FORT WORTH, Texas — Three decades after basking in the national spotlight as “Squeaky,” the Charles Manson disciple who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford, the now 60-year-old woman slipped quietly out of a federal prison Friday after being released on parole.
Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme eluded the media as she left Fort Worth’s Federal Medical Center Carswell in one of the many cars streaming in and out of the front gate Friday morning. She previously refused interview requests, and prison officials would not say where she planned to live or what she planned to do after more than 30 years behind bars.
It was a far cry from her antics that captivated the nation’s attention in the 1970s: shaving her red hair and carving an “X” into her forehead after Manson was convicted for orchestrating a mass murder, wearing a red robe when she pulled a gun on Ford, and being carried into her trial courtroom by marshals when she refused to walk.
In September 1975, Fromme pushed through a crowd, drew a semiautomatic .45-caliber pistol from a thigh holster and aimed it at Ford, who was shaking hands with well-wishers while walking to the California Capitol in Sacramento. Secret Service agents grabbed her and the gun. Ford was unhurt.
She was granted parole in July 2008 for “good-conduct time” but was not released until Friday because of the additional time for a prison escape in 1987, prison officials said.
Fromme was a college student before joining Manson’s “family,” where she reportedly got her nickname because of her voice. She was never implicated in the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and eight others, for which Manson is serving a life term in Corcoran State Prison in California.
By many accounts, Fromme took over the group after that because Manson had always relied on her.
