Sara Jane Moore, would-be assassin of President Ford, dies at 95

"Sara Jane Moore, the middle-aged radical and mother of four who fired two errant shots at President Gerald R. Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 1975, with a vague notion of igniting a leftist revolution in America, died Wednesday at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee. She was 95. Demetria Kalodimos, a reporter for the Nashville Banner who had developed a friendship with Moore, confirmed the death, which was first reported by the Banner."

"In San Francisco, about 3,000 people were gathered near Union Square for a glimpse of the president as he left the St. Francis Hotel. Moore, 45, who had been questioned by Secret Service agents the day before but then released, was standing across the street, 40 to 50 feet away from the commander in chief. She drew a chrome-plated .38-caliber revolver and fired at the president. The shot missed, and she raised the gun for a second shot."

Sara Jane Moore, a mother of four on the fringes of radical leftist movements, fired two shots at President Gerald R. Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 1975, intending to ignite a leftist revolution. About 3,000 people were nearby as she, 45, drew a chrome-plated .38-caliber revolver from across the street and fired; the first shot missed and she raised the gun again. Oliver W. Sipple, a former Marine, deflected the second shot, which ricocheted and grazed a bystander. Investigators found no conspiracy, deemed her ties tenuous, found her legally sane, and she pleaded guilty.

Read at Boston.com