Sara Jane Moore -- Then and Now

Sara Jane Moore was interviewed on the Today show this morning.

I want to thank Matt Lauer for not giving away all the official, unofficial and exotic details of my book.

As the author of, Taking Aim At the President, I reveal the unpleasant, hidden, unpopular, unseemly, talented, warm, generous and quizzical sides to this West Virginia woman who ended up on that sidewalk 40 feet away from the sweat-beaded forehead of the president of the United States.

Lauer may have been surprised to find out that our U.S. Secret Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the San Francisco Police Department had her in custody the day before she shot at Ford which was Sunday, Sept. 21. They all knew she had a gun and all knew she had threatened President Ford.

Lauer also never questioned the repeated inconsistencies during the show about how far that bullet came to hitting Ford's head? One reporter said several feet and another said it just missed.

Which is it?

According to my book and the official record -- she missed his head by a mere six inches, and for that we are thankful.

Had Sara Jane shot at Ford with her own gun, a .44 Charter Arms Revolver, she would have hit him between the eyes. Her gun had been confiscated the day before by the SFPD. She bought a .38 revolver she had never used before. As she drove from the gun dealer, she loaded it in her lap while racing down Highway 580 towards San Francisco.

What she didn't know is that the sight was off. The FBI, Secret Service, Judge Samuel Conti and the SFPD will all tell you the same thing: If she had been using her own gun, history and lives would be different.

President Ford told me, in 2003, he believed Sara Jane escaped all the different protective agencies because they didn't talk to each other. He compared the slip to the lack of communication during the 9/11 disaster and his fear was that lack of communication will continue as agencies are reluctant to give up power.

Someone as complicated as Sara Jane Moore deserves serious inquiry as she did not then, and would not now, raise any alarms on any street corner in the U.S. today.

Comments

[Geri Spieler - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey Soapfan:

It's too bad Oliver Sipple's name is never included in all the fuss about the attempted assassination of Pres. Ford.

Fortunately, for him, we say "attempted." Think of what that means?

Thanks to Sipple,

[NelsonC]

Sadly, the heroes are rarely given the same amount of spotlight as the villains.

It's a shame, because Oliver Sipple's story is fascinating. It puts the convoluted plotline of Forrest Gump to shame.

[Soapfan]

Why don't anyone ever talk about the hero that stopped her?