(IA) Ronald Reagan used gun to save woman from mugger 06-07-04

http://www.theiowachannel.com/politics/3392082/detail.html

Nursing Student Rescued From Mugger By Reagan
POSTED: 5:54 pm CDT June 7, 2004
UPDATED: 6:44 pm CDT June 7, 2004
DES MOINES, Iowa —
Video: Reagan Was Hero To One Iowa Woman
Former President Ronald Reagan is known as the “Great Communicator,” but
one Iowa woman will always know him as her hero.

Melba King (pictured, pictured below right) was a 22-year-old nursing
student in Des Moines in 1933. She was walking home one autumn night
when a mugger came up behind her with a gun and demanded her money.

At that moment, Ronald Reagan — who was a Des Moines radio sportscaster
at the time — came to her rescue. Reagan pointed a .45-caliber revolver
at the robber from the window of his second-floor rented room. “And he
said, ‘Leave her alone or I’ll shoot you right between the shoulders,’”
King told KCCI.

Reagan scared the man off and calmed King’s nerves. Then, the future
president said he would walk King home.

King didn’t see Reagan again until 1984, when Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad
heard her story and invited her to an Iowa caucus campaign event
(pictured, above left).

After King and Reagan hugged on stage, Reagan laughed, and said to the
crowd, “This is the first time I’ve had a chance to tell you the gun was
empty. I didn’t have any cartridges. If he hadn’t run when I told him
to, I was going to have to throw it at him.”

King’s rescue became a national news story.
“The phone rang constantly,” King said.
All the media attention caused Reagan and
King to stay in touch. The two families exchanged cards on birthdays,
holidays, and during times of sickness and grief.

The Reagans helped King when she lost her husband Harold in 1987, and
now she will send Nancy Reagan a sympathy note.