American shooter Sarah Jane Moore died at the age of 95 on September 24 local time. Moore attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975. She was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted assassination, and was released on December 31, 2007 after serving 32 years in prison.

Moore was interviewed after his release from prison.

Moore was born in Charleston, West Virginia on February 15th, 1930. She was a nurse, accountant and soldier in the Women's Corps of the Army. Moore was divorced five times and has four children. According to her friends, Moore later became infatuated with "extreme political views". She once served as an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), broke into the charity founded by randolph hurst, an American billionaire, and provided the FBI with the internal details of agency operations and related personnel. But four months before Moore assassinated Ford, the FBI terminated its partnership with her.

Moore in his youth.

Earlier in 1975, the U.S. Secret Service, which was in charge of the presidential security, had evaluated Moore, but agents eventually determined that she would not pose a threat to Ford. Just a day before the assassination, Moore was arrested by police for illegally holding guns but was later released. Police confiscated her commonly used 44-caliber Charter Arms Bulldog left wheel gun and 113 bullets.

On September 22, 1975, Moore, 45, stood in the crowd opposite the St Francis Hotel in San Francisco, about 12 meters from Ford, and fired him with a 38-caliber left-handed rifle purchased in a rush that morning. Since the 38-caliber rifle structure was very different from her usual habit, the distance between the target and the bullet point was short, causing Moore to shoot the first shot.

Moore was arrested.

Realizing the miss, Moore raised his arm again and former Marine Oliver Sipple pounced on her and grabbed her by the arm, a move that saved Ford's life. "I saw her gun pointed there and I wanted to go and grab her. I pounced and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off," Sipple said at the time. The second bullet hit the driver, John Ludwig, 42, who was fortunately spared.

In 1979, Moore tried to escape from prison, but was captured hours later. She later recalled, "If I had known that I could only be free for a few hours, I should have had a beer and a few hamburgers."

On December 31, 2007, Moore, 77, was released on parole after serving 32 years in prison. Just over a year before she was released from prison, Gerald Ford died of natural causes in December 2006. Moore has said she regrets the assassination attempt, saying she was "blinded by radical political views". In an interview, when asked about her crime, Moore said, "I'm glad I didn't get away with it. I recognize now that I was wrong." After her release, she changed her name and moved to North Carolina, where she married psychologist Philip Chase.

On September 24, 2025, Moore died at a nursing home in Franklin, Tennessee, at the age of 95. This day is only two days after the 50th anniversary of her assassination of Ford.

Zheng Zhi, Red Star reporter

Edited by Zhang Li

Review by Feng Shui