Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the waifish, red-headed Charles Manson follower who once tried to assassinate President Ford, was granted her freedom yesterday after spending more than three decades behind bars.
Fromme — who is said to have got her nickname from Manson himself after the noise she made when she was pinched — was 26 when she pointed a semi-automatic .45 pistol at the President in 1975. The assassination attempt took place in Sacramento, California, as Ford was strolling from the State Capitol building to his hotel.
Fromme, dressed in a nun-like red robe, drew the weapon from a holster on her thigh and aimed it at the President as he shook hands with supporters. She was disarmed by Secret Service agents and members of the public before the President could be hurt — although it was later found that the gun had no bullet in the chamber. It did, however, contain a clip of ammunition.
Fromme’s motive was never clear, although it is thought that she was trying to gain attention to lobby for a new trial for Manson. Her release comes only days after the 40th anniversary of the notorious Manson murders, in which young female supporters of the failed 1960s pop star helped to commit atrocities on his orders. Victims included Roman Polanski’s heavily pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, who was stabbed 16 times. Her blood was then used to write the word “Pig” on the front door of her house; a reference to a Beatles’ lyric that Manson believed warned of a coming apocalypse.Nine others were murdered over the same weekend as part of a campaign that Manson named “Helter Skelter”, also after a Beatles song.
The killings sent Los Angeles into shock and provoked a great deal of soul-searching in America, largely because many of Manson’s followers came from well-educated, upper-middle-class homes. One devotee, Charles “Tex” Watson, had been a school football star.
Manson is serving a life term in Corcoran State Prison in California for the 1969 massacre, and is believed to be the most written-to prison inmate in America.
Fromme, now 60, was investigated but never charged with involvement with the murders, but she was convicted of attempting to stop other members of Manson’s “family” from testifying, as well as contempt of court when she refused to testify herself.
After the attempt to kill Ford, she became the first American to be sentenced under a special federal law concerning attempts on a US president’s life, enacted after the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.
However, she managed to escape from a female prison in Alderson, West Virginia, in 1987 — to be closer to Manson, she said — prompting a huge search operation. She was eventually recaptured about two miles away and then sentenced to an additional 15 months in prison for the escape.
By the time she was released, at 8am yesterday, Fromme was being held at Federal Medical Centre Carswell in Fort Worth, a facility that specialises in providing medical and mental health services to female offenders.
She had been granted parole in July 2008 and was released after being awarded “good conduct time”.
Fromme was one of Manson’s earliest and most devoted followers. When the cult leader was put on trial, Fromme and other members of the family camped outside the courthouse and carved the letter “X” into their foreheads, as Manson himself had done.
Source:The times
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