Hearing Focuses On Hinckley's Ties to Women

There was nothing romantic, psychologist Sidney Binks insisted, in Hinckley's interest in the psychology student who interned at the hospital last year. Yes, he offered to sing to her and, yes, he walked her to her car on occasion. But she was not the only woman he had wanted to sing for, nor was she the only staff member he escorted to the parking lot, Binks said.

Chasson asked why Hinckley told another doctor that there was a "personal spark" between him and the intern. What else, she asked, could those words mean?

"I don't know," Binks replied, what Hinckley would have meant by such a "spark."

Taking it all in was Hinckley, dressed each day in a suit and tie, and seated at a table with his three attorneys. His parents, John and Jo Ann, who have stood by their troubled son through the years, were in the first row of the gallery.

Even experts for the government praised the parents' devotion to Hinckley and his therapy, although there is concern that before long they might be too old to provide the sort of care, support and supervision that Hinckley would require if he is allowed longer stretches away from the hospital.

After 14 court-approved visits around Washington, Hinckley now wants to start visiting his parents for several days at a time at their home in a luxury gated community near Williamsburg.

It would be another step toward what Hinckley and his family hope will be his eventual release from St. Elizabeths, a chance for him to start learning how to cook and how to use the Internet, an opportunity to see family friends and to meet the psychiatrist who probably would care for him if he was released.

It also would be a chance for him to start meeting women beyond the confines of the psychiatric hospital.

For most of his 23 years at St. Elizabeths, Hinckley had a girlfriend. The woman, Leslie deVeau, was a patient as well, committed to St. Elizabeths after she killed her child in 1982 and was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The romance continued even after her release in 1990. Later, as Hinckley began lobbying for more freedom, the government's lawyers and doctors wanted to know more about his relationship with deVeau, as did the Secret Service, which continues to follow him. Like Hinckley's parents, she would have to have been available for regular interviews with the doctors and lawyers in the case.

But she was reluctant to be subjected to such intense scrutiny, creating an obstacle to Hinckley's bid for greater freedom. So after discussing the issue with his doctors, Hinckley decided in January to break up with deVeau.

Although saddened by the breakup, Hinckley has moved on, his therapist testified. "I think he's coped very well," Binks said.