Attempted Assassination of Gerald Ford

Background

At the time, Gerald Ford was listed as sitting president. The record is categorized as attempted assassination with a high confidence level.

Event details

The reported method was shooting. Failed; shot missed Ford.

Aftermath

Moore fired one shot at Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco; the shot was deflected when veteran Oliver Sipple lunged and grabbed Moore's arm, likely saving Ford's life—the diverted bullet struck a wall and ricocheted, wounding a bystander. Moore was immediately tackled and arrested; she later said she had been testing the government's reaction to radical activity. She was tried, convicted of attempted assassination of the president, and sentenced to life in federal prison. Moore was released on parole in 2007 after serving 32 years and appeared on national television acknowledging the act had been foolish. The twin 1975 attempts on Ford were the first serious attacks on an incumbent president in over two decades and led to significant improvements in presidential protective protocols.

Historical significance

The Moore attempt, coming just 17 days after the Fromme attack, made Gerald Ford the only president in American history to survive two assassination attempts within the same month—a period without parallel in the record. Oliver Sipple's intervention, credited with deflecting Moore's shot and possibly saving Ford's life, became immediately famous, but the story's aftermath was painful: a nationally syndicated columnist revealed that Sipple was gay without his consent, triggering a privacy controversy that Sipple cited as a source of lasting emotional harm until his death in 1989. Sipple's story became a landmark case in early debates about involuntary disclosure of sexual orientation, illustrating how acts of public heroism can collide with deeply private lives. The twin Ford attacks drove meaningful Secret Service reform at a pivotal moment in the agency's post-Kennedy maturation.

Sources

• Sara Jane Moore — Wikipedia contributors
• Oliver Sipple — Wikipedia contributors
• List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots — Wikipedia contributors