Would-Be Assassin Paroled

Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to kill President Gerald Ford has been released from Federal prison after 32 years in custody. Officials are not saying why Moore, now 77 years old, was released. She was serving a life sentence.

Prison officials have offered no details on why Moore, 77, was paroled Monday from a federal penitentiary east of San Francisco, where she had been serving a life sentence. Moore had been behind bars for 32 years.

The one-time aspiring film actress was 40 feet away from Ford outside a hotel in San Francisco when she fired a shot at him on Sept. 22, 1975. As she raised her .38-caliber revolver and pulled the trigger, Oliver Sipple, a disabled former Marine standing next to her, pushed up her arm. The bullet flew over Ford's head by several feet.

The attempt came 17 days after a disciple of Charles Manson tried to kill the president in Sacramento.

Despite Moore's troubled background, which included five failed marriages, name changes and involvement with political groups like the Symbionese Liberation Army, her motives have never been clear.

In recent interviews, Moore said she regretted her actions, saying she was blinded by her radical political views and convinced that the government had declared war on advocates of left-wing politics. (Emphasis added.)

"I was functioning, I think, purely on adrenaline and not thinking clearly. I have often said that I had put blinders on and I was only listening to what I wanted to hear," she said a year ago in an interview with KGO-TV.

Cheerful thought, isn't it? Blinded by politics. Well, I'm a bit surprised she was released. While there is no current Federal parole, persons in the Federal prison system who were sentenced before 1987 may still be paroled by the vestigial Federal Parole Commission (you learn something new every day). But enough about Moore. Let's take a look at the man who may well have saved Ford's life, Oliver Sipple.

Sipple was born in Detroit, Michigan. He served in the United States Marines and saw action in Vietnam. Shrapnel wounds suffered in December 1968 caused him to finish out his tour of duty in a Philadelphia veterans hospital, from which he was released in March 1970. He later spent six months in San Francisco's VA hospital, and was frequently being readmitted into the hospital in 1975, the year he saved Ford's life.

Listed as being totally disabled on psychological grounds, he was unable to hold a job and was receiving disability pay. He lived, with a merchant seaman roommate, in a fourth-floor walk-up apartment located in San Francisco's Mission District. Sipple was active in local causes, including the historic political campaigns of openly gay City Council candidate Harvey Milk.

Sipple was part of a crowd of about 3,000 people who had gathered outside San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel to see President Ford on September 22, 1975.

Ford, just emerging from the building, was vulnerable despite heavy security protection. Sipple noticed a woman next to him had pulled and levelled a .38-caliber pistol as Ford headed to his limousine. Reacting instinctively, Sipple lunged at the woman, Sara Jane Moore, just as her finger squeezed the trigger. While the gun did go off, the impact was enough to deflect her aim and cause the bullet to veer five feet wide of its mark. Had it not been for Sipple's action, the bullet could have struck the president.

The media "outed" Sipple as gay - despite his pleas that they not do so. As a result, his mother and family disowned him for a time before reconciling before Sipple died. He died, alone, in his rented apartment in 1989. His most treasured possession was said to be the letter Gerald Ford sent him, thanking him for his actions on that day in 1975.