Online Encyclopedia
Lynette Fromme
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of Charles Manson's "family," was born October 22, 1948, in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Helen Benziger Fromme, was a homemaker, and her father, William Millar Fromme, was an aeronautical engineer and New York University graduate. The family's surname is usually mispronounced with a silent "e." It is actually spoken as "frum-me." Lynette as a child was a performer for a popular local dance group called Westchester Lariats which performed for such noteworthy venues as The White House and The Lawrence Welk Show .
Things at home, however, weren't so well, 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. Some speculate that his cruelty extended to physical and sexual abuse, although Lynette has denied this. In 1963 the family moved to a suburb of Los Angeles called Redondo Beach and Fromme began drinking and taking drugs and her grades in school started falling. She barely managed to graduate in 1966 and moved out for a few months before her father convinced her to attend El Camino Junior College . This only lasted for a period of a couple months before an argument with her father left her homeless. She decided to go to Venice Beach to see what was going on, and ended up 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 she immediately joined up as a member of his family, leaving her old life behind. 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 James and Lauren died within days of each other, the housemates were taken into custody. However, there was not enough evidence for a conviction and she got off free.
She then moved into a Sacramento apartment with her friend Sandy 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.
On the morning of August 22, 1975, Red went to Sacramento's Capitol Park. For reasons not entirely clear, she ended up pointing a .45 Colt automatic at President Gerald Ford. She was soon convicted of attempted assassination on the president, even though there were no bullets in the chamber at the time of the incident. In the late 1970s, she was transferred out of the women's prison in Pleasanton, 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 . She will be eligible for parole on September 5, 2005.