Freed Would-Be Ford Assassin: 'It Was Wrong'

She thought it would spark revolution

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted May 28, 2009 11:50 AM CDT

(Newser) – The woman who attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975 says she was “misled” and “mistaken” to do so. “I really thought that it would trigger a new revolution,” Sara Jane Moore told NBC today after serving 32 years in prison. “I think I made a serious error. I had to learn later that everyone else didn't feel that way.”

“One gets tired of being thought of as a kook, a monster, an alien. I’m a human being,” adds Moore, now 80 and planning to write a book. The suburban-mom-turned-leftist-activist is the only woman to have ever fired at a president. She shot at and missed Ford’s head during a San Francisco motorcade before being wrestled to the ground by a bystander.

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Moore is interviewed by NBC "Today" co-host Matt Lauer in New York earlier today. (AP Photo)

Sara Jane Moore, the woman who fired a gun at President Gerald Ford in 1975 and spent the next 32 years in prison, is interviewed on the NBC "Today" show in New York earlier today. (AP Photo)

Sara Jane Moore is pictured on her way to federal court in San Francisco in this 1975 file photo. (AP Photo)

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People are kind. The reins are as loose as they can make them. - Sara Jane Moore, on parole

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Freed Would-Be Ford Assassin: 'It Was Wrong'