Lynette Fromme
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Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme was (born October 22, 1948) is an American criminal. A member of Charles Manson's "Family", she was convicted of attempting to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford in 1975.
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Early life
Fromme was born in Santa Monica, California to Helen Benziger Fromme, a homemaker, and William Millar Fromme, an aeronautical engineer. The family's surname is usually mispronounced with a silent "e".
As a child, Fromme was a performer for a popular local dance group called Westchester Lariats [1], which performed on the Lawrence Welk Show and at the White House. However, Fromme's home life was troubled, as her father was known to be both rough and cold, and this extended to his treatment of his daughter. In the end, he refused to speak to her, or even in some cases stay in the same room. In 1963, the family moved to Redondo Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, and Fromme began drinking and taking drugs. Her grades dropped. She graduated in 1966 and moved out for a few months before her father convinced her to attend El Camino Junior College. This only lasted for about two months before an argument with her father left her homeless. She went to Venice Beach to see what was going on, but ended up depressed and crying on a bench. Charles Manson saw her in this state and struck up an aquaintance with her.
Life with Manson
Fromme found Manson's philosophies and attitudes appealing, and became friends and travelled with him. She followed Manson to the California desert to live with him and the following he amassed of disaffected, directionless young people much like herself. With them, she took LSD and became completely entranced with Manson's promises that a race war was imminent and that they would rule the world in its aftermath.
After Manson's arrest
After Manson and some of his followers were arrested for committing what would become known as the Manson-Tate murders in 1969, Fromme and the remaining "Family" camped outside of the trial first with X's, and later swastikas carved into their foreheads, proclaiming Manson's innocence and preaching his apocalyptic philosophy to the news media (as well as anyone else who would listen). She was never charged with involvement in the murders, but was convicted of attempting to prevent Manson's imprisoned followers from testifying, as well as contempt of court when she herself refused to testify. She was given short jail sentences for both offenses.
She moved to Stockton, California with friends Nancy Pitman and Priscilla Copper, a pair of ex-cons named Michael Monfort and James Craig, and a couple, James and Lauren Willett. When the Willetts died within days of each other, the housemates were taken into custody. However, she was released due to a lack of evidence.
She then moved into a Sacramento apartment with her friend Sandra Good. The two wore robes and changed their names to symbolize their devotion to Manson's new religion. Lynette became "Red" in honor of her red hair, and Sandy became "Blue" for her blue eyes.
Assassination attempt
Fromme drifted through a life of destitution and petty crime. Shortly before the assassination attempt, Fromme, while in Los Angeles, tried to warn Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page that his life was endangered.
On the morning of September 5, 1975, she went to Sacramento's Capitol Park to plead with President Gerald Ford to do something about the man-made destruction of the earth — armed with a .45 Colt automatic, which she pointed at Ford. The weapon was loaded with four bullets, but none were in the firing chamber.
Fromme was soon convicted of attempted assassination on the president. In 1979, she was transferred out of the women's prison in Dublin, California for attacking a fellow inmate, Julienne Busic, with the claw end of a hammer. On December 23, 1987, she escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia, attempting to meet up with Manson, whom she had heard had testicular cancer. She was captured again two days later and is now serving time in Texas at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell. She is currently serving life in prison. When parole hearings come due, she has waived her right to them.
Trivia
During the opening credits of the Sidney Lumet film Network, producers at the fictional news network UBS discuss how much time to devote to Squeaky Fromme's assasination attempt during the evening broadcast.
In Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Assassins, she is a minor character who sings a song entitled "Unworthy of Your Love" in which she admits her unworthiness to an absent Manson. The song is a duet with the character of John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan because he was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and is also Fromme's only featured song (without the rest of the Assassins characters).