Assassination Attempts on President Ford, 1975.

Gerald Ford became the first US president to have not been elected either President or Vice President. Ford inherited a nation disheartened by the Watergate scandal, still in the waning throes of the War in Vietnam and the fall of Saigon, and confronting difficult issues both at home and abroad. And in September, 1975, he would face the barrel of a gun, not once, but twice.

Check out our new shop for fun The History Guy merchandise:

This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.

You can purchase the bow tie worn in this episode at The Tie Bar:

All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.

Find The History Guy at:

The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered is the place to find short snippets of forgotten history from five to fifteen minutes long. If you like history too, this is the channel for you.

Awesome The History Guy merchandise is available at:

Script by THG

#history #thehistoryguy #USHistory

[ericwalstrand]

I always thought it was odd he was a victim of assassination attempts, because he was probably the most innocuous and least controversial presidents

[Morpheus]

President Ford came to our school one day that very day one of the crazy girls at school brought a gun. Never saw her again ever.

[savethelighthouse]

In 1975 I was enlisted in the US Coast Guard and assigned to a rescue station in San Fansico Bay. We were put on alert both times and heightened security at all of our installations. At the time it was thought these random attacks on the government were a part of a larger conspiracy, particularly in California in the wake of the Vietnam War. The Patty Hearst kidnapping and hold-up spree was also going on and the Weathmen had been involved in a bombing at the San Francisco courthouse.

[QueenOfTheNorth]

I remember the attempt on Ford’s life by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. I was 10 years old.

[nattiedraws]

Also, a bit of forgotten history you didn't touch upon was that of Gerald's hero Oliver Sipple. He saved the President's life, but a few weeks after the event the media found out Sipple was gay and went forward to ruin his life, made his family become estranged from him and much more. He died a broken man mentally and physically after all the hell he went through due to the media tearing his life apart. A hero we should be honoring and respecting had his life ruined because the media found out he was gay. That is some forgotten history that should be remembered.

[michaelmcchesney]

During my third year of law school, I worked for the Alderson Legal Assistance Program, a legal clinic assisting inmates at the Alderson Federal Prison Camp for Women. When I was there in the 1990s, Alderson was a minimum security facility. The fence didn't even completely encircle the camp. But Alderson had previously also had a medium security facility. Sara Jane Moore and Squeaky Fromme were at Alderson together from 1979 until Fromme's escape in 1987. Our clinic had a secretary who had previously worked at the prison. She told us that Moore and Fromme became friends and were constantly together, at least until Fromme escaped. It took authorities 2 days to recapture Fromme. She was then sent to a prison in Kentucky. It only took authorities 3 hours to recapture Moore after her 1979 escape, which might be why she wasn't transferred. The professor who headed up the clinic, Andrew “Uncas” McThenia, had grown up in the town of Alderson. He told us that when he was a kid if you captured and brought back a woman that had escaped, the prison would give you a free Turkey. To the best of my knowledge, Turkey's were no longer being given out by the time Moore escaped, much less Fromme.

[Torby]

Fun to see you telling stories that I remember. I turned 18 in '76.

[DavidJWold]

My family and I lived near SF. My dad loved garage sales, and had made some casual friendships with other garage sale regulars. One guy, (I've decided to withhold his name), bought and sold guns. My dad made a trade with him, an old Afghan flintlock pistol he'd acquired while in the middle east while in the Marine Corps in the 1950s, for a more modern semi-auto .22 pistol. My dad taught me to shoot with that .22. A little later, after the assassination attempts, we found out that this guy had sold another pistol, the one used in the assassination attempt, to Sarah Jane Moore. He was seriously investigated, but was not charged, since he was properly licensed, and it had been a legal transaction.

[maryd]

I liked President Ford. He was handed multiple difficult situations. While he might not have been a great president, i think he was a nice person, one of the most "regular, normal" personal lives and families, who could relate to us. RIP.

[rabbi]

Gov Brown wasn't dating "a rock-and-roll singer." He was dating Linda Ronstadt!

[pdennis]

"Well you voted for him Red"
"Kitty, nobody voted for him." - that 70s show

[cjc]

I was 9-10 years old during the Ford administration. Few things I remember: 1) He pardoned Nixon, 2) the assassination attempts, 3) He tended to trip a lot and 4) Whip Inflation Now (WIN) lapel pins that became a big national joke. And Chevy Chase's Ford impressions on SNL.

[chrisjones]

Listening to the History Guy during breakfast is better than coffee.

[loose-arrow-garage]

The most controversial thing President Ford ever did was to pardon Richard Nixon. I'm sure this contributed greatly to his losing the election.

[debbralehrman]

That's so funny I just was telling my 42year old son about Squeaky Fromme. He is pretty good on history and politics. So I was surprised he had not heard the name. Of course I hadn't said or thought of that name
in decades. So you are right History That Deserves To Be Remembered. 👍🏼🌹

[charlayned]

I was just out of high school in September 1975, I remember those attempts.

A couple years later, Ford would be stumping for election and came through Canyon Texas and had a rally at West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M). I was there, in the band, and we were going to be playing for him in the field house where he was speaking. This is when I learned all about how the Secret Service did things in an advance sweep. From backgrounds on us to teaching us the "right way" to play the National Anthem and Hail to the Chief, to the inspections of us and our instruments on the day as we filed into the building, I don't think I got a more thorough exam by TSA. They had snipers on all the roofs nearby, closed down US-87 through town because it went right past the building. I saw him flying in on Air Force One as I was driving down to do the appearance. I had noticed that there were local police on every overpass all the way down and I saw later they did that for the entire 30 miles from the airport to the campus. (this whole thing was a huge difference with what happened this past July....)

Ford's speech was okay, a regular stump thing. I don't remember much of it, but I still, at 67, remember the Secret Service for the event very vividly.

[ssoos]

Love the Children of the corn reference, lol

[MarianneKat]

One very nice thing to remember about Ford is that, when he was attending and playing football at U of M, he refused to play the southern team as they required U of M to sit their black player Willis Ward.

[michaeldunne]

According to NY Times article from that time, Sara Jane Moore was a paid FBI informant at some point: "At the same time, said Miss Moore, she became an informant for the F.B.I. A bureau spokes, man confirmed this today, but he said her affiliation was terminated last June. She continued to volunteer information, he said."
- source, from "Accused Ford Assailant Has Led a Tangled Life" which published on Sept. 24, 1975

[dfgyuhdd]

That's a lot of assassination attempts.