September 1975 President Ford Just Couldn't Catch A Break

We all know about the two well publicized assassination attempts on President Ford's life in September 1975.  Squeaky Fromme and Sara Jane Moore made national headlines for months, then and in the intervening years.  Did you know that there were two other assassination scares for Ford that month?  I am not certain what prompted all of these attempted attacks on Ford, the Vietnam war had been declared over in April 1975.

Squeaky's arrest on September 5, 1975 kicked off the public's knowledge of the attempts.  Fromme was duly tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.  She was granted parole July 2008 but had to serve a little extra time for her 1987 prison escape.  On August 14, 2009 she was released on parole.

Coincidently there had been another assassination planned on the very same day as Squeaky's attempt.  Gary Steven DeSure, 32, and Preston Michael Mayo, 24, were arrested Aug. 26, 1975 in Santa Barbara CA for stealing a television from a motel.  The day after that arrest DeSure told investigating officers about the assassination plot.  DeSure was an escaped patient from a Warm Springs MT mental hospital.  He had been committed there due to threats made against the President during a court appearance for forgery and credit card theft the previous year.

DeSure and Mayo's plans were to place a bomb in the sewer system near where the President was to speak.  When the bomb went off and every one was distracted Mayo would fire the kill shot at the President.  On March 1, 1976 DeSure and Mayo were sentenced in federal court.  DeSure was given a five year sentence and a recommendation of psychiatric help.  Mayo was given a six year sentence to be served at the federal prison in Lompoc CA.

On September 22, 1975 along came Sara Jane Moore, who in front of the St.Francis Hotel in San Francisco actually fired off a shot at President Ford.  She, too, was duly tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.  Like Squeaky, Sara also chalked up one prison escape.  Sara and another woman, Marlene Martino, escaped from Alderson Federal Prison the evening of February 5, 1979.  They were captured while hitchhiking a few hours after the escape.

On December 31, 2007 Sara Jane Moore was released from prison on parole.  She was 77 years old.

The assassination attempt of DeSure and Mayo did merit a couple of newspaper stories and it's probably not entirely foreign to the hard core Manson researchers.   This next story, however, did not generate any newspaper stories that I could find.  I was looking through declassified documents at the National Archives website when I found it. 

This document says that the release of Charles Manson from prison was the purpose for the assassination of not only Ford but also Emperor Hirohito who, along with his wife, was visiting in the United States and scheduled to attend a state dinner with President and Mrs. Ford on October 2, 1975.  The information was gathered by Canadian authorities on September 30, 1975 and disseminated to US authorities the next day.

That Charles Manson likes his ZuZu's

How ironic is it that Sara Jane Moore, who attempted to assassinate President Ford 22 days after Squeaky made her attempt, and Charles Manson lived in the same town growing up and frequented the same candy store?  This ought to set the conspiracy theorists atwitter.  I've read a few theories related to Sara Jane and the Family women but none that directly involved Charlie.

Also, the candy man was named Watson!  oo-ee-oo 

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Corbin Daily Tribune
Corbin KY
Sept. 25, 1975

Manson, Sara Have Same Hometown

Charleston W.Va (AP) Sara Jane Kahn and Charles Manson bought a lot of candy from Van Watson when they were children.

"Sara Jane was a serious pupil but Manson liked to play a little bit of hooky," says Watson.  Sara Jane, now Sara Jane Moore, is in jail for trying to kill President Ford.  Manson is serving life in prison for the 1969 murder of actress Sharon Tate and six others.  And, one of Manson's followers, Lynette Fromme , also is charged with trying to kill the president, in a separate incident.

"Kathleen Manson, Charles' mother, was a clerk in my store for three or four months," Watson said in an interview Monday.  Charles was about 9 or 10 years old then, around 1942.  He was an ordinary boy, nothing outstanding, I sold him a lot of candy.   He'd come in two or three times a day, whenever he got a penny."

Watson said he was shocked to learn that Sara Jane Kahn was the person accused of shooting at the president.  "I knew her from childhood," he said.  "She came into the store to buy candy on her way to school.  She was a loner- almost always by herself.  She never had much to say about anything.  She always had a couple of books under her arm and seemed to take school seriously."

The Kahn's lived in a big log house up Woodward Dr. from his store and the Manson's lived in a house across the street from his store.  "I was very much surprised the way those two turned out," Watson said.  "Charles wasn't much good at going to school- he liked to play a little bit of hooky.  But I expected Sara Jane to grow up and become somebody with a good education and a responsible position in life.  I never dreamed she would be somebody who'd try to kill the President."

It is not known whether Manson and Sara Jane Kahn knew each other while living here.