Lynette Fromme

Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme (born October 22, 1948) was a member of Charles Manson's "family". She was born in Santa Monica, California to Helen Benziger Fromme, a homemaker, and William Millar Fromme, an aeronautical engineer and New York University graduate. The family's surname is usually mispronounced with a silent "e". It is actually pronounced "frum-me".

As a child, Fromme was a performer for a popular local dance group called Westchester Lariats, 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 and 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 decided to go to Venice Beach to see what was going on, but ended up depressed and crying on a bench. Seeing her in this state, a man came up to talk to her; his name was Charles Manson.

Fromme found Manson's philosophies and attitudes appealing, and became friends and travelled with him. 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.

Fromme followed Manson to the California desert to live with him and the following he'd 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 and followers Leslie Van Houten, Charles 'Tex' Watson, Linda Kasabian, Susan Atkins and Patricia Krenwinkel 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 with X's carved into theiir 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.

Fromme drifted through a life of destitution and petty crime until the morning of September 5, 1975, when 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 an unloaded .45 Colt automatic, which she pointed at Ford. She 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 Carswell, Texas. Her projected release date is September 5, 2005.

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 Manson. The song is a duet with John Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan because he was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster, and is also Fromme's only solo song (without the rest of the Assassins).

External links

• Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (http://www.squeakyfromme.org)
• http://charliesfamily.tripod.com/