Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford (2009)

by Geri Spieler

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Winner of the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival Award (Wild Card category) "I'm not sorry I tried...if successful, the assassination...just might have triggered the kind of chaos that could have started the upheaval of change." --Sara Jane Moore in 1976 Journalist Geri Spieler met would-be assassin Sara Jane Moore while she was in prison;Taking Aim at the President is based on over two decades of interviews as well as independant research. Spieler follows Moore's actions from her childhood in a small West Virginia town to her release from prison in December 2007. Moore's life was never conventional, and along the way she entered and dropped out of the military, was married five times, and was both a political radical and an FBI informant. Focusing on the complex psychology and motivations of a quintessentially desperate housewife and the only woman toever fire a bullet at an American president, Spieler delivers a nuanced portrait of an elusive person and a fascinating glimpse back at a turbulent period in American history.… (more)

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Sara Jane Moore grew up in a "perfect" family; beneath the "perfection" were demanding, emotionally cold parents. Sara excelled in both academics and extra-curricular activities in school ; however, she was unfriendly and aloof. She had no friends. Sara left home, had a number of marriages and five children whom she abandoned; motherhood was not her strength. She aligned herself with radical groups--even they grew to distrust her. She attempted to shoot President Ford. In prison Sara helped form a Woman's Group and a chapter of NOW. Much of her prison life was spent in isolation for uncooperative behavior---She served 32 years behind bars.

Geri Spieler (an investigative journalist) has written an interesting character study of Sara Jane Moore with whom she conversed for twenty-eight years. (

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shsunon | Mar 1, 2012 |

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Original publication date

2009

People/Characters

Sara Jane Moore

Gerald Ford

Important places

San Francisco, California, USA

California, USA

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Epigraph

Dedication

To my loving husband, Rick Kaplowitz

First words

In September 1975, when I saw the photos of Sarah Jane Moore being driven off to jail after her attempt on the life of President Gerald R. Ford, like so many others, I found the idea that this snub-nosed, apple-cheeked, middle-class mom had fired a weapon at the president almost impossible to believe.

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Winner of the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival Award (Wild Card category) "I'm not sorry I tried...if successful, the assassination...just might have triggered the kind of chaos that could have started the upheaval of change." --Sara Jane Moore in 1976 Journalist Geri Spieler met would-be assassin Sara Jane Moore while she was in prison;Taking Aim at the President is based on over two decades of interviews as well as independant research. Spieler follows Moore's actions from her childhood in a small West Virginia town to her release from prison in December 2007. Moore's life was never conventional, and along the way she entered and dropped out of the military, was married five times, and was both a political radical and an FBI informant. Focusing on the complex psychology and motivations of a quintessentially desperate housewife and the only woman toever fire a bullet at an American president, Spieler delivers a nuanced portrait of an elusive person and a fascinating glimpse back at a turbulent period in American history.

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