The wire services are reporting that Sara Jane Moore - the woman who attempted to assassinate President Ford in September, 1975 - has been released from a federal prison in Dublin, California.
What few of the wire stories are saying - even today - is that the man who prevented that assassination was gay.
It was the second attempt on Gerald Ford's life in less than three weeks.
On September 5, 1975 a Secret Service agent had tackled Lynette ``Squeaky'' Fromme - a member of the Manson Family cult - at Capitol Park in Sacramento after she had aimed a gun (but not yet fired) at the President.
On September 22 President Ford appeared before an audience in front of San Francisco's St. Francis Hotel. One of the people in that audience was 33 year old former Marine and Vietnam veteran Oliver Sipple. Standing next to him with a concealed, loaded .38 pistol was radical and mother of four Sara Jane Moore.
She would say later that she was angry and that the thought of killing Ford seemed to her the best expression of that anger.
But when she raised her gun and aimed it at Ford Sipple grabbed her arm; the shot missed the President by only a few feet.
Sipple was lauded by local law enforcement and the Secret Service. But in the days that followed activist and then-aspiring politician Harvey Milk leaked the fact that Sipple was gay to San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen. Caen outed Sipple; the column was reprinted in a half-dozen newspapers.
Despite having likely prevented the injury or death of an American president Oliver Sipple was never invited to the White House, never honored by the Ford Administration. He received a polite letter of thanks, and a great deal of unwanted attention.
His mother - who had not known he was gay - disowned him. His mental health deteriorated. Sipple died an obese alcoholic in 1989. The letter from Ford was found in his small apartment; it was close to his most prized possession.
Gerald Ford is dead. The crazy old lady who tried to kill him is free.
And the man who saved his life is dead too, a victim not so much of outing but of homophobia.