Michigan's only president, Gerald Ford, faced 2 assassination attempts, 17 days apart in 1975
(CBS DETROIT) — Authorities continue to investigate the apparent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, but the events of the last few months find echoes in American history, including a pair of events detailed at the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor.
Gerald Ford, a Michigan native, had two assassination attempts on him in just 17 days. The first happened on Sept. 5, 1975. Ford was in Sacramento to meet with then-Governor Jerry Brown. He was walking from his hotel room to meet the governor when the Secret Service stopped a woman in a red dress who pulled a gun on Ford after he stopped to greet a crowd.
"The assassin was tried and convicted, and her name was Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, and she was a member of the Charles Manson family," says supervisory curator of the Gerald R. Ford. Library and Museum, Dr. Mirelle Luecke.
She says the museum in Grand Rapids is home to the gun Fromme used in the attempt. (You can see it in the video above.)
"The second assassination attempt happened on Sept. 22, 1975. So, just 17 days later, he was out in California again, this time to speak at an annual convention at the AFL-CIO," said Luecke. "The assassin, Sara Jane Moore, came up to him as he was exiting the hotel and getting ready to get in the limousine, and at that time, she fired a shot. It hit about 5 inches away from him. It hit the door of the hotel, and just as she was getting ready to fire a second shot, a bystander, Oliver Sipple, was able to grab her hand and move it. So instead of hitting Ford, it hit a bystander, and the bystander made a full recovery."
Following both attempts, a bulletproof trench coat was given to Ford the following month, in October 1975.
"Ford talked about, you know, he understood it was really important to wear this vest, and he felt really obligated to do so, but he disliked wearing it because it was hot and heavy; it weighed over six pounds," Luecke added.
Like the handgun, the Kevlar trench coat is on display at the museum — two artifacts surrounding the attempted assassination of the only president in U.S. history hailing from Michigan.