Sara Jane Moore
Encyclopedia
Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...

 on September 22, 1975, outside the St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...

 in San Francisco, just 17 days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
Lynette Fromme
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme is an American member of the Manson Family. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975...

 had pointed a gun at the president.

Background

A native of Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers in Kanawha County. As of the 2010 census, it has a population of 51,400, and its metropolitan area 304,214. It is the county seat of Kanawha County.Early...

, she was a former nursing school student, Women's Army Corps
Women's Army Corps
The Women's Army Corps was the women's branch of the US Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps on 15 May 1942 by Public Law 554, and converted to full status as the WAC in 1943...

 recruit, and accountant. Moore had been divorced five times and had four children before she turned to revolutionary politics in 1975.

Moore's friends said she had a deep fascination and obsession with Patty Hearst
Patty Hearst
Patricia Campbell Hearst , now known as Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress, socialite, actress, kidnap victim, and convicted bank robber....

. After Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army
Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...

, her father Randolph Hearst
Randolph Apperson Hearst
Randolph Apperson Hearst was the fourth and last surviving son of William Randolph Hearst. His twin brother, David, died in 1986. He was the father of Patty Hearst.-Biography:...

 created the organization People in Need
People in Need
People In Need may refer to:* People In Need , a Czech Non-governmental organization* People in Need Trust, a charity in Ireland, whose profile is based on The RTÉ People in Need Telethon...

 (P.I.N.) to feed the poor, in order to answer S.L.A. claims that the elder Hearst was "committing 'crimes' against 'the people.'" Moore was a bookkeeper for P.I.N. and an FBI informant when she attempted to assassinate Ford.

Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford

Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service
United States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

 earlier in 1975, but that organization had decided that she presented no danger to the President. She had been picked up by police on an illegal handgun charge the day before the Ford incident, but was released from arrest. The police confiscated her .44 caliber pistol and 113 rounds of ammunition.

Moore was about 40 feet away from President Ford when she fired a single shot at him with a different pistol, a .38 caliber revolver. She was standing in the crowd across the street from the St. Francis Hotel. She was using a gun she bought in haste that same morning and did not know the sights were six inches off the point-of-impact at that distance. When she fired at Ford, her bullet narrowly missed his dome region. FBI case agent Richard Vitamanti measured the location the next day. After realizing she had missed, she raised her arm again, and Oliver Sipple
Oliver Sipple
Oliver "Billy" W. Sipple was a decorated US Marine and Vietnam War veteran widely known for saving the life of US President Gerald Ford during an assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco on September 22, 1975...

, a Marine, dove towards her, knocking her arm the second time, and saving President Ford's life. Judge Samuel Conti, still on the bench in 2010, spoke on the record, that Moore would have killed President Ford had she had her own gun, and it was only "because her gun was faulty," that saved the president's life. That bullet missed the President because Sipple grabbed Moore's arm and then pulled her to the ground, using his hand to keep the pistol from firing a second time. 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." The single shot which Moore did fire from her .38 caliber revolver ricocheted off the entrance to the hotel and it slightly injured a bystander.

Trial and imprisonment

Moore pleaded guilty to attempted assassination and was sentenced to life in prison
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

. 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." In 1979, Moore escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison Camp
Alderson Federal Prison Camp
Alderson Federal Prison Camp, also known as Federal Prison Camp, Alderson or FPC Alderson, is a Federal Bureau of Prisons minimum security prison for women in the United States in unincorporated Monroe County and Summers County in West Virginia...

 in Alderson, West Virginia
Alderson, West Virginia
Alderson, a town in the US State of West Virginia, is split geographically by the Greenbrier River, with portions in both Greenbrier and Monroe Counties. Although split physically by the river, the town functions as one entity, including that of town government...

, but was recaptured only hours later. After her return, she was transferred to a more secure facility, and she served the remainder of her term at the federal women’s prison in Dublin, California
Dublin, California
Dublin is a suburban city of the East Bay region of Alameda County, California, United States. Located along the north side of Interstate 580 at the intersection with Interstate 680, roughly east of Hayward, west of Livermore and north of San Jose, it was named after the city of Dublin in...

.

In an interview in 2004, former President Ford described Moore as "off her mind" and said that he continued making public appearances, even after two attempts on his life within such a short time, because "a president has to be aggressive, has to meet the people."

Moore had the Federal Bureau of Prisons
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...

 register number 04851-180.

Release

On December 31, 2007, at the age of 77, Moore was released from prison on parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...

 after serving 32 years of her life sentence. Ford had died from natural causes on December 26, 2006, one year and five days before her release. Moore has stated that she regrets the assassination attempt, saying she was "blinded by her radical political views." She will be under supervised parole for at least five years. Moore was released under a federal law that makes parole mandatory for inmates who have served at least 30 years of a life sentence and have maintained a satisfactory 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."

Today show

On May 28, 2009, Moore appeared on NBC's Today program, her first television appearance since leaving prison on parole.

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
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...

, 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 to get a drink or at a burger place just to get a drink and a burger."

In media

Sara Jane Moore's story is one of nine told in Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...

 and John Weidman
John Weidman
John Weidman is an American librettist. He is the son of librettist and novelist Jerome Weidman.He has written the books for a wide variety of stage musicals, three in collaboration with Stephen Sondheim: Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show...

's musical Assassins
Assassins (musical)
Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, based on an idea by Charles Gilbert, Jr. It uses the premise of a murderous carnival game to produce a revue-style portrayal of men and women who attempted to assassinate Presidents of the United States...

. Moore, John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...

, Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgosz
Leon Czolgosz
Leon Czolgosz was the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley.In the last few years of his life, he claimed to have been heavily influenced by anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.- Early life :...

 appear in "The Gun Song".

Quotes

  • “I do regret I didn't succeed, and allow the winds of change to start. I wish I had killed him. I did it to create chaos.” (1975)
  • “I didn’t want to kill anybody, but there comes a point when the only way you can make a statement is to pick up a gun.”
  • “The government had declared war on the left. Nixon
    Richard Nixon
    Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

    's appointment of Ford as vice president and his resignation making Ford president seemed to be a continuing assault on America.”
  • “I know now that I was wrong to try. Thank God I didn't succeed. People kept saying he would have to die before I could be released, and I did not want my release from prison to be dependent on somebody, on something happening to somebody else, so I wanted him to live to be 100.” (2007)

External links

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