Speaker 1: Hey, this is Toby. Thanks for listening to Strange Arrivals.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you about my new podcast. It's
Speaker 1: not about UFOs or anything paranormal. It's about a mostly
Speaker 1: forgotten episode in American history. It's called Rip Current. Here's
Speaker 1: the trailer. I hope you like it. This summer, a
Speaker 1: lone gunman on a rooftop reminded us that American presidents
Speaker 1: have long been the targets of assassins. Nearly fifty years ago,
Speaker 1: President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in
Speaker 1: less than three weeks. September fifth, nineteen seventy five, Sacramento, California.
Speaker 1: In a crowd outside the Capitol Building, a woman pulls
Speaker 1: a gun on President Ford.
Speaker 2: President Gerald R.
Speaker 1: Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin. Today,
Speaker 1: a woman dressed in a long red skirt a forty
Speaker 1: five caliber pistol at the President. And I saw a
Speaker 1: woman start to go down and her arm go back,
Speaker 1: and I saw the gun.
Speaker 2: September twenty second, San Francisco, on the steps of the
Speaker 2: Saint Francis Hotel, another woman tries to kill the president.
Speaker 1: Woman fired a shot at President Ford in San Francisco
Speaker 1: this afternoon. She was right at the front of the
Speaker 1: robe and forty feet away.
Speaker 2: When he walked out.
Speaker 1: President waved to the crowds, and they had cheered him,
Speaker 1: and that's when it happened. I yelled the she's got
Speaker 1: a gun. In two hundred and fifty years of US history,
Speaker 1: these are the only two times we know of that
Speaker 1: a woman has tried to assassinate a sitting president.
Speaker 2: The two events were separated by seventeen days, in less
Speaker 2: than ninety miles, and the two assassins had never met.
Speaker 1: One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson.
Speaker 1: She is twenty six year old Lynette Alas from nicknames Squeaking.
Speaker 2: I always felt like Glynnette was kind of his right
Speaker 2: hand woman, a.
Speaker 1: Good pertain a very good person. The other a middle
Speaker 1: aged housewife, an aspiring radical rookie undercover for the FBI
Speaker 1: in the violent Revolutionary Underground, identified by police Sarah Jane
Speaker 1: Moore in her courties. Because she didn't look like a radical,
Speaker 1: she could enter into.
Speaker 2: These areas that other people couldn't.
Speaker 1: A spy. Basically, I was the person in the intent
Speaker 1: was exactly as I stated in court to walthiy and
Speaker 1: know any assassinate Gerald offer the pression of the United States.
Speaker 2: This season on the podcast Rip Current, we ask why
Speaker 2: these women? She was a gentle quiet I thought he's
Speaker 2: loving girl. Why did they want to kill President Ford being.
Speaker 1: The appointee of President Nixon. It's understandable to me that
Speaker 1: in their minds is also be the object of their hatred.
Speaker 2: And why this time this place. One does not have
Speaker 2: to condone everything in hate Ashbury to know that it exists.
Speaker 1: Back then, there were lots of communes, there were lots
Speaker 1: of guru varieties.
Speaker 2: Manson told his followers that this would be a blood
Speaker 2: bath in the streets of every American city.
Speaker 1: What starts as a hippie love called transmographied into a
Speaker 1: violent criminal enterprise. Five persons, including actress Sharon Tape, were
Speaker 1: found dead.
Speaker 2: And realize that we're dealing with very violent underground groups,
Speaker 2: our corporate enemies, so that people will be shut on
Speaker 2: at any.
Speaker 1: Time and at any play.
Speaker 2: The goals were anarchy, a lot of anarchy. The revolutionary
Speaker 2: groups would get their power the bloodiest and most massive
Speaker 2: gun battle in the history of Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Random violence, political violence.
Speaker 2: There was just no let up. As to the fascist insect,
Speaker 2: the praise upon the life of the people.
Speaker 1: These people aren't just a bunch of Look, they're perfectly
Speaker 1: willing to die for what they're doing. Someplace else that
Speaker 1: would have been like a big deal, but not in California.
Speaker 1: The story of one strange and violent summer this season
Speaker 1: on Rip Current.
Speaker 2: Listen to Rip Current September fifth, on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.