Sara Jane Moore — who fired at President Gerald Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco in 1975 — died Sept. 24, 2025, in a nursing facility in Franklin, Tennessee.
At age 45, Moore purchased a .38-caliber revolver just hours before the attempt and squeezed off two shots toward Ford as he exited the hotel. The shots missed: the first passed wide, while the second was deflected by bystander and former Marine Oliver Sipple, causing the bullet to ricochet and strike a taxi driver instead. Moore was swiftly subdued by law enforcement and Secret Service agents, and Ford was escorted safely away.
In December 1975 she pleaded guilty to attempted assassination and was sentenced to life in prison. She escaped briefly in 1979 but was recaptured within hours. After serving 32 years, she was paroled on December 31, 2007.
Moore’s attempt came just 17 days after another failed assassination attempt on Ford by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. Throughout her life, Moore’s motives were tied to radical political ideologies and internal conflict; she also had, at times, cooperated with law enforcement as an informant.
Her death arrives nearly 50 years after the assassination attempt, marking the end of a long, controversial chapter in U.S. presidential security history.
