Sara Jane Moore Dies at 95: Remembering the Woman Who Tried to Assassinate President Gerald Ford
The name Sara Jane Moore re-emerged in the headlines this week with the news of her passing. Moore, a figure forever linked to one of the most volatile periods. In American political history, died on September 24, 2025, at the age of 95.
Her death closes the book on a dramatic life. The culminated in her failed attempt to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975. Moore’s infamous act cemented her place as one of the only two women to ever attempt to kill a sitting American president. The other being **Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme**, who targeted Ford just 17 days earlier.
The 1975 Assassination Attempt on President Ford
The assassination attempt took place in San Francisco on **September 22, 1975**. President Gerald Ford was leaving the St. Francis Hotel after an address to the World Affairs Council. Sara Jane Moore, a former FBI informant and radical leftist activist. She was positioned in the crowd about 40 feet away when she raised a .38 caliber revolver and fired.
Key Details of the Incident:
- The Shots: Moore fired two shots. Her first shot narrowly missed the President’s head, due in part to the fact that the gun she had purchased in haste that morning had inaccurately calibrated sights.
- The Heroic Bystander: Before she could fire a more accurate second shot, former Marine Oliver Sipple heard the first report, lunged at Moore, and grabbed her shooting arm, deflecting the second bullet.
- The Aftermath: President Ford was unharmed, though a ricocheting bullet fragment did superficially injure a taxi driver. The incident, following so closely on the heels of Fromme’s attempt, highlighted a terrifying vulnerability in presidential security.
A Life of Extremes: Radicalism and Informant Work
Moore’s journey to becoming a would-be assassin was complex and rooted in the radical politics of the 1970s. Born Sara Jane Kahn in 1930. She was a mother and an accountant who became deeply involved with far-left movements in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Crucially, before the attempt on Ford’s life, Moore had served as an **FBI informant**, spying on the very groups she later sought to impress. Some accounts suggest her attempt to assassinate the President was a desperate, dramatic gesture to prove her loyalty to the radical cause and break completely with the federal authorities who had exposed her as a spy.
Imprisonment and Parole
Following the attempt, Moore pleaded guilty to the attempted assassination charge. She was sentenced to life in prison in January 1976.
Moore spent over three decades behind bars. She was eventually **released on parole on December 31, 2007**, at the age of 77, after serving 32 years of her life sentence. After her release, she expressed regret for her actions in later interviews, stating that she was “very glad I did not succeed” and recognized that she was “wrong to try.”
The Legacy of Sara Jane Moore
Moore’s death at 95 marks the end of a life. She lived largely in the shadow of a single failed political act. Her story remains a chilling footnote in the biography of **President Gerald Ford** and a stark reminder of the era’s political turmoil, characterized by anti-government sentiment and extremism. The simultaneous, unrelated attempts by Sara Jane Moore and Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme on the same president within weeks of each other remains an unparalleled event in American history, forever shaping the conversation around presidential security and political violence.
