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 on December 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 expressed regret for her actions, stating she had been caught up in the radical political movements of the mid-1970s. “I had put blinders on, I really had, and I was listening to only ... what I thought I believed,” she told KGO in April 2009.
Moore was often confused with Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who also aimed a gun at Ford just weeks before. On September 22, 1975, Moore shot at Ford as he waved to a crowd but missed, with the bullet hitting a building. During an interview, she expressed remorse, saying, “I’m sorry I missed. I don’t like to be a failure.”
In subsequent interviews, she defended her motive, claiming she felt the government had declared war on the left: “If I was going to go down, I was going to do it my way.”
Moore's death has garnered mixed reactions, highlighting her troubled legacy as a radical who transformed into a figure of regret and reflection, grappling with her past choices in a changed America.
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 on December 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 expressed regret for her actions, stating she had been caught up in the radical political movements of the mid-1970s. “I had put blinders on, I really had, and I was listening to only ... what I thought I believed,” she told KGO in April 2009.
Moore was often confused with Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who also aimed a gun at Ford just weeks before. On September 22, 1975, Moore shot at Ford as he waved to a crowd but missed, with the bullet hitting a building. During an interview, she expressed remorse, saying, “I’m sorry I missed. I don’t like to be a failure.”
In subsequent interviews, she defended her motive, claiming she felt the government had declared war on the left: “If I was going to go down, I was going to do it my way.”
Moore's death has garnered mixed reactions, highlighting her troubled legacy as a radical who transformed into a figure of regret and reflection, grappling with her past choices in a changed America.
