Oliver Sipple at the St. Francis
A veteran lunged for a gun, and within days his private life was in the papers.
Listen to this place’s story in Peplos.
How the story begins
Oliver Sipple had not told his family in Michigan that he was gay. Then he became a national hero, and the papers printed it. He was in the crowd across Post Street from this hotel on the twenty-second of September 1975, standing beside a woman with a revolver. Sara Jane Moore fired at President Ford, and Sipple lunged and grabbed her arm. The President was not hit. No one can be certain Sipple saved his life, a court later said, but the papers called him a hero, a disabled ex-Marine.
The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.
Visiting
Post Street side of the Westin St. Francis, Union Square. A working hotel; the story needs only the public sidewalk.
Sources
- Sipple v. Chronicle Publishing Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 1984)
- Sipple v. Des Moines Register and Tribune Co. (Cal. Ct. App. 1978)
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library: A Reluctant Hero
- Wikipedia: Oliver Sipple
- Wikipedia: Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in San Francisco
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