Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in San Francisco

Last updated
Gerald Ford assassination attempt in San Francisco
AV89-26-14 600d.jpg
Photograph taken one second after the assassination attempt. From this vantage point, Ford is standing directly behind the man wearing the spotted necktie.
LocationOn Post Street in front of St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California, U.S.
Coordinates 37°47′18″N122°24′31″W / 37.7883°N 122.4087°W / 37.7883; -122.4087
DateSeptember 22, 1975;
49 years ago
 (1975-09-22)
3:30 p.m. (PDT)
Target Gerald Ford,
38th President of the United States
Attack type
Attempted assassination by gunshot
Weapon .38 Special revolver
DeathsNone
InjuredJohn Ludwig
Perpetrator Sara Jane Moore
Defenders Oliver Sipple, Timothy Hettrich, San Francisco Police Department, United States Secret Service

In San Francisco on September 22, 1975, Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate the 38th President of the United States, Gerald Ford, after he had made an address to the World Affairs Council. [1] Moore fired two shots at President Ford with a .38 Special revolver, both of which missed. [2] [3] Ford had survived a previous assassination attempt 17 days earlier; after this second attempt, he wore a bulletproof trench coat while out in public. On January 15, 1976, Moore was sentenced to life in prison for the attempt, and was released on parole on December 31, 2007.

Contents

Background

Sara Jane Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service earlier in 1975, but agents had concluded that she posed no danger to the president. [4] The 45-year-old was detained by police on an illegal handgun charge the day before the assassination attempt, but was released. The police confiscated her .44-caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition.

Shooting

On Monday afternoon at 3:30 p.m., after speaking to the World Affairs Council, Ford emerged from the Post Street (north) entrance of the St. Francis Hotel in Union Square, then walked toward his limousine. Before boarding the vehicle, he stopped and waved to the crowd that had gathered across the street. [5]

Sara Jane Moore was standing in the crowd about forty feet (12 m) away from Ford when she fired two shots with her .38 Special revolver. The first shot missed Ford's head by five inches (13 cm) and passed through the wall above the doorway Ford had just walked out of. [6] A bystander named Oliver Sipple heard the sound of the first shot and dove at Moore, grabbing her shooting arm before she pulled the trigger a second time. The second shot struck John Ludwig, a 42-year-old taxi driver standing inside the hotel, [7] in the groin. [6] Ludwig survived. [2] [3]

San Francisco Police Capt. Timothy Hettrich grabbed Moore and wrestled the gun from her hand. [5] Many other officers immediately joined in subduing Moore. In the meantime, the president's Secret Service team pushed Ford into his waiting limousine where the Secret Service and Donald Rumsfeld lay on top of him. The limousine raced to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) where Ford boarded Air Force One and, after being joined by the First Lady, flew back to Washington, D.C.

Moore explained in a 2009 interview that her motive was to spark a violent revolution in order to bring change to America. [8]

Aftermath

President Ford with his wife Betty aboard the return flight to Washington DC from San Francisco later on the same day as the assassination attempt First Lady Betty Ford greets President Gerald Ford for the trip back to Washington.jpg
President Ford with his wife Betty aboard the return flight to Washington DC from San Francisco later on the same day as the assassination attempt
The bulletproof trenchcoat that Ford began wearing in public in October 1975 due to the two assassination attempts targeting him during the previous month Trenchcoat worn by President Gerald R. Ford.jpg
The bulletproof trenchcoat that Ford began wearing in public in October 1975 due to the two assassination attempts targeting him during the previous month

Sara Jane Moore

Moore pleaded guilty to charges of attempted assassination on December 12, 1975. [9] The following month, on January 15, 1976, she was sentenced to life in prison. [10] On December 31, 2007, at the age of 77, Moore was released on parole. [11]

Oliver Sipple

Oliver Sipple was commended at the scene by Secret Service and the San Francisco Police for his actions; [12] the media portrayed him as a national hero. Three days after the assassination attempt in San Francisco, Sipple received a letter from President Ford praising him for his heroic actions. [12]

All of the media publicity about him was not without controversy, however. Upon realizing that Sipple was gay, the media began broadcasting this information. That became the first time that Sipple's parents and family found out that Sipple was homosexual, as he had been hiding it from them. After learning about his sexual orientation, much of his family, including his parents, disowned him, and were subsequently estranged from him, but later were reconciled. Sipple died in 1989.

President Ford

After President Ford was rushed to the SFO tarmac in his limousine, he quickly boarded Air Force One. Before Ford could depart on his return trip to the nation's capital, however, the plane had to wait for his wife Betty, the First Lady, who was carrying out her own schedule of events on the Peninsula. [5]

In addition to the San Francisco incident, Ford had escaped unharmed from a previous assassination attempt in Sacramento, California, which occurred 17 days earlier on September 5, 1975. In response to the two occurrences in the same month, President Ford subsequently wore a bulletproof trench coat in public, beginning in October 1975.

Ford, who had succeeded to the presidency upon the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974, ran for election in 1976. He lost to Jimmy Carter, by 297–240 in the electoral vote, and did not run for public office again. At age 93 in 2006, Ford died from natural causes.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symbionese Liberation Army</span> American terrorist organization (1973–1975)

The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army was a small, American militant far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and wider American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles. The three surviving fugitives recruited new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.

<i>Assassins</i> (musical) 1990 musical by Stephen Sondheim

Assassins is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by John Weidman, based on an original concept by Charles Gilbert Jr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Milk</span> American gay rights activist (1930–1978)

Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hinckley Jr.</span> Attempted assassin of Ronald Reagan (born 1955)

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. is an American musician who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration. Using a revolver, Hinckley wounded Reagan, police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and White House Press Secretary James Brady. Brady was left disabled and died 33 years later from his injuries.

Oliver Wellington "Billy" Sipple was an American man known for intervening to prevent an assassination attempt against U.S. President Gerald Ford on September 22, 1975. A decorated U.S. Marine and disabled Vietnam War veteran, he grappled with Sara Jane Moore as she fired a pistol at Ford in San Francisco, causing her to miss. The subsequent public revelation that Sipple was gay turned the news story into a cause célèbre for LGBTQ rights activists, leading Sipple to sue, unsuccessfully, several publishers for invasion of privacy, and causing his estrangement from his parents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Squeaky Fromme</span> American cultist and failed presidential assassin (born 1948)

Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme is an American woman who was a member of the Manson Family, a cult led by Charles Manson. Though not involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders for which the Manson family is best known, she attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. For that crime, she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled from prison on August 14, 2009, after serving approximately 34 years. She published a book about her life in 2018.

Arthur Herman Bremer is an American convicted criminal, whose attempt to assassinate U.S. Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace on May 15, 1972, in Laurel, Maryland, left Wallace permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Bremer was found guilty and sentenced to 63 years in a Maryland prison for the shooting of Wallace and three bystanders. After 35 years of incarceration, Bremer was released from prison on November 9, 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan White</span> American politician and assassin (1946–1985)

Daniel James White was an American politician who assassinated George Moscone, the mayor of San Francisco, and Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, inside City Hall on November 27, 1978. White was convicted of manslaughter for the deaths of Milk and Moscone and served five years of a seven-year prison sentence. Less than two years after his release, he returned to San Francisco and later committed suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Jane Moore</span> American failed presidential assassin (born 1930)

Sara Jane Moore is an American woman who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in 1975. She was given a life sentence for the attempted assassination and she was released from prison on December 31, 2007, after serving 32 years. Moore and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme are the only women who have attempted to assassinate an American president; both of their assassination attempts were on Gerald Ford and both of them took place in California within three weeks of one another.

<i>Flubber</i> (film) 1997 film by Les Mayfield

Flubber is a 1997 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Les Mayfield and written by Hughes and Bill Walsh. A remake of The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), the film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and stars Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, Wil Wheaton and Clancy Brown, with Jodi Benson providing a voice. The film grossed $178 million worldwide and received negative reviews from critics. In selected theaters, the Pepper Ann episode "Old Best Friend" was featured before the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan</span> 1981 shooting in Washington, D.C., U.S.

On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States, was shot and wounded by John Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C., as Reagan was returning to his limousine after a speaking engagement at the Washington Hilton hotel. Hinckley believed the attack would impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had developed an erotomanic obsession after viewing her in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Arutyunian</span> Georgian attempted presidential assassin (born 1978)

Vladimir Arutyunian is a Georgian national who, on 10 May 2005, attempted to assassinate United States President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili by throwing a hand grenade at both of them. The attempt failed when the grenade did not detonate. He was later arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidential state car (United States)</span> Car for the president of the United States

The United States presidential state car is the official state car of the president of the United States. Since its introduction in 2018, the currently employed custom Cadillac known as "The Beast" is widely regarded as the most heavily fortified automobile in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">September 1975</span> Month of 1975

The following events occurred in September 1975:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clint Hill (Secret Service)</span> Former United States Secret Service Agent (born 1932)

Clinton J. Hill is a former U.S. Secret Service agent who served under five United States presidents, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Gerald Ford. Hill is best known for his act of bravery while in the presidential motorcade on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. During the assassination, Hill ran from the Secret Service followup car, behind the presidential limousine, leaped onto the back of it and shielded Jacqueline Kennedy and the stricken president with his body as the car raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital. His act is documented in film footage by Abraham Zapruder. Since the death of Nellie Connally in 2006, Hill is the last surviving person who was in the presidential limousine that day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Parr</span> American Secret Service agent (1930–2015)

Jerry S. Parr was a United States Secret Service special agent who is best known for defending President Ronald Reagan during the attempt on the president's life on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C. Parr pushed Reagan into the presidential limousine and made the critical decision to divert the presidential motorcade to George Washington University Hospital instead of returning to the White House. He was honored for his actions that day with U.S. Congress commendations, and is widely credited with helping to save the president's life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in Sacramento</span> 1975 assassination attempt

On September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the Manson Family cult, attempted to assassinate United States president Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California. Fromme, who was standing a little more than an arm's length from Ford, pointed a M1911 pistol at him in the public grounds of the California State Capitol building and without chambering a round in the gun, unsuccessfully attempted to fire.

The following is a timeline of the presidency of Gerald Ford from January 1, 1975, to December 31, 1975.

Suburban Fury is a 2024 American documentary film directed by Robinson Devor about Sara Jane Moore, the perpetrator of the 1975 assassination attempt on U.S. President Gerald Ford. The documentary was selected to screen in the Main Slate section of the 2024 New York Film Festival.

References

  1. O’Rourke, Tim (2016-09-23). "Chronicle Covers: The SF assassination attempt on President Ford". www.sfchronicle.com. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  2. 1 2 "Ford target of assassination try". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Associated Press. September 23, 1975. p. 1.
  3. 1 2 "Ford's assailant was known 'security risk'". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). UPI. September 23, 1975. p. 1A.
  4. Carney, James (1998-08-03). "How To Make The Secret Service's Unwanted List". Time. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  5. 1 2 3 Epstein, Edward (2006-12-27). "Ford escaped 2 assassination attempts / Both happened in California -- one in capital, other in S.F." www.sfgate.com. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  6. 1 2 May, Meredith (2012-12-14). "Failed assassination of President Ford, 1975". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  7. "The Attempted Assassination of Gerald Ford by Squeaky Fromme". Presidential History Geeks. 2014-09-05. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  8. "Sara Jane Moore: Radical Would-Be Ford Assassin". 22 April 2017.
  9. "Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to trying... December 12 in History". BrainyHistory.com. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  10. "10 O'Clock News". WGBH. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  11. "Would-be Ford assassin freed from prison on parole". CNN. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  12. 1 2 "The Oliver Sipple Page". 2007-08-31. Archived from the original on 2007-08-31. Retrieved 2019-03-17.