The B**ch Has Got A Gun: Oliver Sipple

It's Wicked Gay's fifth season premiere. And because it's Pride Month, this is an episode of Wicked GOOD Gay! Meet Oliver Sipple, one of the reasons why President Gerald Ford lived to pratfall another day. Things didn't end so well for Oliver, though. 

In other news, Wicked Gay has a Patreon now! Subscribe now to receive a bonus episode of Wicked Gay every month! https://patreon.com/WICKEDGAY

Transcript

February 2, 1989, San Francisco, CA

An apartment slightly outside of the city’s infamous Tenderloin district. A man named Wayne quietly enters; he’s making a welfare check on a friend of his whom he hasn’t heard from in quite some time. A friend named Oliver. Oliver has been down on his luck for too many years now; he’s a disabled veteran, an ex-marine with substance abuse and mental health issues. Issues that he’s always felt the media are partially to blame for. Wayne notices an awful smell as he makes his way through the cramped, threadbare apartment. The worst has come to pass. Wayne finds his friend Oliver dead, a Jack Daniels bottle by his side, and his blaring TV as his only companion in death. Judging by the condition of his body, it’s been more than a few days. Later, his friends will go through his things. They will find numerous newspaper and magazine clippings about Oliver and a particular event in his life. Most impressively, they will find a letter. It reads:

“I want you to know how much I appreciated your selfless actions last Monday. The events were a shock to us all, but you acted quickly and without fear for your own safety. By doing so, you helped to avert danger to me and to others in the crowd. You have my heartfelt appreciation.

It was on White House stationary and signed President General Ford.

Happy Pride Month - you’re listening to Wicked Good Gay, a true-crime podcast about gay people doing amazing incredible historic heroic things.

Hello! And welcome to the fifth season premiere of Wicked Gay! That’s right - five seasons! Seriously, I’m a depressed, anxiety disordered ne’er do well writer who can’t even finish a short story, but somehow I ‘ve made it to five seasons of this shit. Go me. And because Wicked Gay’s newest season is beginning during Pride Month, I’m opening with an edition of Wicked Good Gay - that’s where, instead of spotlighting the heinous deeds of a queer-centric creep, I’m celebrating the accomplishments of a heroic one. 

But first, an announcement! Wicked Gay has a Patreon!  It’s true. I can’t tell you the internal struggle I had with myself with this Patreon business, but someone pointed out to be that it’s a solid way for my listeners to support the show and encourage me to keep going with it. Plus - there’s two tiers - there’s like the thank you tier and wow boy howdy am I grateful and I will shout ou you and lavish praise on you and there’s the oh wow, thank you thank you tier - that second tier, the main tier gets you even more Wicked Gay. Subscribers will get access to a free BONUS episode of Wicked Gay every month. I’m calling that Wicked Gay + version if you will The Tally and I’m going to kinda broaden the storytelling horizons with queer-centric stories that don’t just feature the bad guy being gay. That might sorta bleed out onto OG Wicked Gay too because there’s stories I want to tell that don’t necessarily fit the niche I’ve carved for myself out here with the evil gays. Anyway, Wicked Gay’s Patreon link will be in the show notes of any podcatcher I can shove em’ onto and you can also search for Wicked Gay on Patreon. I’m also going to be putting some bonus content on there for episodes I;ve already done - quick little hits with stories and updates about my subjects that I couldn’t fit in the original eps. I’m also debating doing some more pop culture-y things that tickle my fancy and what the fuck does that phrase even me, it sounds gross. Anyway, fun stuff on Patreon if you;re into it. 

And never fear, this queer here will alwyas make sure Wicked Gay the original will be free of charge for you ever an dafter amen. I promise. 

And one more thing - before we begin. It’s Pride Month, and we need Pride Month more than ever because our community, and especially certain stripes in our flag, are under siege like we haven’t seen in a long time. Haters are with the hate, and legislating against  and even suggesting the eradication of trans people. He did use that word right, the asshole? Hmm, these actions might seem chillingly familiar to anyone Jewish who lived in Germany around say 1939 to 1945. What I’m getting at is let’s protect trans people. And if you don’t get it - go to the National Center for Transgender Equaity at transequality.org and click and read some stuff.  And while you’re there, you know what - hold off on my Patreon for a little while and maybe drop a couple of coins in THERE bucket to help protect and support. Ok, getting off my soapbox now. If anyone is still there….

My sources for this episode were YouTube, Wikipedia, NPR, All That’s Interesting, YouTube, and the NEw York Times, History on the Net and another probaby better podcast called Radiolab that had a fascinating interview with Sarah Jane Moore after she got out of prison. 

Oliver Sipple was a military veteran who reside din San Francsciso. On Sept 22, 1975, Oliver was present when a 40someting matron named Sarah Jane Moore tried to assassinate then President Gerald Ford. We’ll get into Sarah cuz shes fascinating. But anyway 0 She got off a shot, and then according to witnesses, Oliver was able to keep Sarah from getting off a second one, hence possibly saving the leader of the free worlds life. So, this is a hero narragtive It is. But it’s also a story about how Oliver’s personal life and a dismissal of his need for privacy came to overshadow his heroic act and alter the course of his life.  You see Oliver was gay, which was ok if you lived in San Francisco which was the gay mecca at that time, but not somethng one might be thrilled about having it ou tin the national.  Press, The press who of course wanted to add him to the news cycle and find out everuthign they could about the man who saved the president..In addition a man that is generally considered a hero and trailblazer to the gay community, who was a friend of Oliver’s, decided that Olivers potential as a symbol for progress outweighed his own wishes and right to privacy. That was Harvey Milk, and what he did to Oliver, in retrospect, not so heroic.  Oliver’s  resultant outing in the press demonstrated how queer people wee treated differently than stright foilk (let’s jus tsay he wasnt invited to the Whitre house to accept Gerald Ford’s thank you in person as others would have been) and it also preceded some serious personal problems, including estrnrment from his family abd struggles with substances and mental health issues, and ultimately led to what could be considered an early death. 

Let’s meet Oliver. 

This is episode 41: The Bitch Has Got A Gun: Oliver Sipple

Oliver Sipple was born in Detroit Michigan on Nov 20, 1941. He was one of eight kids in a working class family.  As you heard in that clip in the opening, the only reason Oliver went downtown the day of the attempted assassination was because President Ford was raised in Michigan like Oliver was so he thought let’s check him out. I think that the cutest thing in the world. Oliver served in the USMC and fought in Vietnam, where he was inured by shrapnel during his second tour of duty, which he finished in a Philadephia Veterans Hospital due to his injuries which rendered him disabled, and of course a decorated veteran. 

He was released in March of 1970 and eventually settled in San Francisco and went by Billy not Oliver.. He identified as gay but he was closeted to his family and other straight accquaintences. But this didn’t mean that Oliver opted out of being a part of his community. He actually met his friend Harvey Milk in New York City, where if you'll recall, is where Harvey first began his career as a hippie activist before moving to San Fran, cutting his hair and getting into politics to change the system from within. Harvey and Oliver had dated the same guy in NYC and become friends over it. Oliver was someone who helped with the cause, He participated in gay pride parades, demonstrations for equal rights, and worked on Harvey’s successful campaign to be elected to San Francicos’ board of supervisors which he was becoming the first openly gay person to serve in a political office in California and like the third in the country. Oliver himself worked in a gay bar and was also involved with the Imperial Court, which for those of you who don't know - it’s one of the oldest and largest LGBT organizations in the world.  It’s the second largest LGBT organization in the world, and yeah they literally dress up like fancy Henry the Eight's decapitated wives' heads royalty. I think its fascinating. 

So at the time of the assassination attempt, Oliver lived with a merchant seamen. I'm not sure if it was a roommate sitch, or a friend sitch, or a lover sitch, but they lived in a forth floor walkup in San Francisco’s Mission District. And it reads, like many vets, Oliver struggled with his mental health post-Vietnam. I had an uncle who also did two tours of duty in Vietnam. He was a wonderful, snarky, very cool guy who worked for who is no longer with us, and I can remember my father telling me horror stories of how bad my uncle’s struggle with PTSD was after coming back from Vietnam and how there seemed to be very little resources and in addition, like I said - some really shitty treatment of veterans. So vets had it rough, and I learned that Oliver had spent time in San Francisco’s VA hospital, for what I inferred were mental health issues, and that he had been readmitted in 1975, the year the saved President Gerald Ford’s life. So he was already in a precarious situation when all this went down. And he still did the brave thing. Bitch the second, I saw the barrel I woulda been George Constanza-ing over hoes into the BART. I probably would have gotten out "the bitch has got a gun" though, then I would have hid.

So as he said, cuz' Gerry ford was from Grand Rapids, on Sept 22, 1975, Oliver went downtown to see if he could get a glimpse of the prez, who was giving an address to the World Affairs Council at the St. Francis Hotel. And that's when his destiny collided with the destiny of Miss Sarah Jane Moore.

So couple things you should know - earlier that month, on Sept 5, 1975, there had been another assassination attempt on Gerald Ford in Sacramento Ca. Yes, this president was shot at twice in one month. And yes the assassins were both women, The first assassin interestingly was known as one Lynnette Fromme, aka Squeaky Fromme, anyone into true crime or just really big historical crime stories will recognize her as Charlie Manson’s head cheerleader. In fact after Manson got busted, she was sort of the de facto leader of the Manson Family while her guru and brothers snd sisters were all on trial for some truly horrendous crimes She kind of kept the homefires burning, issuing death threats, actually committing attempted murder by way of a Hawaiian vacation and a hamburger with ten tabs of LSAD, and generally making a scary nuisance of herself because she was so in love with little Charlie But by 1975 the world had sorta moved on, so Miss Fromme, who was living in Sacramento at the time, went to the park dressed in a red gown and peaked cap and aimed a gun at Ford, which somehow jammed and was then slapped out of her hand by a Secret Service guy. She served many years in prison but I think she’s been paroled since then, and her efforts basically allowed her to outshine her evil cult leader. I mean, she’s a character in a Sondheim musical. 

So that was earlier in the month, now we come to the 22nd, and the St Francis Hotel and Sarah Jane Moore, who is fascinating enough that I’m going to get into her story because she’s sort of like if Maude turned to firearms and as far I know, she's still kicking at 93 years of age. 

Sara Jane Moore was born into a Christian family in  Charleston, West Virginia, and had a kind of interesting path through life. She inititally wanted to be an actress. She had been a nursing school student, Women's Army Corps recruit, and accountant. Divorced five times (she had been married to men that included a doctor and a Hollywood executive), she had four children (one who she was raising, the other three were being raised by her parents)  before she turned to leftist  politics in 1975. After her arrest, Sara’s friends she had a fascination and an obsession with Patricia Hearst.


Patty Hearst was the heiress to the Hearst newspaper fortune, who had kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), in February on 1974. This is a very famous story, where she was held prisoner and allegedly brainwashed into becoming a bankrobbing revolutionary in a beret holding a submachine gun named Tanya. In response to the SLA claiming hat Patty's dad, rich guy Randolph Hearst was committing crimes against the people by way of being an ultra rich white guy, in response, Randolph, create an organization called PIN - People in Need - to feed the poor and hungry.

Sara Jane Moore, who yes, had discovered revolutionary politics but didn't have an affiliation with the SLA, became a volunteer bookkeeper for PIN. This was also around the time she claims and I think this has been proven, that she became an FBI informant. So its the early 70s, Sara is making all these lefty friends and and supposedly she ws approached by the FBI to infiltrate and spy on leftist radical organizations for them. Which she did. Despite sharing their political views. I don't know where her head was. She was sort of straddling things. But four months before she aimed her gun at President Ford, the FBI cut off their relationship with her. And she later explained that she took this to mean that they were going to kill her. 
As she said in a 1982 interview from jail, “I was going to go down anyway. If the government was going to kill me, I was going to make some kind of statement.”

So Sara has some stuff going on with her. As it would later turn out, the Secret Service had been tipped off by the FBI that Sara was a little daffy as my mom woud say They supposedly evaluated her that year to make sure she wasnt a danger, and decided she wasnt. They might have wanted to check their work because the day before Oliver Sipple called her a bitch, she was picked up on an illegal-handgun charge the day before the Ford incident, but was released. The police confiscated her .44 caliber revolver and 113 rounds of ammunition.

So on that fatefu day, Spet 22, Sara is on the sidewalk across the street from the St. Francis Hotel. At 3:30 p.m., after speaking to the World Affairs Council, Ford comes out from the Post Street entrance of the hotel in San Francisco’s  Union Square, and walked toward his limo. Before getting in he stopped and waved to the crowd that had gathered across the street. In that crowd was Sara and Oliver Sipple.

So Sara is 40 feet away from President Gerald Ford as he waves to the crowd. She takes a 38 special out of her purse, aims and fires. She misses the presidents head by an estimated five inches, and the bullet goes through the wall above the doorway he just came out. Oliver Sipple, decorated Vietnam veteran and ex-marine, sees her raise her hand for another shot, screams "THE BITCH HAS A GUN" which must have added to the general confusion and mayhem because there’s this picture of Oliver lunging for Sarah which I'm gonna put on Wicked Gay’s social media platforms - wickedgaypod on the FB the Instagram and the Twitter, so there’s photos from this, and in the one where he's like lunging for the gun, there’s this woman in front of them, who is in the most 70s outfit, this like bell-shaped hat and this coat with like really wide diagonal stripes. Its honestly, it’s kinda fabulous, and she’s hauling ass and like screaming because some crazy heifer behind her is trying to shoot the street up.

So as the story goes, Oliver grabbed her arm so her second shot wouldnt hit the prez. Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. [...] I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off.It didnt, hit the prez,  however it DID hit a cab driver 42 year old John Ludwig, was standing inside the St Francis Hotel, and he took a bullet to the groin, Historically, cab drivers don't have a ton of luck in San Francisco. Look u the Zodiac case sometime. Luckily, Mr. Ludwig survived.

And as Oliver described in the audio clip from the beginning, he was relieved of duty by a platoon of Secret Service agents and cops who tackled Sara’s ass, there’s a pic of that, too. 

The  Secret Service team trundled Ford's ass into the limo where the Secret Service and his chief of staff and future secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld lay on top of him. The limo raced to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) where he boarded Air Force One and, after being joined by the First Lady, flew back to Washington, D.C. Legend has it that there were so many dudes on top of Ford, sounds like Bear Week in Ptown, that he said that he was being crushed to death snarked that the car was armor plated so he wasn't in any more danger and told them all to get off him. 

Sara has always claimed she’s a pretty good shot and the only reason she missed Ford’s dome, is because she was using a gun she bought in haste that same morning and did not know the sights were 15 cm (6 inches) off the point-of-impact at that distance. In fact,  she told the cops, “If I had had my .44 with me I would have caught him.”

An FBI agent agreed with Moore’s assessment, saying that “She would have had at least a head shot, maybe even better, because she had been practicing … [her] shot was off about six inches.”

At her sentencing hearing Moore stated: "Am I sorry I tried? Yes and no. Yes, because it accomplished little except to throw away the rest of my life. And, no, I'm not sorry I tried, because at the time it seemed a correct expression of my anger. She served her term at the federal women's prison in Dublin, California.  She was paroled in 2009, and did the press rounds, she stll says she hoped to spark a revolution by murdering the president. And along with Squeaky Fromme from 17 days before, she too is immortalized in the late great Stephen Sondheim’s musical about presidential assassins called, economically enough, Assassins. 

By the way, when the cops carted Miss Sara away, they also grabbed Oliver, cuz they had no clue what was going on. And they bundled him into the hotel to question hm and he’s freaked out because he has major PTSD and there was just some shooting And he was basically just going for a walk. 

So he's questioned for three hours. He goes home—and there's a reporter there waiting for him. Whom he says “I'm a coward. I don't know why I did it. It was the thing to do at the time.” And then the phone calls from the press start. And they find out he’s a Marine so they ask him if his training kicked in. .But he says "I'm no hero or nothing," and he asks them to keep that he's a Marine out of it. 

So, the police and the Secret Service immediately publicly commended Oliver for his actions and so did the media. The national news media portrayed Sipple as a hero, and noted his status as a former Marine. However, as I said, while he was a fairly prominent member of San Franciscos’s gay community, he wasnt out to his family - specifically his mom. He was also not out ot his current employer. He asked reporters to keep his sexuaity out of stories about him.

That stood for about a day. The San Francisco Chronicle had a widely read columnist named Herb Caen. Speaking of the Zodiac, he was one of the people that got name dropped in a Zodiac code letter by the killer. Small world. Anyway, Caen’s answeing machine it was what people had before voicemail to my younger listeners. Had two messages on it the next day, both of them outing Oliver. One was from Reverend Ray Broshears, the head of a gay activist group called the Lavender Panthers. The other was from one Harvey Milk. As was revealed later, Milk allegedly told a friend that quote It's too good an opportunity. For once we can show that gays do heroic things, not just all that caca about molesting children and hanging out in bathrooms." He later explained that he outed his friend in order to portray him as a "gay hero" and to "break the stereotype of homosexuals" being "timid, weak and unheroic figures.”

Now - this was a real dick move on Milk’s part, and you’ll notice this unsavory behavior didn’t make it into the movie. Outing is a shitty thing to do, unless you’re one of those sewage people who are closted and actively making life horrible for LGBTQIA+ people for political gain or cuz youre self hating and sorry but. If that’s the case, have at it, honey. Otherwise, let people come out in their own time, and we should all work against our insatiable curiosity and need to define and label people before they’re ready. 

So coincidentally or not, Sipple, after being acknowledged as a hero who probably saved Ford’s life, well, as historian Harold Evans put it, "There was no invitation to the White House for Sipple, not even a commendation. Milk made a fuss about that. Finally, weeks later, Sipple received a brief note of thanks." 

There’s some discrepancy about this because another source says Ford sent Oliver a note three days later. It was the one his friend’s found after his death. 

So the timing there probably does matter. Was it just one of those things and they just neglected to make a big deal of it? Or was it actually weeks later? Becase 10 days after after Herb Caen received those answering machine messages, he outed Oliver publicly in his column. He noted he was a close personal friend of Harvey Milk, and specuately that Ford offered his praise “quietly” because Oliver was gay. 

He wrote:

"One of the heroes of the day, Oliver Billy Sipple, the ex-Marine who grabbed Sara Jane Moore's arm just as her gun was fired and thereby may have saved the president's life, was the center of midnight attention at the Red Lantern, a Golden Gate Avenue bar he favors. Reverend Ray Broshears, head of Helping Hands Center, and gay politico Harvey Milk, who claim to be among Sipple's close friends, describe themselves as 'proud, maybe this will help break the stereotype.'"

When Caen outed Oliver, the press got even more interested the heroic ex-Marine who was now a big fairy, to boot. Great news story for 1975, right? Reporters began referring to him as the gay ex marine and  really stalking him, and he had to go into hiding. The LA Times had picked up the story and went nationwide. 

Worse, the press got back to his famly and his mom refused to speak to him. In face she disparaged and disowned him. When reporters couldnt find Oliver after he hid out at a friends apartment, they went to Harvey. Harvey Milk. Of President Ford's letter of thanks to Sipple, Milk suggested that Sipple's sexual orientation was the reason he received only a note, rather than an invitation to the White House.

Oliver got a lawyer and he held a press conference. Here’s the statement he read with the help of his lawyer.

"In the past few days, I have been asked many questions having to do with my sexual preferences. I have been asked whether or not I am gay or homosexual. My sexual orientation has nothing at all to do with saving the president's life, just as the color of my eyes or my race has nothing to do with what happened in front of the St. Francis Hotel on Tuesday. My sexuality is a part of my—private life, and I have not—I have no…and has no bearing on my—response to the act of a person seeking to take the life of another. I am first and foremost a human being who enjoys and respects life. I feel that a person’s worth…is determined by how he or she  responds to the world in which they live, not on how or what—or with whom a private life is shared."

He also added the sad part which was obviously hurting the guys heart. And let me just say, everyone’s experience is different, absolutely, But there can be a general throughline when you're queer like is my family going to reject me, are they going to treat me different are they not going to see me the same ever again. And you can imagine how it feels when your worst fear comes true. I mean, it’s your mom.

"I want you to know that my mother told me today that she could not walk out of her front door or even go to church because of the pressures she feels because of the press stories concerning my sexual orientation. Naturally, I never anticipated such interference with my family's relationship, which I—when I supposedly saved the president's life."

So, it was discovered later that in the Gerald Ford Libary there was a letter from Oliver to Ford. He wrote him back after Ford thanked him. It read:

"Dear Mr. President, thank you for taking the time to write to me. In view of some of the events since the unfortunate attempt on your life on Monday, September 22nd, I really appreciate your publicly thanking me. As you probably know, there have been a number of stories concerning my personal sexual orientation in the news media. These stories have caused great anguish to my parents and to the rest of my family, I am sure. My mother hung up on me when I first called her after these stories began to be published. I know you are concerned with very many matters which are too important and pressing for you to be concerned with the details of my private life. However, the unexpected and glaring publicity, which has been given to my private life has very seriously disrupted my family relationships. Mr. President, it is a very hard thing to have your mother and family not want to have any contact with you. I know that your schedule is heavily occupied, but I respectfully request that you take the time to see my family or at least call my family. The telephone number is...I love my family, and I do not want to be separated from their love and companionship. Your help will be gratefully appreciated. Respectfully, Oliver W. Sipple." Well, that's a tearjerker. 

And on the same day he sent that letter (by the way, Ford did not get in touch with the Sipple family), things turned even uglier, when Oliver sued the San Francisco Chronicle filing a $15-million invasion of privacy suit against Caen, as well as seven other newspapers, and a number of unnamed publishers, for outing him. 

In his deposition, Oliver was quoted as saying "I have made my home approximately 1,800 miles away from home of my parents and my family so that I could move somewhat freely in the gay community without the fact of my sexual orientation getting back to my parents or family." 

Because the damage was done as far as his family was concerned. Oliver did go through a period of estrangement with his parents, but supposedly  the family later reconciled with him. His brother, George, told the Washington Post in 2009 that , "[Our parents] accepted it. That was all. They didn't like it, but they still accepted. He was welcomed. Only thing was: Don't bring a lot of your friends." However, other sources said that that Sipple's parents never fully accepted him. His mother, just after news broke of Sipple's sexual orientation, hung up on him, saying she never wished to speak to him again. His father is said to have told Sipple's brother to "forget [he had] a brother." Finally, when his mother died, his father did not allow him to attend her funeral. Ow.

And all of the negative attention and the break with his family damaged him. After his ordeal, he began drinking heavily and let himself go physically. Yes, he was officially disabled, but he as still able enough to wrestle ole Sarah for her gun. After, his mental and physical health sharply declined He drank heavily, was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and was  fitted with a pacemaker, Things were so bad and the attention that the the incident brought him were so negative that later in life, while drinking, he would express regret about grabbing Moore's gun. Supposedly he was so traumatized by what happened that he like tried to go back in the closet so his gay friends kinda dumped him, although he and Harvey remained friends up until Harvey was assassinated and Oliver attended his funeral. 

In equally bad news, the Superior Court in San Francisco dismissed his lawsuits but Oliver would continue his legal battle until May of 1984, when a state court of appeals ruled that Sipple had indeed become news, and that his sexual orientation was part of the story.[

And then on February 2, 1989, his friend Wayne, found Sipple dead in his apartment, at age 47, with a bottle of Jack Daniel's next to him and the television still on. The coroner estimated that he’d been dead for approximately 10 days. 

Here’s what Wayne had to sat about Oliver:

"And after this thing with Ford, it really fucked his mind up. Sipple was a broken guy after that. The whole thing worked him. The publicity of it all and the fact that everyone knew he was a faggot, you know. He said to me a couple times, I went to the Marine Corps and I got hurt. And now what I am known for? For being a faggot. And I'd say, no, you're not. You're known for saving the president's life. You won't be known for what you did in bed, for Christ's sake. But he would get drunk and he'd start bemoaning that. I'd sit there in the bar with him, and I'd talk to him about it. Hey, man, it is what it is. But he was just—he was just—down to nothing. This thing happened, and it overcame him. It was too much for him to handle. And I think he got to feeling sorry for himself, and his family. Just...many a night, I would sit in the bar with Bill Sipple, and he'd cry on your shoulder, and you'd say, ok, Sipple, it's time to go home. And then I'd drive him home."

And then about after finding him:

"I remember it was over here at the Campbell Funeral Home on Market Street. And then we buried him out in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno. And I remember it was, it was very small. The casket wasn't opened. The funeral was just, I mean—there were more media there than anything else. I've seen him buy drinks for more people than were at that funeral. He could have been buried in Arlington if they'd made an issue out of it. I mean, shit, there he was, this national icon, a gay whatever, and...there were just a few people out there for the funeral."

He was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery south of San Francisco.

Gerald Ford and his wife sent a letter of sympathy to Sipple's family and friends. 

And it was on display for a short period after his death at a bar called the New Belle Saloon 

"Mrs. Ford and I express our deepest sympathy in this time of sorrow involving your friend's passing."

Interesting postscript to Ford’s part in this. 

In a 2001 interview former President Ford disputed the claim that Sipple was treated differently because of his sexual orientation, saying,[

"As far as I was concerned, I had done the right thing and the matter was ended. I didn't learn until sometime later – I can't remember when – he was gay. I don't know where anyone got the crazy idea I was prejudiced and wanted to exclude gays."

I guess judge for yourself. That's Oliver Sipple’s story. 

Thank you for joining me for Wicked Gay’s fifth season premiere. Subscribe to Wicked Gay on Patreon now to listen to the very first Wicked Gay: The Tally episode about Oscars streaker Robert Oppel. A story which coincidentally takes place during the same time frame in San Francisco as this one. You can find the link to Wicked Gay’s Patreon page in the show notes on Wicked Gay’s page on Buzzsprout (click the heart) as well as in the bio of ALL of Wicked Gay’s socal media profiles under Wickedgaypod on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram…and I’m on TikTok too, which I’ve been leaving these cool little audiograms on with amusing photos but they don’t let you use a link until you have a 1000 followers so follow me there, too. If you could. Also, no one told me before I started a Patreron that you cant’ actually search for stuff ON Patreon, you have to use the person’s link. How convenient of Pateron. 

As always, Wicked Gay’s theme song is by Gino and the Goons, additional music by JB and a neat little AI called AIVA. Cover art by Paul Chapman, sound engineering by the other Mr. Harvey. Happy Pride Month, kids, wear your colors proudly, special thank you to our straight allies and let’s help protect trans people. Let’s look out for each other the way Oliver looked out for President Ford, cuz’ in the end we’re all we have. Night.