Sara Jane Moore, who fired a handgun at US President Gerald Ford in an attempted assassination outside a San Francisco hotel in 1975, has died, according to US media.
Moore, who was sentenced to life in prison but was freed on parole in her final years, was 95.
Her attack came just days after Ford, a Republican, was targeted in an unrelated murder plot by associates of cult leader Charles Manson, but Ford was not injured in Moore's attack.
She stated that her attack was intended to spark an American revolution, and her death comes amid renewed attention to presidential security following two attempts on President Donald Trump's life.
On September 22, 1975, Moore fired a .38-caliber revolver she had purchased hours earlier at Ford but missed. A former US Marine standing nearby subdued her, forcing her to miss her second shot.
Moore had been arrested a day prior after a security official spotted her carrying a gun at the crowd gathered for Ford. Her initial firearm was confiscated, leading her to buy another gun.
The mother-of-four from California pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison, serving 32 years before her release on parole. Her attack on Ford occurred just 17 days after Manson follower Lynette Squeaky Fromme attempted to shoot the president but was apprehended before firing.
Moore's death comes just days after the 50th anniversary of her failed assassination attempt. In a 2009 NBC News interview, she explained her radicalization during the social upheaval of the 1960s and 70s, believing that a violent revolution was necessary for change.
Investigators determined she had no ties to revolutionary groups and found her legally sane. Moore's case is highlighted as contemporary discussions on presidential security resurface, especially following recent threats against political figures.
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