Oliver Sipple

June 5, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In September 1975, a middle-aged woman named Sarah Jane Moore woke up early, dropped her nine-year-old off at school, ran some errands, then drove to San Francisco’s St. Francis Hotel. She joined a crowd of a few thousand people waiting to see President Gerald Ford. Dressed in slacks and a coat, carrying a purse, she stood for hours as crowd pressure pushed her toward the front. When Ford emerged and waved, she reached into her purse, pulled out a .38 caliber revolver, cocked it, and fired at his head. The bullet flew a few feet to Ford’s right and chipped the wall behind him. Before she could take a second shot, a blonde man behind her lunged forward, grabbed her gun arm, and pulled it down. Police tackled her and took her away. The president was whisked into his limousine. Sarah Jane Moore served 32 years in prison.

The man who grabbed her arm was Oliver Sipple, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran. He was a muscular, handsome man with something of a James Dean quality—all-American in appearance. But what happened to Sipple after that single moment of heroism became the real story, and it destroyed his life.

The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One

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What you'll learn

1 (00:01) **The Setup: An Attempted Crime** - Latif introduces a story about a brazen crime that failed because one random guy stopped it, changing the world for only that one guy.
2 (01:27) **Sarah Jane Moore's Day** - Sarah Jane Moore describes the morning of September 22, 1975, in San Francisco, leading up to her attempt on President Gerald Ford's life.
3 (04:09) **The Assassination Attempt** - President Ford emerges, Sarah Jane Moore fires a shot, but a random man grabs her arm and deflects the gun.
4 (06:33) **Introducing Oliver Sipple** - The focus shifts to the blonde man who saved the President's life, and the story reveals that he paid dearly for that act.
5 (09:31) **A Reluctant Hero** - Sipple becomes a national hero overnight despite his attempts to avoid the spotlight.
6 (10:55) **The Outing Begins** - A San Francisco columnist receives tips that the hero, Oliver Sipple, is gay.
7 (16:37) **Harvey Milk's Opportunity** - Harvey Milk sees Sipple's heroism as a chance to break negative gay stereotypes and decides to out him.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United States. In a story we reported back in 2017, we explain how in the days that followed, Sipple’s split-second act of heroism turned into a rationale for making his personal life into political opportunity. What happens next makes us wonder what a moment, or a movement, or a whole society can demand of one person. And how much is too much?

Through newly unearthed archival tape, we hear Sipple himself grapple with some of the most vexing topics of his day and ours - privacy, identity, the freedom of the press - not to mention the bonds of family and friendship.

Special thanks to Jerry Pritikin, Michael Yamashita, Stan Smith, Duffy Jennings; Ann Dolan, Megan Filly and Ginale Harris at the Superior Court of San Francisco; Leah Gracik, Karyn Hunt, Jesse Hamlin, The San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive, Mike Amico, Jennifer Vanasco and Joey Plaster.

EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Reported by Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte
Produced by - Produced by Matt Kielty, Annie McEwen, Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte.

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