After more than three decades in prison for a foiled attempt to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford, Sara Jane Moore was released on parole Monday.
Although Moore had been given a life sentence in the 1975 attempt on Ford’s life outside a hotel in downtown San Francisco, she had been eligible for parole for some time.
She shot at Ford because she thought he and his government had declared war on the left. Can’t wait to see how she reacts when she catches up on the news of the past 7 years!
myiq2xu
I guess they figured she wouldn’t try again.
Laertes
It’s difficult to imagine that anyone ever cared enough about Gerald Ford to take a shot at him.
ThymeZone
She shot at that nice man?
Everything comes full circle.
myiq2xu
Sara Jane was the 2nd one in a month – Squeaky Fromme tried first.
Nobody tried to kill G-Dub, probably because the whackos are his #1 fans
mellowjohn
whack ford, get rockefeller (at least for a while).
whack geedub, get darth cheney.
i think that’s the biggest difference.
Jake
Not sure where you get this. From what I’m reading this woman was full bore crazy and just listening to the voices in her head.
I thought this rather sad:
A hypothetical person should kick hypothetical leader John “Intolerable Risk” McCainiac in his wholly theoretical junk.
ThymeZone
Sharpened.
myiq2xu
If I had that problem I wouldn’t have been shooting at someone else.
s/ The Notorious myiq2xu
trollhattan
Nuts yes, but she also hooked up with the SLA as part of the Hearst food giveaway while they had Patty/Tanya, so at least at that point of her life was involved in/influenced by radical politics. Squeaky, of course, was a Manson Family leftover so was undoubtedly under the influence of the White Album.
Ah, those were the days. Calif was so much more…interesting.
The Secret Service had relieved Moore of a pistol earlier in the day so she bought another one across the street from the hotel. Handy! I imagine Insty gets an Instywoody thinking of these golden times, when any loony could exercize her/his right to bla, bla, bla Columbine mew, mew, mew Virginia Tech.
myiq2xu
It still is, you just have to know where to go. (wink, wink)
s/The Notorious myiq2xu
bob
Ford pardoned the undeniably criminal Nixon. According to the constitution, matters of impeachment are not subject to pardon. Nixon needed to be impeached formally. He needed to be tried. Now look at what has happened with the unitary executive theory. Could dictator be the correct word? So, who’s the bigger criminal, Sarah Jane Moore or Gerald Ford? I’m not sayin’ anything, just sayin’.
Dug Jay
I understand that Ms. Moore is being resettled to the greater Phoenix area, so watch yourself, ThymeZone. The voices that she still hears intermittently in her head have told her to “go after” the most profane and flatulent person she can find…and a lot of folks have tossed out your name as a logical candidate.
Bruce Moomaw
While we’re on the subject, let’s not forget that Arthur Bremer also got paroled recently — after a press interview in which he moaned about the fact that “the younger inmates don’t even know who I am.” This, you’ll recall, was the sole reason he decided to shoot Wallace (after being unable to get close enough to Nixon or McGovern). It would be very wise to keep a sharp eye on both of them — but especially Bremer, who at least has the virtue of being a wholly NONPARTISAN would-be murderer.
As for Bob: knock it off. Notwithstanding how repulsive and/or criminal a certain leader may be (and I agree that pardoning Nixon was a major catastrophe for the American system of justice), assassinating him in a democracy sets, shall we delicately say, a highly undesirable precedent.
myiq2xu
If somebody even took a potshot at G-Dub, the Wingnuts would figure it was open season on the next President.
Helena Montana
My God, she’s SEVENTY-SEVEN. Do you have any idea how old that makes me feel?
Bob In Pacifica
The Symbionese Liberation Army was a CIA psyop. A black power communist group with so few blacks they had to get their members to paint their faces black to kill someone. Please.
Dug Jay
I knew there were so-called “truthers” relative to what happened on 9/11/01, but until Bob posted this, I hadn’t realized the movement of kooks and loopy fruits ran to the SLA, as well. Certainly there were relatively few blacks among SLA membership, but whether black, white or brown, they were an early form of murdering terrorists, with a number of murder convictions among their ranks.
Psycheout
Laziest blogger on the planet.
Danny Vice
Almost one year to the day since the passing of Former United States President Gerald Ford, the liberal activist who tried to kill him walks free.
Most people believe that attempting to assassinate a US President should and normally does result in a life in prison for the would – be assassin. Sara Jane Moore is proof that they are wrong. What’s more, her prison record is dotted with conduct violations and an attempted escape in 1978.
Another interesting detail of this case is that Sara Jane Moore was successful at convincing a federal judge to block a prison warden from taking away an inmate’s cell keys back in the summer of 2000.
So why would would a federal prison’s parole board free Sara Jane Moore?
Inmates with life sentences can petition for parole after a staggeringly brief 10 years. This makes it possible to receive a life sentence and be walking the street again in little more than a two-term Presidency.
Presidential assassins can take shots at elected officials, skip two elections and be back in business for more political activism just in time to pop a new President if a parole board so desires.
Moore was released under a federal law that makes parole mandatory for inmates who have served at least 30 years of a life sentence without getting into trouble, according to Thomas Hutchison, chief of staff of the U.S. Parole Commission.
Never-minding the fact that Moore’s conduct was not without incidence during her incarceration, the real outrage is that our own laws mandate the release of such prisoners in just three decades. This is good news for the John Hinckley Jr’s in our prison system, and the future activists who feel like changing the course of history.
Now Listen To This….
Michigan’s second-highest court says that anyone involved in an extramarital fling can be prosecuted for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony offense where Life in prison is within the mandatory sentencing guidelines for that state.
That’s right folks, our laws have become so politically and legally skewed that attempting to blow away a US President is nearly on par in the eyes of the law as an ordinary drunken fling. It’s quite an outlandish thought considering many of our own Presidents have been caught up in extramarital affairs.
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com
Birdzilla
I read that when they asked LYNET(SQUEAKY)FROME was asked why she tried to assaninate GERALD FORD she said I DID IT FOR THE TREES yep CHARLES MANSON was a big time eco-freak just like the UNIBOMBER
Jon Stewart
Sarah Jane Moore and her son Frederick lived on Guererro St.in the Mission in 1975.
I lived on Dorland St. an alley right off Guererro.
Myself and some of my friends used to play with Frederick.
I was in her house with her son many times.
He was a normal happy kid it seemed to me.
Her house was normal except for all the political books and newspapers I remember seeing in the living room.
After her arrest I only saw Frederick one more time a year later in West Portal.
He was getting onto a street car and didn’t want to talk to me. He told me his name was Jonathon and that he didn’t know what I was talking about.
Wierd. Somebody must have told him to say that.
I never saw him again.
I wonder what ever became of him?
Does anyone know?
-Jon
Random Guy
There’s no doubt that Sara Jane Moore was involved with the SLA. But the truth behind what really took place in the months preceding the attempted assassination has yet to be fully revealed.
It was a messed up time – there were a lot of radical groups doing a lot of radical things. When Ford pardoned Nixon of his crimes (after Nixon appointed him as President) – people were pissed. I’m not saying it’s a reason to take a shot at Ford, but again… it was a radical time.
SJM is not crazy. She is often grouped in with the Manson Family (because Squeaky tried to kill Ford 17 days earlier), but she had no affiliation with that group. She has been working as an accountant while in prison. She has spent the last 32 years in a 7’ by 9’ cell (recently sharing it with three other women). She was paroled because she has done her time for the crime.
Let’s remember, Hinckley wounded press secretary James Brady (shot him in the head), police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. A bullet even bounced off the bullet proof window of the car and hit Reagan (his intended victim) in the chest. Hinckley gets out for family visits and day trips.
As for Oliver Sipple’s life being ruined. It wasn’t SJM that did that, it was the Whitehouse that was considering giving Mr. Sipple a medal for his bravery and decided that being gay was a disqualifying condition.
Sara Jane just wants to live out her life quietly.