Sara Jane Moore Tried To Assassinate President Ford, Discusses Attempt And Spending 32 Years In Jail (VIDEO)

To look at this 80-year-old grandmotherly woman, it is difficult to imagine that she spent 32 years in prison for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford, but that's exactly what happened. On September 22, 1975 in San Francisco, Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at President Ford that missed his head by several feet. A bystander wrestled her to the ground before she was taken into custody by authorities.

Moore was a 45-year-old divorced mother who hung around disaffected groups feeding her alienation. Looking back on the incident, she says of her earlier self that it seems like a "different person." She sees the genesis of her assassination attempt as stemming from her immersion in radical leftist groups that were pushing her to the edge, and that she was alienated from the world as it was and needed to do something about it. It's unclear why she felt killing President Ford would have done anything about it, but she declares that to this day she believes if she hadn't made the attempt someone else would have:

Oh, I still think that. If I hadn't done it, someone else would have. That was the tenor of the time. There was more talk about it than people realize. Again, I thought that what was happening to us there in San Francisco was the whole world and it wasn't. I had to learn later that everybody didn't feel that way.

Some six of her 32 two years spent behind bars was in solitary confinement. She escaped from prison in 1979 but was promptly recaptured. In hindsight Moore believes that the action was wrong, although "understandably wrong, but that's just my ego talking."

Watch the full interview below.

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Comments

[egaeus]

Our justice system's built around the idea that jail is a punishment for crime and that after time served, an individual may reenter society. This woman shot a gun at a president and missed. She was jailed more for her intention than her actions and lost 32 years of her life. Many people wouldn't have been remorseful if Hitler had been assassinated, or George W. Bush for that matter: ethics and morality are elastic and relative to the situation, so to apply an absolute opinion like "it's always wrong to assassinate a leader" denies the complexity of the issue. For instance, most people believe killing is wrong, yet we support our soldiers overseas even though 85% of victims of air strikes in Iraq have been women and children (around 51,000 lives lost). One needs to see her crime in perspective.

Additionally, many people who go to prison come out more contemplative and wiser. No one is obligated to beat his or her breast and sob to satisfy the needs of others to see how suffering has broken the individual. Ms. Moore served her time and seems reflective about it. She does seem to blame others for it, or the atmosphere of the times, but who cares? She didn't actually kill anyone and she was punished for her deed.

More alarming to me is how the "liberal media" demonizes the left through Matt Lauer's comments about the left-wing radical fringe (of course, at that time I suppose there was one).

[RustNeverSleeps]

Isn't it something that an 80 year-old woman wants her second 15-minutes of fame. A lot of people think she should show remorse and plead for forgiveness. I suspect that she feels she did her time and she doesn't need to request absolution. 32 years is a long time. Although she did attempt to assassinate a president, she missed and he wasn't hurt. She did her 32 years and she has a right to leave in peace now. I'm not sure why she wants to do interviews, but we've seen stranger things.

[RustNeverSleeps]

"live in peace now..." I need a copy editor.

[DenaSilver]

This woman has not reflected on why she wanted to kill a president.
She is not in touch with her motives and has learned nothing in prison.
She says about her crime:
"Horrific? I don't know; I don't use those words"--
Hello, she set out to kill a man. Forget the country, how about the fact that she'd rob a man of his life. She'd rob a wife of her husband and children of their father.
That is horrific.
This woman was and is numb. To say she was shocked to find out about the problems of the world....so shocked that she wanted to kill the president? She has no sense of remorse. No connection between cause and effect.

[MJJM]

This is a pathetic story that NBC is trying to make into NEWS!! They want a lunatic to attempt to kill President Obama. This is a very sad story!! Shame on NBC and they should apologize!!!!!!!

[Anthony Wynn]

What disturbed me the most from Sara Jane Moore's interview on NBC was her seeming lack of true remorse. This was her first major public television appearance and she made no effort, even after prompting from Matt Lauer, to offer a sincere apology to Betty Ford, the Ford Family, or the American public for her actions. She said her attempt on the life of the President was "understandably wrong". I don't understand it, and I believe a whole lot of people don't understand it. Killing is wrong, assassination is wrong. In my opinion, she should have remained in prison for life and fulfilled her sentence.

[dollyfedup]

Did you notice on MSNBC how Andrea Mitchell immediately wanted to explain how she doesn't look like the type of person to do such a thing. We know what she was implying--only blacks or other minorities commit crimes

[egaeus]

No, you're wrong. Most assassins are men, for one thing, and do not look like people's grandmothers. Most assassins in the US have not been minorities and have been white males. Furthermore, assassins are generally younger than 80 years old. I think perhaps Charles Manson would be the only 80-year-old that anyone would say still looked like a killer. I am more than happy to call racial bias racial bias when it appears, but here the allegation is misplaced.

[dollyfedup]

This story is disrespectful to our President. The media shouldn't be out interviewing people who've tried to assassinate previous Presidents, especially when we've just elected a new, African-American President. Reminds me of Hillary bringing up the assassination of Kennedy.

[MNSusan]

I heard this interview this morning and I believe she said that she has plans to attend "an Obama event". How is a woman who attempted to assassinate a President, allowed to now attend Presidential events? She says that she has to clear her travel; was this particular thing cleared? ... I don't know what the point of this interview was, really. The woman still seems to have a pathological inability to understand that what she did was wrong.

[wndrwrthg]

Why is she out and Lynette is still in? Lynette did not even fire a shot (she deliberately ejected the round from the chamber.

[arpaul]

Let's see . . . could it be because Fromme is still a danger to herself and others? Hmmmmm? Poor Sara Jane Moore is (today) just a harmless, pathetic kook.

[marko77]

wndrwrthg I'm a Fan of wndrwrthg I'm a fan of this user permalink
photo

Why is she out and Lynette is still in? Lynette did not even fire a shot (she deliberately ejected the round from the chamber.
_______________________________________________________________

From what I remember reading, she thought a bullet was in the chamber and was puzzled when it didn't fire as expected - either the chamber was empty or the gun jammed.

I also remember an FBI agent stating that it was impossible to hold a rational conversation with her. Not surprising.

[dct1999]

If she were not a white woman she would still be locked up.

[dct1999]

...was not....

[QuidQuintessa]

Were not is okay.

[Jackalheadedgod]

After all the sturm und drang following JFKs assassination this one confounds. She appears to be a balanced elderly woman, but she attempted to kill the president. But then, he was a different kind of president. But then, it doesn't matter because he was president in spite of the times or the circumstances.

I suppose in the end she should still be behind bars. She knows she broke the law, but she seems quite pleased with herself. It seems that if you plan to kill and succeed or not, you should be on the hook.

This one puzzles me a bit.

Cheers,
Jack

[pinkfirefly]

She seems impaired neurologically and/or afflicted with some form of mental illness.

[davvid]

what makes you think that?

[tombop]

34 years in jail and now she's 80 years old.
She is totally irrelevant.

[Dilligaff]

She was only trying to spare Ford from having to endure the heartbreak of losing to Carter in 1976. She knew Carter would win and didn't want her hero, Gerald Ford, to experience the agony of defeat.
The woman is a saint and shouldn't be villified for her actions.

[MsLiz]

Someone has a screw loose.

[Dilligaff]

I was joking but you're right, I probably do have a screw or two loose.

[krayonc]

Lucky for her she missed. I doubt she'd have this 2nd chance otherwise.

[wadenelson1]

Any NRA spokesperson could tell you that with a semi-automatic she could have had MULTIPLE chances to hit her target.