Just over 30 years ago, one American woman nearly brought the country to its knees.

In 1975, Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at President Gerald Ford, and barely missed. The first woman to ever fire a bullet at an American President, Sara Jane had built a life for herself that is both profoundly disquieting and complicated. Released from prison in December of 2007, Sara Jane is now a free member of society again, but to the general public she’s still as much of a mystery as she was the day her name became front page news. In journalist Geri Spieler’s new book, TAKING AIM AT THE PRESIDENT [Palgrave Macmillan/ PUB DATE: Jan 12th, 2009/ Hardcover/ 0-230-61023-4], the woman the American public could only wonder about for the last 33 years, Sara Jane Moore, is finally revealed.

This is far from a typical biography. Spieler’s relationship with Sara Jane spanned an incredible three decades, beginning when Sara Jane requested to meet Spieler in prison after reading an article of hers in a local paper. From that point on, Spieler corresponded with and made regular visits to Sara Jane, gaining unprecedented personal access to a mind that is rife with ambiguity, cunning and a chilling ability to manipulate.

Spieler’s one-on-one experiences as Sara Jane’s confidante, combined with years of independent research, deliver an intimate psychological portrait of a housewife turned would-be assassin, at the same time granting readers a rich snapshot of the 1960-70s, one of America’s most turbulent eras of cultural and political awakening.