re: Omaha Paper on Hawthorne's Legacy

Holy sh*t! Jim was a part of the attempted Reagan assassination investigation!


At the 1981 Final Four in Philadelphia, Hawthorne called the final third-place game (between LSU and Virginia) in NCAA Final Four history. But that wasn’t the most memorable event of the week.

With Sunday off before Monday’s games, Hawthorne got in a car and drove to Washington, D.C. As a history buff, he wanted to see the White House.
“Back then, you were able to drive up pretty close to the White House, so that’s what I did,” Hawthorne said. “I got out and took some pictures. And then I saw this limo and a lot of people hanging around. I asked someone what was going on, and they said, ‘President and Mrs. Reagan are going to church.’ ”

Hawthorne drove over to the Reagans’ church, down the road, to get a closer look. The limo was parked outside. He went up to the limo and snapped photos of the insides and the back, which he says had an expired license plate.
“I was amazed at how you could really get close to the president,” Hawthorne said. “The next day, I got to the game and everyone was huddled around a TV set. I said, ‘What’s going on?’ Someone said, ‘The president has been shot.’ ”

That was the day John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan. The NCAA games played on. Hawthorne went back to Shreveport and developed his film. His jaw dropped when he looked at the photos of the limo by the church.

“I looked through the window of the limo and I saw a man standing off to the side with dark hair who looked like Hinckley,” Hawthorne said.

“It was him. I knew it was. He had been there the day before. My news director said I needed to call the FBI. We did, and they came by and took my film. We never heard back from them.”