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last mo.

Sara Jane Moore, Who Tried to Assassinate President Ford, Dies at 95

Her 1975 San Francisco attempt was foiled by a bystander, resulting in a life sentence with 32 years served.

** FILE ** Sara Jane Moore looks out the window of a U.S. marshal's car in San Francisco, seen in this Dec. 16, 1975, file photo, on her way to the federal court where U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti accepted her plea of guilty to the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford.
This Sept. 22, 1975 file photo shows Secret Service agents grabbing President Gerald Ford to push him in the armor protected limo outside the St. Francis Hotel after a shot was fired. 
Oliver Sipple, left, lunges for Sara Jane Moore, right, behind pole, in this Sept. 22, 1975 file photo, just after a shot was fired in the direction of then-President Gerald Ford as he left the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. 
Sara Jane Moore on the set of the NBC's "Today" Show in 2009.

Overview

  • Moore died Wednesday at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee, at age 95, according to Demetria Kalodimos; the Nashville Banner first reported her death.
  • On Sept. 22, 1975, she fired at President Gerald Ford outside San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel; former Marine Oliver W. Sipple deflected her second shot, and a bystander was grazed.
  • She pleaded guilty that December to attempted assassination, received a life sentence, briefly escaped custody in 1979, and was paroled in 2007 after about 32 years in prison.
  • A onetime People in Need bookkeeper and occasional FBI informant, she had been questioned the day before the shooting when a different handgun was seized; she then bought the .38-caliber revolver used in the attack.
  • Her attempt came 17 days after Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme’s separate bid to attack Ford; no cause of death has been disclosed.