Manson Follower Squeaky Fromme Tried to Assassinate Gerald Ford

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was one of Charles Manson’s earliest and most devoted followers, but unlike several members of the group, she did not participate in the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders of August 1969. Instead, she remained fiercely loyal to Manson after his arrest and conviction, becoming one of the Manson Family’s most recognizable public defenders.

Six years later, Fromme committed the crime that would make her infamous in her own right. On September 5, 1975, she approached President Gerald Ford in a Sacramento, Calif., park and pointed a loaded .45-caliber pistol at him at close range. Secret Service agents quickly subdued her before a shot was fired. Fromme was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president and sentenced to life in prison, beginning an incarceration that would last more than three decades and include a brief escape in 1987.

Fromme was born in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1948. Her father was an aeronautical engineer, and as a child she performed with a dance troupe that appeared at public events and on television.

Her adolescence was more troubled, however. After the family moved to Redondo Beach, Fromme increasingly clashed with her parents. She graduated from high school and briefly attended college before dropping out.

In 1967, following another confrontation with her father, Fromme found herself in Los Angeles, where she met Charles Manson, who had recently been released after spending much of his adult life in prisons and reformatories. Fromme later recalled that she was crying when Manson approached her and quickly drew her into conversation.

She soon joined the small group of young women gathering around him and eventually moved with his followers to Spahn Ranch, an old movie ranch outside Los Angeles. Its elderly owner, George Spahn, reportedly gave her the nickname “Squeaky.”

Fromme became one of Manson’s most loyal followers, but she was not involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders.

On August 9, 1969, Charles “Tex” Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel murdered Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Folger, Wojciech Frykowski and Steven Parent at Tate’s Benedict Canyon home. The following night, Watson, Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Fromme was not present for either attack and was never charged in connection with the seven murders.

Her public association with the crimes instead grew after Manson and several Family members were arrested. Fromme became one of his most visible defenders, joining other followers outside the courthouse during Manson’s 1970-71 trial. When Manson shaved his head and carved an X into his forehead, Fromme and several other followers followed suit. While some Family members eventually distanced themselves from Manson, Fromme remained fiercely loyal to him long after his conviction.

By the mid-1970s, Fromme was living in Sacramento with fellow Manson follower Sandra Good, moving there to be closer to Manson while he was incarcerated at a nearby prison. Both had become increasingly focused on environmental causes, particularly pollution, wildlife and the destruction of California’s redwood forests. Their activism remained closely tied to Manson and his increasingly apocalyptic warnings about environmental destruction.

Their rhetoric could also be threatening. Fromme and Good claimed association with a group they called the International People’s Court of Retribution, which advocated punishing people they believed were responsible for environmental destruction. Fromme herself made ominous statements about President Ford, telling a reporter weeks before his planned visit to Sacramento that he would have to “pay” for his environmental policies.

When Ford arrived in Sacramento in September 1975, Fromme saw an opportunity to take action against him on behalf of environmental issues, particularly the protection of redwood trees. On September 5, Ford was walking through Capitol Park on his way to meet California Governor Jerry Brown when Fromme moved toward him through the crowd. Dressed in a red robe, she drew a Colt .45 semiautomatic pistol and pointed it at the president from close range. Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf immediately grabbed the weapon and subdued Fromme as other agents moved Ford away. No shot was fired.

Investigators discovered that the gun was loaded but had no round in the chamber. Fromme later insisted that she had deliberately ejected a chambered round before leaving home because she never intended to kill Ford but instead wanted to draw attention to environmental issues. Prosecutors viewed her actions differently: She had knowingly approached the president and pointed a loaded weapon at him from only a few feet away.

Fromme’s trial began in November 1975. In an unusual development, Ford gave sworn videotaped testimony about the encounter, which was played for jurors and allowed them to hear directly from the president about seeing Fromme raise the weapon.

Fromme herself did not testify, and the jury convicted her of attempting to assassinate the president. At sentencing that December, she submitted a lengthy statement explaining her actions, but the judge sentenced her to life in prison. Fromme threw an apple at the prosecutor and was removed from the courtroom.

Her devotion to Manson continued behind bars. In December 1987, while incarcerated at the federal prison for women in Alderson, W.V., Fromme scaled an 8-foot fence and escaped. At the time, authorities investigated reports that she had heard a rumor that Manson was dying of cancer and wanted to reach him, although her motive was never firmly established. Her freedom lasted only two days: authorities captured her about two miles from the prison. Nearly 20 years after she first met Manson, the episode demonstrated how deeply attached to him she remained.

Fromme was granted parole from her life sentence in July 2008, but she was not immediately freed. Her 1987 escape had resulted in a separate 15-month sentence that had to be served after her life sentence. She was released from federal prison on August 14, 2009, at age 60, after spending nearly 34 years behind bars.

Fromme subsequently settled in Upstate New York and has largely remained outside the public spotlight, although she has occasionally revisited her years with Manson. In 2018, she published Reflexion, a memoir recounting her experiences with Manson and his followers.

The following year, in a rare television interview for the ABC News special Manson Girls, Fromme acknowledged that she had been in love with Manson and made clear that, even decades later, she still felt affection for him.

Her place in the Manson story remains unusual. Fromme took no part in the Tate-LaBianca murders, yet her unwavering loyalty made her one of Manson’s most recognizable followers. Six years after those killings, she became infamous for a crime of her own—approaching a sitting president with a loaded gun. By the time she walked free in 2009, more than four decades had passed since the chance encounter with Manson that had transformed the course of her life.