Sara Jane Moore

Sara Jane Moore (née Kahn; February 15, 1930 – September 24, 2025) was an American woman who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in 1975.<ref name="Vanderbilt">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="This-Day-in-History">Template:Cite web</ref> She was given a life sentence for the attempted assassination, but she was released from prison on December 31, 2007, after serving 32 years. Moore and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme are the only two women who have attempted to assassinate an American president; both of their assassination attempts were on Gerald Ford, and they took place in California within three weeks of one another.

Background

Sara Jane Kahn was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on February 15, 1930, the daughter of Ruth (née Moore) and Olaf Kahn.<ref name = McFadden>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="google">Template:Cite web</ref> Her paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants.<ref name="nndb">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=bookref1>Template:Cite book</ref> Moore was raised in her mother's Christian faith, but later converted to her father's Judaism.<ref name="mywvhome">Template:Cite web</ref> Moore had been a nursing school student, Women's Army Corps recruit, and accountant. Divorced five times, she had four children before she turned to revolutionary politics in 1975.<ref name="Making of a Misfit">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Playbill">Template:Cite web</ref> Moore's friends said that she had a fascination and an obsession with Patricia Hearst.<ref name="American Experience">Template:Cite web</ref> After Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), Hearst's father, Randolph Hearst, created the organization People In Need (PIN) to feed the poor, as a response to the SLA's claims that the elder Hearst was committing "crimes" against "the people".<ref name="American Experience"/> Moore, a volunteer bookkeeper for PIN, had been serving as an FBI informant there until the moment she attempted to assassinate Ford.<ref name="Making of a Misfit"/><ref name="American Experience"/><ref name="Secret Service">Template:Cite web</ref>

Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford

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The reaction right after the assassination attempt

Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service earlier in 1975, but agents decided that she posed no danger to the president.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She had been arrested by police on an illegal-handgun charge the day before the Ford incident, but was released. The police confiscated her .44-caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition.<ref>Template:Cite web Alt URL</ref>

Moore's assassination attempt took place in San Francisco on September 22, 1975, 17 days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme's attempted assassination of Ford. She was standing in the crowd across the street from the St. Francis Hotel, and she was about Template:Convert away from Ford<ref name="Chronicle-Tucker">Template:Cite news</ref> when she fired a single shot at him with a .38 caliber revolver.<ref name="This-Day-in-History"/> She was using a gun that she had bought in haste that same morning; as a result, she did not know that the sights were 15 cm (6 inches) off the point of impact at that distance, causing her to narrowly miss.<ref name="gerispieler.com|title">Template:Cite web</ref>

After realizing that she had missed, Moore raised her arm again, and Oliver Sipple, a former Marine, dived toward her and grabbed her arm, possibly saving Ford's life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. [...] I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off."<ref>Seattle Times. "Ford 'won't cower' after shooting." September 23, 1975.</ref> The bullet from the second shot ricocheted and hit John Ludwig, a 42-year-old taxi driver, who survived.<ref name="WaPo">Caught in Fate's Trajectory, Along With Gerald Ford, Lynne Duke, The Washington Post, December 30, 2006, p. D01.</ref> U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, who sentenced Moore, voiced his opinion that Moore would have killed Ford had she had her own gun, and it was only "because her gun was faulty" that the president's life was spared.<ref name="gerispieler.com|title"/>

During an interview she conducted in 2009, Moore stated that her motive was to spark a violent revolution in order to bring change to the United States of America.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Trial and imprisonment

Moore pled guilty<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> to attempted assassination and was sentenced to life in prison.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At her sentencing hearing Moore stated: "Am I sorry I tried? Yes and no. Yes, because it accomplished little except to throw away the rest of my life. And, no, I'm not sorry I tried, because at the time it seemed a correct expression of my anger."<ref name="Spieler_177">Template:Cite book</ref> She served her term at the federal women's prison in Dublin, California, where she worked in the UNICOR prison labor program for $1.25 per hour as the Lead Inmate Operating Accountant.<ref name="Chronicle-Tucker"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Moore had the Federal Bureau of Prisons register number 04851-180.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1979, Moore escaped, but she was captured several hours later.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During a 2004 interview, Ford described Moore as "off her mind". He said he continued to make public appearances, even after two attempts on his life within such a short period of time, because "a president has to be aggressive, has to meet the people."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Release and death

On December 31, 2007, at the age of 77, Moore was released from prison on parole after serving 32 years of her life sentence; her release came just over a year after Ford died from natural causes on December 26, 2006.<ref name = McFadden/> Moore later stated that she regretted the assassination attempt, saying she was "blinded by her radical political views".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Moore was released under a policy that required parole hearings for inmates who had served at least 30 years of a life sentence and maintained a clean disciplinary record. When asked about her crime in an interview, Moore stated, "I am very glad I did not succeed. I know now that I was wrong to try."<ref name=SFC1>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Upon her release, she changed her name and moved to North Carolina.<ref name = McFadden/> She was later married to psychologist Philip Chase until his death in 2018.<ref name = McFadden/>

In February 2019, at age 89, Moore was arrested for violating her parole by failing to tell her parole officer about a trip she went on outside the country; she was subsequently released in August 2019.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Moore died at a nursing facility in Franklin, Tennessee, on September 24, 2025, at the age of 95. Her death occurred two days after the 50th anniversary of her attempt on Ford's life.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Media

On May 28, 2009, Moore appeared on NBC's Today program, her first television appearance since she left prison on parole.<ref>NBC News msnbc.com</ref>

Moore also discussed her 1979 escape from prison. She revealed that an inmate told her, "when jumping the fence just put your hand on the barbed wire, you'll only have a few puncture wounds." She went on to say, "If I knew that I was going to be captured several hours later, I would have stopped at the local bar just to get a drink and a burger."<ref name="theweek">Template:Cite web</ref>

Excerpts from an interview with Moore by Latif Nasser appear on an episode of the radio program Radiolab titled "Oliver Sipple", which was released on September 22, 2017. In the interview, Moore discusses the scene from the day she attempted to assassinate Ford and her perspective of being stopped by Oliver Sipple.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In popular culture

Moore is a character in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Assassins, which is about presidential assassins, both successful and unsuccessful.<ref name = McFadden/>

A biography of Moore called Taking Aim at the President was published in 2009 by Geri Spieler, a writer who had a correspondence with Moore for 28 years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="gerispieler">Template:Cite web</ref>

Suburban Fury, a 2024 Robinson Devor documentary about Moore, filmed after her release from prison, was selected to screen in the Main Slate section of the 2024 New York Film Festival.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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