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

Sara Jane Moore, the woman who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford, died. She was 95 years old. 

The Nashville Banner was first to report news that Moore had died at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee.

What happened in the assassination attempt of President Gerald Ford?

Dig deeper:

President Gerald Ford was in San Francisco to address the World Affairs Council on Sept. 22, 1975, in front of the fashionable St. Francis Hotel.

Sara Jane Moore, a former psychiatric patient, was about 50 feet away from Ford when she pulled out a gun and fired a shot at Ford, which missed.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Moore attempted to fire a second shot, when Oliver Sipple, a former Maine standing next to her, pulled her arm as the gun went off.

This shot also missed Ford but grazed and injured another person. Secret Service agents rushed in to protect Ford and Moore was arrested by police. Moore’s assassination attempts on Ford occurred shortly after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme’s attempt in Sacramento.

Who was Sara Moore?

The backstory:

Sara Moore was born on Feb. 15, 1930, in Charleston, West Virginia. According to The Hill, Moore was an aspiring actress and nurse before working as a bookkeeper. 

Moore was married multiple times and was estranged from her family, abandoning three of her kids. But a fourth child remained in her care at the time of the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. 

The Los Angeles Times reported that Moore was treated for mental illness multiple times. 

Moore was sentenced to life in prison for the assassination attempt on Ford, and she spent 32 years in prison before being paroled in 2007. After her release from jail, she lived in North Carolina and then Tennessee.