Squeaky Fromme: The Manson groupie who tried to kill a president
While Charles Manson and his drug-addled disciples are most known for the gruesome Tate-LaBianca murders, they committed plenty more violent crimes that made the front page news.
One of these was the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford by Lynette Alice 'Squeaky' Fromme — one of Manson's earliest followers. She believed he was everything wrong with capitalist society. Prosecutors argued she was simply full of hate and violence.
The Manson family is a huge topic at Crime+Investigation. In this article, we share the story of Squeaky Fromme, from how she met Charles Manson to her eventual arrest on 5th September 1975.
Wasted potential
Fromme had a completely ordinary childhood with all the privileges you'd expect from upper-middle-class suburbia. Her father, William Millar Fromme, was an accomplished aeronautical engineer, and her mother, Helen Fromme, had plenty of time to spend with her daughter. The family lived in Redondo Beach — an affluent coastal city in Los Angeles.
At least for a time, she showed promise, touring the US and Europe as part of a popular dance group called the Westchester Lariats. Her grades were good, and she was planning to attend college in Southern California.
However, her idyllic teenager years were marred by alcohol and drugs. Whether her addiction stemmed from rebellion or was simply fuelled by the psychedelic spirit of the 60s is a point of contention. Either way, her father eventually kicked her out, which is how she came to find herself sitting at the feet of Charles Manson.
Her relationship with Manson
Manson called himself 'the caretaker of lost flower children'. He had a sixth sense for vulnerability, attracting homeless youth who were disillusioned and desperate for something to believe in.
When Fromme left home, she wound up sitting on a curb in Venice Beach. As twisted fate would have it, Manson was planning a trip to the area that same day. He hopped of the bus, took one look at the sad teenager, and said: 'Your parents threw you out, didn't they?'. With that brief exchange, she became utterly infatuated.
Fromme followed Manson wherever he went, along with a growing number of hippies and ex-cons. At Spahn Ranch, where the Family resided, she became close friends with Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins — the latter was later convicted for her role in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders.
It's here she earned her nickname, 'Squeaky'. It was the noise she made whenever the ranch owner, George Spahn, would touch her.
The Tate-LaBianca murders
Fromme would describe these years as perfect, but her world was about to come crashing down. The Family had been involved in increasingly violent crime, from armed robberies to assault. Ultimately, this culminated in the world-rocking Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969.
Charles Manson and six of his followers were arrested and charged. Fromme wasn't involved, but it's fair to assume she wished she had been. She camped outside the courthouse in a show of solidarity and carved a bloody X into her forehead, representing Manson's 'innocence'.
A botched assassination attempt
In the years that followed, despite him being incarcerated, Fromme didn't lose her connection to Manson. By 1975, six years later, she had been preaching his teachings almost every day to anyone who would listen.
It's unsurprising that her paranoia would eventually lead to violence. Why President Ford? In court, she suggested she wanted to kill him because he represented everything she hated about capitalist America.
Stephen Kay, a former Manson prosecutor, disagrees. He suspected Manson ordered her to do it from prison. He told reporters: 'Manson loved to be in the news himself or have the Family in the news.'
On 5th September 1975, she confronted President Ford in Sacramento's Capitol Park with a Colt M1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. As soon as she raised the gun, secret service agents wrestled her to the floor.
The weapon wasn't loaded — she later claimed she had deliberately ejected the round from the chamber before leaving home.
Trial and sentencing
Despite protesting that she 'was not determined to kill the guy', Fromme was convicted of the attempted assassination of the president and received life in prison. She was eventually released on 14th August 2009.
When featured in a documentary called The Manson Girls in 2019, she said, 'Was I in love with Charlie? Yeah... I still am.' Scarily, Manson’s hold over his followers seems to have withstood the test of time.
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