The First Lady And the Slasher

Nancy Reagan watchers used to refer to it as "the gaze." It was that look of rapt attention she fixed on people, a look that implied the recipient was the most important person in the world. Classmates at Smith College may have been the first to notice it; she developed it further in Hollywood while wooing Ronald Reagan. But the gaze became most famous during Nancy Reagan's days in the White House: the frozen, doe-eyed stare of adoration that the First Lady would fix on the President whenever she watched him speak.

The American public has lately become accustomed to another...