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

Her death was first reported by the Nashville Banner, which confirmed she died at a Franklin, Tennessee nursing home two days after the shooting’s 50th anniversary.

** 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 age 95 in Franklin, Tenn., according to Nashville Banner journalist Demetria Kalodimos; no cause of death was disclosed, though she had been bedridden after a fall, per the Los Angeles Times.
  • On Sept. 22, 1975, she fired at President Gerald R. Ford outside San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel from roughly 40–50 feet away, and a second shot went awry when bystander Oliver W. Sipple deflected her arm, grazing another person.
  • The day before the attack, police had seized a different gun and the Secret Service evaluated and released her; she then bought the .38-caliber revolver used in the attempt.
  • She pleaded guilty that December, received a life sentence, escaped briefly in 1979, served 32 years, and was paroled on Dec. 31, 2007.
  • A former FBI informant tied to the Hearst-linked People in Need program, Moore said she hoped the shooting would spur revolution, later expressed regret, and was briefly detained in 2019 for overseas travel without notifying parole officials.