Squeaky's mugshot, October 1969
Perhaps the most well-known of the "Manson girls," Lynette Alice Fromme was born on October 22, 1948 in Santa Monica, California. Her mother, Helen Benzinger Fromme, was a homemaker and her father, William Millar Fromme, was an aeronautical engineer and a graduate of New York University. All of the Fromme children (Lyn, as she has often been called, had two younger siblings) showed great promise as youngsters, but perhaps the one who stood out the most was little, red-haired Lynette. As a child she was one of the star performers in the Westchester Lariats, a local children's dance group led by Dr. J. Tillman Hall. The Lariats became so popular that they were eventually traveling all over the country to give Americans a taste of their singing and dancing routine, performing at such venues as the Lawrence Welk show and even the White House.
While young Lyn was a star onstage, however, she was anything but at home. Her father was known to be cold and intimidating, and his treatment of his growing daughter was, by all accounts, very harsh. Eventually he refused to speak to her or even to be in the same room with her. There have been allegations that his cruelty extended to physical and sexual abuse, as well, though Fromme herself has denied this. In any case, her relationship with Daddy no doubt had an effect on her turbulent adolescence. Upon moving to the LA suburb of Redondo Beach in 1963, Lyn's grades began to suffer and she started drinking and abusing drugs. After barely graduating in 1966 she moved out of her parents' home and was supporting herself. After only a few months, though, her newfound freedom eneded at her father's insistence. She enrolled at El Camino Junior College and had only been there for a couple of months when a final argument with her father left her out on the streets with no place to go. With her schoolbooks, mascara, and curlers in hand, she ran to her boyfriend's house. Upon discovering that he was not home, she decided to head up to Venice Beach. After all, it was 1967 and things were "happening" there. Once she got there, she sat down on a bench by the beach and began crying. Almost immediately, she was approached by a small, somewhat grubby man; his name was Charles Manson.
Lyn was amazed by Charlie's philosophies and attitudes about life; she felt that he was the first person who liked her for her and didn't expect anything out of her. Their talk was so enlightening that she ended up leaving with Charlie and never turning back. Even as Manson's menage grew exponentially, Lyn held a special place in the family hierarchy. It was she who was appointed to be George Spahn's caregiver when the Family decided to crash at the octogenarian's horse ranch. Spahn, in turn, was always very fond of her, affectionately giving her the nickname that was to forever stick: Squeaky.
After Charlie was arrested for torching a Michigan loader in October 1969, Squeaky came even further to the forefront of the Family. She and fellow Mansonite Sandra Good rented a motel room in Independence, California, where they acted as Charlie's "eyes and ears," doing everything within their power to secure his release. That all fell through, though, when he was arraigned for the Tate deal in December. It was at this point that the freckle-faced gamine became what prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has dubbed "the unofficial leader of the Family in Charlie's absence." She was by far the most visible of "Charlie's girls," delivering interviews in her tiny, lilting voice and almost always kneeling on the corner of Broadway and Temple, setting the example for the rest of the X'd-outs.
Not long after Manson et al were convicted, Squeaky set up house with younger Manson follower Nancy Pitman in Stockton, California, not far from Sacramento. Living with them were a couple of ex-cons by the names of Michael Monfort and James Craig and a young couple, James and Lauren Willett. When the Willetts ended up dead within a few days of each other, the cops took the hellish housemates into custody. The charges wouldn't stick to Squeaky, though; lack of evidence set her free.
This left Fromme free to eventually rent an apartment in Sacramento with her old buddy Sandy Good. It was around this period that the two started wearing long, hooded robes and swore off the freewheeling lifestyle that had for so long been associated with Manson followers. They were now "nuns," they said, in Manson's new religion. Manson, like any good cult leader, even gave them new color names to symbolize their allegiance: red-haired Lynette was now Red and blue-eyed Sandra was... you guessed it... Blue.
A big part of Charlie's new faith was emphasis on saving the environment at all costs. Red has said that this is what led her to go to Sacramento's Capitol Park on the morning of September 5, 1975. No matter her reasoning (she has also said she did it to get Manson a new trial) Squeaky ended up pointing a .45 Colt automatic at then-President Ford, who was fortuitous enough to have been visiting California's capitol that day. Within three months little Squeaky had been tried and convicted of attempting to assassinate the President, although many doubt that she actually wanted to kill him. After all, there were no bullets in the gun's firing chamber. Had Red meant to simply get Ford's attention (as she has often claimed) or was she just ditzy enough to forget to pull back the slide, (which would inject bullets into the chamber)? The world may never know.
Several incidents have kept the still-faithful Fromme from fading into obscurity. In the late 1970's, she was transferred out of the women's prison in Pleasanton, California (also home to Patty Hearst at that time) for attacking fellow inmate Julienne Busic with the claw end of a hammer. Then, on December 23, 1987, she escaped from her next place of residence, the Alderson Federal Penitentiary in Alderson, West Virginia. Having heard grist from the jailhouse rumor mill that Manson had testicular cancer, Red had wanted to go see him one last time. She didn't get very far, though; she was captured two days later, wandering around soaking wet in the woods. She is now serving out the rest of her sentence in Carswell, Texas and will be eligible for parole in 2005. She has never renounced Manson.
Here are some more Squeaky pics:
Lynette at age 5 (second from left)
Red upon sentencing, December 1975
Think you know everything there is to know about Fromme? I'll bet Ergot knows more.:)
