Sara Jane Moore, Mother of 4 Who Tried to Assassinate Pres. Ford, Dies
Sara Jane Moore, Mother of 4 Who Tried to Assassinate Pres. Ford, Dies
NEED TO KNOW
- Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at President Gerald Ford on Sept. 22, 1975 as the exited the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, but missed by inches due to a faulty sight on her gun
- She served 32 years of her life sentence before being released from custody in 2007, and said she believed that killing a sitting president would spark a revolution in the U.S.
- Moore, who had four children and was married five times, passed away at the age of 95 in a Tennessee nursing home
Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford, has passed away.
The 95-year-old died on Sept. 24 at a nursing home in Franklin, Tenn. reports the Nashville Banner.
Moore died almost 50 years to the day that she attempted to kill the sitting president on Sept. 22, 1975.
She waited for President Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco armed with a .38 caliber handgun.
President Ford managed to escape with his life despite Moore firing from just 40 feet away, due to a fault with the weapon’s sight.
Moore was unaware of this issue, having just purchased the gun that morning after police confiscated the revolver she intended to use along with over 100 rounds of ammunition.
Corbis via Getty
The bullet missed by just a few inches and a former Marine standing in the crowd managed to grab Moore’s arm and divert the second bullet, which struck a cab driver who suffered non-fatal injuries.
Moore later explained her actions by calling herself a revolutionary who had been inspired by the kidnapping of Patricia “Patty” Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army, as well as her opposition to the Vietnam War. She said she believed killing the president might spark a revolution.
Getty
Prior to the shooting, Moore had been an FBI informant, reporting to the agency on the food bank founded by Patty’s father Randolph Hearst in response to her kidnapping, where she volunteered as a bookkeeper.
Moore did not fight the criminal charges at her trial, pleading guilty to the attempted assassination and accepting a life sentence.
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She managed to escape from federal prison in 1979 but was quickly re-apprehended by authorities.
Moore was released after 32 years in 2007 and led a quiet life during her final two decades, marrying for a fifth time and avoiding any run-ins with the law save for a minor incident in 2019, when she left the country without telling her parole officer.
Janet Fries/Getty
She remains one of only two women to have ever been convicted of attempting to assassinate a sitting president.
The other woman, Manson Family member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, also attempted to shoot President Ford — also in California, less than three weeks before Moore’s attempt.
Both women were sent to serve their sentences at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California.
Moore, who had four children at the time of the attempted assassination, is also the only mother to attempt to assassinate a sitting president.
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