Sara Jane Moore (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Kahn; born February 15, 1930) is an American criminal who attempted to assassinate

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Gerald Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

in 1975. She was given a

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

for the attempted assassination and was released from prison on December 31, 2007, after serving 32 years. Moore and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme are the only two women to have attempted to assassinate an American president; both of their attempts were on

and both took place in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the mo ...

within three weeks of one another.

Background

Moore was born in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 2020 census and an estimated population of 48,018 in 2021. The Charleston ...

, the daughter of Ruth (née Moore) and Olaf Kahn. Her paternal grandparents were German immigrants. Moore had been a nursing school student,

Women's Army Corps The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designate ...

recruit, and accountant. Divorced five times, she had four children before she turned to revolutionary politics in 1975. Moore comes from a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

background. She later began practicing

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

. Moore's friends said that she had a fascination and an obsession with

Patricia Hearst Patricia is a female given name of Latin origin. Derived from the Latin word '' patrician'', meaning "noble"; it is the feminine form of the masculine given name Patrick. The name Patricia was the second most common female name in the United Stat ...

. After Hearst was kidnapped by the

Symbionese Liberation Army The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the ...

(SLA), her 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. Moore, a volunteer bookkeeper for PIN, had been serving as an FBI informant there until the moment she attempted to assassinate Ford.

Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford

Moore had been evaluated by the

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

earlier in 1975, but agents decided that she posed 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. The police confiscated her

.44 caliber .44 caliber is a family of large-caliber firearm cartridges and firearms, particularly revolvers. The most well-known is the .44 Magnum which uses a bullet that is actually .429 inches in diameter. Though less common than the smaller .38 caliber ...

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six r ...

and 113 rounds of ammunition. Moore's assassination attempt took place in San Francisco on September 22, 1975, just 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 was about away from Ford when she fired a single shot at him with a

.38 caliber .38 caliber is a frequently used name for the caliber of firearms and firearm cartridges. The .38 is considered a large firearm cartridge; anything larger than .32 is considered a large caliber.Wright, James D.; Rossi, Peter H.; Daly, Kathleen ...

revolver. She was using a gun she bought in haste that same morning and did not know the

sights A sight is an aiming device used to assist in visually aligning ranged weapons, surveying instruments or optical illumination equipments with the intended target. Sights can be a simple set or system of physical markers that have to be align ...

were 15 cm (6 inches) off the point-of-impact at that distance, and she narrowly missed. After realizing 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. Sipple said at the time: "I saw er gunpointed out there and I grabbed for it. ..I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off." The bullet from the second shot ricocheted and hit John Ludwig, a 42-year-old taxi driver. Ludwig survived.Caught in Fate's Trajectory, Along With Gerald Ford
Lynne Duke, ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', December 30, 2006, p. D01. 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.

Trial and imprisonment

Moore pleaded guilty to attempted assassination and was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

. 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." 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. Moore had the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that ...

register number 04851-180. In 1979 she escaped but was captured hours later. 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."

Release

On December 31, 2007, at age 77, Moore was slated to be released from prison on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

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 had later stated that she regretted the assassination attempt, saying she was "blinded by her radical political views". 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." In February 2019, Moore was arrested for violating her parole by failing to tell her parole officer of a trip out of the country; she was subsequently released in August 2019.

Media

On May 28, 2009, Moore appeared on NBC's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' 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 A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is ...

, 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." Excerpts from an interview with Moore by Latif Nasser appear on an episode of the radio program ''

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast. Live shows were first off ...

'' titled " Oliver Sipple", which was released on September 22, 2017. In the interview, Moore discusses the scene from the day she attempted to assassinate President Ford and her perspective of being stopped by Oliver Sipple.

In popular culture

Moore's story is one of nine assassins starring in

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...

and

John Weidman John Weidman (born September 25, 1946) is an American librettist and television writer for ''Sesame Street''. He has worked on stage musicals with Stephen Sondheim and Susan Stroman. Career Weidman was born in New York City and grew up in Westpo ...

's musical '' Assassins''. Moore,

John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth the ...

Charles J. Guiteau Charles Julius Guiteau ( ; September 8, 1841June 30, 1882) was an American man who assassinated James A. Garfield, president of the United States, on July 2, 1881. Guiteau falsely believed he had played a major role in Garfield's election vict ...

and

Leon Czolgosz Leon Frank Czolgosz ( , ; May 5, 1873 – October 29, 1901) was an American laborer and anarchist who assassinated President William McKinley on September 6, 1901, in Buffalo, New York. The president died on September 14 after his wound became ...

appear in "The Gun Song". 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.

References

External links

Photograph of Ford and his Secret Service agents taken just after Moore fired her shot.
* ttp://www.ford.utexas.edu/avproj/Assassinations.asp More photographs of both the Fromme and Moore assassination attempts from the Ford Presidential Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Sara Jane 1930 births 20th-century criminals American escapees American former Christians 20th-century American Jews American failed assassins American people convicted of attempted murder American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Converts to Judaism from Christianity Escapees from United States federal government detention Failed assassins of presidents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation informants Living people Military personnel from West Virginia People from Charleston, West Virginia People paroled from life sentence Presidency of Gerald Ford Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government Women's Army Corps soldiers 21st-century American Jews American people of German descent