Would-Be Assassin of President Gerald Ford, Sara Jane Moore, Passes Away at 95 in Tennessee Nursing Home
Sara Jane Moore, the woman who once stood at the center of one of America’s most shocking political moments, has died at the age of 95. Her death was confirmed on September 24, 2025, at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee. For many, her name may not immediately ring a bell, but her actions in 1975 nearly changed the course of U.S. history forever when she tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in San Francisco.
It was September 22, 1975, when Moore blended into a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel. As President Ford waved to supporters, Moore pulled out a revolver and fired two shots. In a twist of fate, and perhaps luck, neither bullet struck the president. One ricocheted off a building and struck a taxi driver, while the other narrowly missed Ford. The attempt could have been deadly, but instead became one of those strange moments in history when disaster is averted by inches. A bystander, Oliver Sipple, who was a former Marine, grabbed her arm as she fired, preventing what could have been a national tragedy.
Moore was no ordinary assailant. At the time, she was a 45-year-old mother of four who had led a complex life. She had worked as an accountant, served briefly as an FBI informant, and had been deeply influenced by radical politics in the 1970s. Those turbulent years in America saw rising distrust of government institutions, and Moore herself admitted later that her political leanings had pushed her into a dark place. In court, she pleaded guilty to attempted assassination and was sentenced to life in prison.
For over three decades, Sara Jane Moore lived behind bars, serving her time quietly. She was paroled in December 2007, after more than 32 years in federal prison. At the time of her release, she expressed regret, saying she had been misguided by the political climate of the time and driven by anger that had clouded her judgment. Still, her name carried the weight of a crime that had shaken a nation and nearly ended a presidency.
In the years following her release, Moore lived a far more private life. She gave occasional interviews but largely faded from the spotlight, living quietly until her passing. The news of her death at 95 is a reminder of how long a shadow that single day in 1975 has cast. History has a way of remembering the moments that almost changed everything, and Moore’s attempt on President Ford is remembered as one of those near-misses.
President Ford himself lived until 2006, and while he rarely spoke about the incident in detail, it was clear the attempt left a mark on his presidency. Incredibly, it was the second assassination attempt on him within just 17 days, the first coming from Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson. The fact that two attempts were made on a sitting president’s life within the same month remains one of the most remarkable chapters in modern American political history.
As Sara Jane Moore passes into history, her story is one of warning and reflection. She was a woman shaped by the turbulence of her era, caught between personal struggles and a nation in upheaval. Her name will forever be tied to the day she raised a gun at a president, but her long life after prison is also part of the story. She lived quietly, far from the violence and chaos that defined her most infamous moment, until her final days in Tennessee.
Her death at 95 closes a chapter on a life that once gripped the headlines and later slipped into obscurity. It is a reminder of how history remembers both the powerful and those who tried, and failed, to change it in one shocking instant.
