Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975, died in September 2025 at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee. She was 95.
On January 15, 1976, a federal court in California’s Northern District sentenced Moore to life in prison. She admitted guilt after trying to kill Ford on September 22, 1975, outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
The day before, police had seized her .44-caliber revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition after a complaint about gunfire in the yard of an apartment building. The next morning, Moore bought a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson from firearms dealer Mark Fernwood, went to the site of the president’s appearance, and fired at 3:25 p.m. from about 12 meters away. The bullet passed roughly a meter from Ford.
When Moore tried to fire again, Vietnam War veteran Oliver Sipple stopped her: he struck her arm, knocked away the pistol, and held her until Secret Service agents arrived. Judge Samuel Conti later said that with a weapon she knew well, she probably would not have missed.
“Yes and no,” Moore said in court when asked whether she regretted the attempt. She said she regretted losing the rest of her life, but still viewed the shooting as an expression of her anger.
Testimony also showed that Moore had been an FBI informant in rights circles, although no FBI role in the attack was ever confirmed. In 2007, after serving 32 years, she was released on parole. In an NBC interview, she said that only in prison did she realize she had “simply been used” by people who convinced her Ford’s killing could spark a revolution.
The aftermath also devastated Oliver Sipple. After the press exposed his sexual orientation, he became isolated, lost the support of relatives, and lived on a veterans’ benefit. Sipple was found dead in his apartment on February 2, 1989; near his body was a letter of thanks from Ford.