Bystander Saves Ford: Second Assassination Foiled
Sara Jane Moore fired a single .38-caliber revolver shot at President Gerald Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on September 22, 1975. A bystander named Oliver Sipple grabbed her arm just as she pulled the trigger, deflecting the bullet into a wall. Sipple, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, was hailed as a hero, but media coverage outed him as gay, which he had not disclosed to his family. His mother refused to speak to him afterward. Sipple sued for invasion of privacy and lost. He died alone in 1989. Moore was sentenced to life in prison and paroled in 2007. The assassination attempt, coming just seventeen days after Lynette Fromme's attempt in Sacramento, led to the most extensive security overhaul for presidential protection since the Kennedy assassination.
September 22, 1975
51 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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