On September 5, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford survives an attempt on his life in Sacramento, California.
The assailant, a petite, red haired, freckle-faced young woman named Lynette Fromme, approached the president while he was walking near the California Capitol and raised a .45 caliber handgun toward him. Secret Service agents tackled her and wrestled her to the ground a few seconds after.
Lynette Fromme, nicknamed “Squeaky,” was a member of the notorious Charles Manson family, a group of drug-addled groupies who followed cult leader Manson. Manson and other members of his “family” were convicted and sentenced to prison for murdering former actress Sharon Tate and others in 1969. Subsequently, Fromme and other female members of the cult started an order of “nuns” within a new group called the International People’s Court of Retribution. This group terrorized corporate executives who headed environmentally destructive businesses.
After Fromme’s assassination attempt, Ford stoically continued on to the Capitol to speak before the California legislature.
Seventeen days later, another woman, Sara Jane Moore, a mentally unstable accountant, tried to assassinate Ford while he was in San Francisco. Her attempt was thwarted by a bystander who instinctively grabbed Moore’s arm when she raised the gun. Although she fired one shot, it did not find its target. The bystander, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran named Oliver Sipple, was publicly thanked by Ford three days later.
Moore's reason for the assassination? She felt that Ford was appointed President, not elected, and that the person who appointed Ford wasn't fit to do so. Furthermore, her ideas were largely supported by the people around her, and she belonged to a group who expected a revolution.
The White House never announced it, but after the San Fransisco incident, Ford always wore a thin bulletproof vest in public.
The White House never announced it, but after the San Fransisco incident, Ford always wore a thin bulletproof vest in public.
These attempts on the President's life, although perpetrated by less stable members of American society, illustrate turbulent actions during turbulent times in American History.
I found your post to be informative yet concise, providing the important information in depth. It's interesting to think that Ford had two attempted assassinations on him, the second one being very close to being successful. I was intrigued to learn that both Moore and Fromme escaped prison, and was later transferred to a higher security facility (although Moore turned herself in after escaping).
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-ford-survives-second-assassination-attempt
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ReplyDeleteI think this blog post provided interesting information about the lesser known assassination attempts of Ford's lifetime. Fromme actually was one of the few members of the Manson cult who didn't denounce the leader after his arrest and instead moved to Sacramento to be closer to Manson in jail. She decided to assassinate him out of anger that he was thinking about relaxing parts of the clean air act and she feared it would hurt the redwood trees she loved. After her arrest and imprisonment, she was released in 2009 and lives in New York.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://allthatsinteresting.com/squeaky-fromme
This was a very interesting blog that brought up some of the lesser known assassination attempts on a president. I had never heard of this up until this point. What this demonstrates is that, as president, you will always have some people that hate with you a passion. I doubt any president has ever had 90-100% approval and it just goes to show that some people will try to take your life if they feel the need to.
ReplyDeleteThis blog sheds a lot of light over assassination attempts in the US and shows how far people would go in their hatred over someone. For Fromme, she was an activist for air, trees, and animals and was angry over the pollution that was happening and how Ford was not stopping anything. Fromme never actually chambered a round and so the gun did not go off even though Ford was an arms length from her.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford_assassination_attempt_in_Sacramento
This was a really interesting and informative blog post! I had no idea that Ford had multiple attempted assassinations, especially within such a short period of time of each other. After doing some more research on other presidential assassinations, I learned that there have been 21 assassination attempts in American history, 4 of which succeeded. To me, it is so shocking that a person can hate a president so much that they are willing to take their life.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots
This post if very interesting as I had not know before that there had been attempted murder on Ford even once. Oliver Sipple, who saved Ford the second time was actually very well know in the gay community. He had helped work on Harvey Milk's first attempt at winning a seat on the city's Board of Supervisors. When The San Francisco Chronicle broke the story of Sipple being gay, everything went downhill for him. His mother disowner him and he lost when trying to sue The San Francisco Chronicle for an invasion of privacy.
ReplyDeleteSource:
http://www.back2stonewall.com/2019/09/september-22-1975-oliver-sipple-gay-man-saved-president-fords-life.html