page_title: Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in Sacramento
section_title: Assassination attempt
hierarchical_section_title: Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in Sacramento / History / Assassination attempt
caption_attribution_description: English: Computer image generated using OpenStreetMap of California State Capitol Park area in Sacramento, California, edited to show locations of: 1. US President Gerald Ford's residence at Senator Hotel where he left at 10:02 am; 2. Squeaky Fromme's apartment at 1725 P Street; 3. Approximate location of Ford assassination attempt in Sacramento on September 5, 1975 at approximately 10:04 am; and 4. East entrance of the California state capitol building through which Ford entered at 10:06 am after the assignation attempt.
context_page_description: On September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of the so-called Manson Family cult, attempted to assassinate United States President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California. She wanted to make a statement to people who refused to halt environmental pollution and its effects on Air, Trees, Water, and Animals. Although Fromme stood a little more than an arm's length from Ford that Friday morning and pointed a M1911 pistol at him in the public grounds of the California State Capitol building, she had not chambered a round, the gun did not fire, and no one was injured. After the assassination attempt, Ford continued to walk to the California state house, where he met with California governor Jerry Brown. For her crime, Fromme spent 34 years in prison and was released on August 14, 2009 – two years and seven months after Ford's death. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, later received the M1911 pistol used in the assassination attempt as a gift, and the gun was put on display.
context_section_description: On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme dressed completely in red, "for the animals and earth colors", placed the Colt .45 pistol into a leg holster strapped to her left leg, and made her way from her apartment to the California state capitol grounds. The sky was clear and the weather prediction for Sacramento called for calm winds and a temperature around 84 °F (29 °C). At 9:26 a.m., Ford had returned to the Senator Hotel at 1121 L Street (38°34′39″N 121°29′31″W) from his two-hour speaking engagement at the Host Breakfast. From his suite at the Senator Hotel, Ford crossed L Street, also known as Lincoln Highway, at 10:02 a.m. into Capitol Park and began shaking hands with people who had gathered in a crowd on the park's pathway. Ford was making his way toward an entrance of the state capitol building.
  Ford had moved about 150 feet (46 m) from Lincoln Street along a Capitol Park paved walkway, saw "a woman in a brightly colored dress", and stopped approximately halfway to the state Capitol. People on either side of Ford wanted to shake hands with him and Ford assumed that the woman in red wanted to shake hands or talk. Twenty-six-year-old Fromme was positioned two feet (0.61 m) from Ford, behind the first row of the crowd, and reached into her flowing red robe, drawing the Colt .45 pistol from her leg holster. Fromme raised her right arm towards Ford, through the front row of people, and pointed the gun at a height between Ford's knees and his waist. From Ford's perspective, he noted, "... as I stopped, I saw a hand come through the crowd in the first row, and that was the first active gesture that I saw, but in the hand there was a gun".
  The pistol contained ammunition stored in a detachable magazine in the pistol's grip, but the gun did not include a round in the gun's chamber. At the time, Fromme was not aware that she needed to pull back the gun slide to insert a cartridge into the pistol's chamber. Five years later in 1980, from Federal Prison Camp, Alderson, Fromme claimed that she purposely ejected the top round from the pistol's magazine onto the floor of her P Street apartment, because she "was not determined to kill the guy".
  While Fromme pointed the gun at Ford, several people heard a "metallic click" sound. As the red-robed Fromme shouted, "It wouldn't go off", Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf grabbed the gun, forced it from Fromme's hand, and brought her to the ground. On the ground, Fromme said, "It didn't go off. Can you believe it? It didn't go off". One of the Secret Service agents shouted "get down, let's go". Secret Service agents then half-dragged Ford away from Fromme towards the east entrance of the Capitol, until Ford yelled in protest, "Put me down! Put me down!" Ford continued his walk to the California state house, entered, and then met with California governor Jerry Brown at 10:06 a.m. for 30 minutes without mentioning the assassination attempt until they were through talking business. Ford, who later indicated that he was not scared, concluded, "I thought I'd better get on with my day's schedule".
caption: Ford assassination attempt in Sacramento location map
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