisher? According to what I've just been reading, the character first appeared in 1974, pre-Taxi Driver. But maybe there were later developments to the character in the 80s?
 

overoceans

Arkenfolm said:
I don't know, "I gunned down some pimps and child sex traffickers and their clients to impress Jodie Foster" is something that makes an enduring story, especially if he survives. Not as big as trying to assassinate the president but a crazy guy gunning down the lowest scum in society makes for a story people will keep telling. Wouldn't be surprised if he'd get lots of interviews over the years, lots of people demanding he get paroled, and a book or even movie, plus of course being the inspiration for lots of fictional characters.
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Yeah, you know how there was that punk band called Jodie Foster's Army? Those guys usually went by the acronym JFA, for obvious reasons. But that kind of humour might be more respectable in this ATL.

Also, what happens if, like Travis Bickle, the alt-Hinckley actually accomplishes some direct good, mixed in with the carnage? Suppose he kills a pimp, and a couple of johns who are LEAVING the flophouse, but also one who is on his way inside to partake of the "services". The fact that Hinckley prevented a rape from taking place is likely something that the defense would try to make front-and-centre at his trial.

Also, if, as in the movie, one of the traficked girls has parents who actually care what happens to their children, they might think Hinckley's a big hero, and say so in the media.
 
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