RIP Current Podcast Premieres: Two Women Who Tried To Kill President Ford

  iHeartPodcasts has announced the debut of Rip Current, a new podcast series about the only two times in nearly 250 years of U.S. history that a woman has tried to assassinate the sitting president – and the attempts happened 17 days apart in September 1975.

The first attempt was by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a protégé of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. She pulled a gun on Ford as he walked to the state capital building in Sacramento, CA, but hadn’t chambered a bullet and the gun did not fire. 

17 days later, Sara Jane Moore, a middle-aged housewife, aspiring radical and undercover FBI informant, shot at Ford as he emerged from the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, but missed and was wrestled to the ground by a bystander.  Fromme and Moore had never met.

Sara Jane Moore had been evaluated by the Secret Service earlier in 1975, but agents had concluded that she posed no danger to the president. The 45-year-old was detained by police on an illegal handgun charge the day before the assassination attempt, but was released. The police confiscated her .44-caliber Charter Arms Bulldog revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition.  Moore pleaded guilty to charges of attempted assassination on December 12, 1975. The following month, on January 15, 1976, she was sentenced to life in prison. On December 31, 2007, at the age of 77, Moore was released on parole.

Oliver Sipple was commended at the scene by Secret Service and the San Francisco Police for his actions;the media portrayed him as a national hero. However, all the media publicity about him was not without controversy, however. Upon realizing that Sipple was gay, the media began broadcasting this information. After learning about his sexual orientation, much of his family, including his parents, disowned him, and were subsequently estranged from him, but later were reconciled. Sipple died in 1989.

 This season of “Rip Current” examines how these two women were caught up in the furthest reaches of the radical movements that had emerged from the ‘60s. It asks: What caused them to take to try to kill the president? Why President Gerald Ford? Why California? Why 1975? Why this time and these places? The new series will provide a nuanced look at the tumultuous political climate at the time, their motives and the impact of these random acts of violence.

 In telling their stories, the season will also explore:

 • The Manson cult and what happened after Charles Manson was imprisoned for life;

• California’s radical prison movement;

• The violent radical underground in San Francisco and the Bay Area;

• The kidnapping of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

  Rip Current is hosted by Toby Ball, the creator and host of iHeartPodcasts’ “Strange Arrivals,” a look at the psychological, social and scientific issues UFOs and exterritorial lore. He is also a panelist on “Crime Writers On...The Original True Crime Review,” and the author of the critically acclaimed crime novels “The Vaults,” “Scorch City” and “Invisible Streets.”

The first episode of “Rip Current” is available, with new episodes every Thursday.