Would-be assassin of Ford to be paroled
HOUSTON - The Charles Manson follower convicted of attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford is set to be released from a federal prison in Texas later this month after serving more than 30 years behind bars.
Lynette “Squeaky’’ Fromme was a 26-year-old disciple of the cult murderer Manson when she aimed a semiautomatic .45- caliber pistol at Ford in September 1975 in Sacramento. Secret Service agents grabbed her and Ford was unhurt.
Fromme, now 60, is scheduled to be released on parole from the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, in Fort Worth on Aug. 16, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the court-appointed attorney who represented her at trial.
Fromme, who got a life term, became the first person sentenced under a special federal law covering assaults on US presidents, a statute enacted after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Fromme had escaped from a female prison in Alderson, W.Va., on Dec. 23, 1987, and was recaptured about 2 miles away on Christmas Day after a massive search. She had said she escaped from prison to be closer to Manson.
Manson is serving a life term in San Quentin in California for the August 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and eight others.
Fromme, one of his “family’’ of followers, was not implicated in those attacks.
