NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Sara Jane Moore, who was imprisoned for more than 30 years after she made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975, has died. She was 95.
Moore died Wednesday at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee, according to Demetria Kalodimos, a longtime acquaintance who said she was informed by the executor of Moore’s estate. Kalodimos is an executive producer at the Nashville Banner newspaper, which was first to report the death.
Moore seemed an unlikely candidate to gain national notoriety as a violent political radical who nearly killed a president. When she shot at Ford in San Francisco, she was a middle-aged woman who had begun dabbling in leftist groups and sometimes served as an FBI informant.
Sentenced to life, Moore was serving her time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, when she was unexpectedly paroled Dec. 31, 2007. Federal officials gave no details on why she was set free.
She lived largely anonymously in an undisclosed location after that, but in broadcast interviews, she expressed regret for what she had done. She said she had been caught up in the radical political movements that were common in California in the mid-1970s.
“I had put blinders on, I really had, and I was listening to only ... what I thought I believed,” she told San Francisco television station KGO in April 2009. “We thought that doing that would actually trigger a new revolution.”
Moore was often confused with Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, a disciple of cult murderer Charles Manson who aimed a semi-automatic pistol at Ford in Sacramento, California, just weeks earlier. A Security Service agent grabbed the gun before any shots could be fired.
On September 22, just 17 days later, Moore shot at Ford as he waved to a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square. Fortunately, her shot missed thanks to the quick action of a former Marine who knocked the gun from her hand.
Moore later expressed that she was sorry she missed her target, stating, “I don’t like to be a failure.” However, in subsequent interviews, she conveyed her regrets about her actions, feeling convinced that the government had declared war on the left.
Reflecting on the incident, she stated that if she could speak to Ford, she would apologize: “I’m very happy that I did not succeed.” Ford passed away in 2006, shortly before her release from prison.
Born Sara Jane Kahn on February 15, 1930, in Charleston, West Virginia, Moore's life was marked by turmoil, including multiple marriages and political involvement that culminated in her infamous act. Even her own defense attorney remarked on the perplexing nature of her motivations.
In interviews post-incarceration, Moore revealed her feelings of betrayal as an informant for the FBI and her conviction that her actions were somehow justified at the time. Throughout her life, she maintained a complex relationship with her radical beliefs and their consequences, including her estrangement from family.
In 1974, she became involved in food programs for the poor and was immersed in the counterculture of San Francisco, ultimately leading to her connection with radical politics and subsequent actions against Ford.
Sara Jane Moore's death concludes the narrative of a woman whose life intersected with some of the most tumultuous political moments in U.S. history.
Moore died Wednesday at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee, according to Demetria Kalodimos, a longtime acquaintance who said she was informed by the executor of Moore’s estate. Kalodimos is an executive producer at the Nashville Banner newspaper, which was first to report the death.
Moore seemed an unlikely candidate to gain national notoriety as a violent political radical who nearly killed a president. When she shot at Ford in San Francisco, she was a middle-aged woman who had begun dabbling in leftist groups and sometimes served as an FBI informant.
Sentenced to life, Moore was serving her time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, when she was unexpectedly paroled Dec. 31, 2007. Federal officials gave no details on why she was set free.
She lived largely anonymously in an undisclosed location after that, but in broadcast interviews, she expressed regret for what she had done. She said she had been caught up in the radical political movements that were common in California in the mid-1970s.
“I had put blinders on, I really had, and I was listening to only ... what I thought I believed,” she told San Francisco television station KGO in April 2009. “We thought that doing that would actually trigger a new revolution.”
Moore was often confused with Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, a disciple of cult murderer Charles Manson who aimed a semi-automatic pistol at Ford in Sacramento, California, just weeks earlier. A Security Service agent grabbed the gun before any shots could be fired.
On September 22, just 17 days later, Moore shot at Ford as he waved to a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square. Fortunately, her shot missed thanks to the quick action of a former Marine who knocked the gun from her hand.
Moore later expressed that she was sorry she missed her target, stating, “I don’t like to be a failure.” However, in subsequent interviews, she conveyed her regrets about her actions, feeling convinced that the government had declared war on the left.
Reflecting on the incident, she stated that if she could speak to Ford, she would apologize: “I’m very happy that I did not succeed.” Ford passed away in 2006, shortly before her release from prison.
Born Sara Jane Kahn on February 15, 1930, in Charleston, West Virginia, Moore's life was marked by turmoil, including multiple marriages and political involvement that culminated in her infamous act. Even her own defense attorney remarked on the perplexing nature of her motivations.
In interviews post-incarceration, Moore revealed her feelings of betrayal as an informant for the FBI and her conviction that her actions were somehow justified at the time. Throughout her life, she maintained a complex relationship with her radical beliefs and their consequences, including her estrangement from family.
In 1974, she became involved in food programs for the poor and was immersed in the counterculture of San Francisco, ultimately leading to her connection with radical politics and subsequent actions against Ford.
Sara Jane Moore's death concludes the narrative of a woman whose life intersected with some of the most tumultuous political moments in U.S. history.
