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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Squeaky Goes Free

Squeaky Goes Free

by | 91 Comments

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This is out of the blue:

The president she tried to assassinate has been dead for nearly three years, and her longtime idol and leader, Charles Manson, remains in prison.

However, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is about to get her first taste of real freedom in more than three decades.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Fromme, now 60, is set to be released on parole August 16.

She has spent more of her life in prison than out of prison, and she clearly wasn’t very stable when she went into prison. I just wonder how people like her are supposed to make it on the outside.

As a side note, I had completely forgotten Ford was dead. I had to google it- but sure enough, he died around Christmas in 2006. Must be losing my memory in my advanced age.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  2. 2.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I just wonder how people like her are supposed to make it on the outside.

    Ya just take it one president at a time.

  4. 4.

    NonyNony

    As a side note, I had completely forgotten Ford was dead.

    You mean you don’t remember the stirring, loving tributes to the dead former President. The days of media coverage and people weeping at his grave?

    Naw – I’m kidding. That was just for Reagan. Ford, OTOH, had a scathing appraisal of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq that was published posthumously within a few days of his death by Bob Woodward that made him a retroactive Democrat in the eyes of the wingers. Maybe that’s why you don’t remember it John – weren’t you still swimming in the Kool-Aid back then?

  5. 5.

    David Hunt

    “As a side note, I had completely forgotten Ford was dead. I had to google it- but sure enough, he died around Christmas in 2006. Must be losing my memory in my advanced age.”

    Don’t feel bad about that. Most people couldn’t remember him when he was alive. I can’t conjure up one thing that he did besides to pardon Nixon.

  6. 6.

    Jay Andrew Allen

    She has spent more of her life in prison than out of prison, and she clearly wasn’t very stable when she went into prison. I just wonder how people like her are supposed to make it on the outside.

    Why am I thinking of The Shawshank Redemption here?

  7. 7.

    gbear

    I just wonder how people like her are supposed to make it on the outside.

    She’ll be a star in the birfer movement by the end of August.

  9. 9.

    Napoleon

    This blog is slipping. I would expect some lyrics from either “Helter Skelter” or “Never Learn Not To Love” into the title. ;)

  10. 10.

    Rey

    Since she is a convicted felon, it’s not likely she will be able to get a job. Maybe she will get caught jaywalking or something and get hauled back to the slammer.

  12. 12.

    Demo Woman

    Maybe she is rehabilitated but as a former member of the Manson family, I find it odd that she is about to be paroled.

  13. 13.

    Sarcastro

    I can’t conjure up one thing that he did besides to pardon Nixon.

    I believe he also once walked into a glass door.

  14. 14.

    HumboldtBlue

    Read John Waters’ three-part essay on his relationship with Leslie Van Houten at huffpo.

  16. 16.

    Punchy

    As a side note, I had completely forgotten Ford was dead

    Actually, Pontiac is dead, not Ford. Git noo tawken poyntz, libtard.

  17. 17.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    When Ford passed away, weren’t there news stories about a secret interview he had given calling the Cheney admin. a bunch of morans, with the understanding that it was not to be released while he was still living? I remember that being one small piece of the circa mid-late 2006, ISG era consensus that even blind squirrels and lifelong Republican mandarins had come around to the point of recognizing that the Iraq War was FUBAR’ed, back before we entered the next stage of domestic political theater (“The Surge has worked! Why do you hate the Surge? Pledge allegiance to the Surge!!! Why aren’t you wearing your Surge Flag Pin? All hail General Surge-treaus!!”).

    Or did I imagine all of that? With the passage of time it all starts sounding too much like a cross between Tolstoy and the absurd plot of a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta to have been something that actually happened.

  18. 18.

    General Winfield Stuck

    The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

    No idea why I said that or what it means.

  20. 20.

    NonyNony

    @Demo Woman:

    Hell, I find it surprising that someone who made an assassination attempt on a President would ever even be eligible for parole.

    I mean yeah, it wasn’t exactly the world’s most competent assassination attempt, and it’s an open question about whether she was really trying to kill him or if she was just going for a suicide by cop thing or trying to get herself thrown into prison like Manson or what. Still, I’m surprised that she didn’t get enough of a sentence to not make her eligible for parole until she was 90 or something.

  24. 24.

    NonyNony

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    When Ford passed away, weren’t there news stories about a secret interview he had given calling the Cheney admin. a bunch of morans, with the understanding that it was not to be released while he was still living?

    Kind of, but not really. Mostly he just criticized them for putting all of their eggs into the WMD basket for justifying their little war.

    Here I found the article for you:

    “Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction,” Ford said. “And now, I’ve never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do.”

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @NonyNony:

    I mean yeah, it wasn’t exactly the world’s most competent assassination attempt, and it’s an open question about whether she was really trying to kill him or if she was just going for a suicide by cop thing or trying to get herself thrown into prison like Manson or what. Still, I’m surprised that she didn’t get enough of a sentence to not make her eligible for parole until she was 90 or something.

    We shoulda paroled her in 2000 along with an “if at first you don’t succeed” pep talk.

  26. 26.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    Jesus. That’s a name I haven’t heard in forever. I was about 9 or 10 when that all went down.

    How many people remember that there was a second attempt on Ford’s life only 17 days later?

  27. 27.

    cbear

    @KCinDC: I say let ’em all go free. By today’s standards, they’re probably less dangerous than your normal gooper.
    Oh wait.

  28. 28.

    Zifnab

    @NonyNony:

    “And now, I’ve never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do.”

    He was about three seconds away from flinging bombs through windows alongside William Ayers. Thank god the CIA stopped him while they had the chance.

  29. 29.

    ellaesther

    Hmmm…. She is being released on the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s 1977 death. Coincidence? Or a left-wing plot to sully the name of the King?

  30. 30.

    Comrade Dread

    I just wonder how people like her are supposed to make it on the outside.

    Book deal and interview money.

  31. 31.

    wilfred

    At the time, the Tate-La Bianca murders were so shocking it seemed like incipient apocalypse, aminly because Tate was pregnant Richard Speck had had an even worse effect.

    It wasn’t as if the times were so innocent either, what with Vietnam etc. Now we can’t even keep up with these things.

    Not with bang, or a whimper, apparently, just an increasing tide of casual murders.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Ford was president during the bicentennial summer of 1976. Queen Elizabeth came over to visit her former colony, and danced with the president at the White House. There was a bit of a kerfuffle about the music the band was playing during their whirl around the floor: “The Lady Is a Tramp.” Most Brits were decidedly not amused, but I have read accounts that the queen herself thought it was pretty funny.

  33. 33.

    Brendan

    Ford had no showmanship, that’s why you can’t remember his passing. Honestly, how are you going to achieve media saturation if you have the poor sense to die during the media’s X-mas break? Yawns aplenty.

    Reagan- now that was a death! Details leaked to Drudge! Family rushing to the side! Battle Hymn as the sun sets mournfully over the valley! Nancy flings herself on the coffin!

    Reagan died in June, and was buried in southern CA. It’s the perfect weather for wingers to salute by the freeway, and it’s an excellent location for the media. None of that trudging up to Grand Rapids in January bullshit. No, sir!

  34. 34.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Grumpy Code Monkey:

    How many people remember that there was a second attempt on Ford’s life only 17 days later?

    I don’t remember that, but in those days, failed POTUS assassination attempts just sort of blended in with all the other crazy shit going on.

    It is odd to me though, that with all the chaotic events in the 60’s and 70’s, I never felt as worried about the fabric of our society coming unraveled as I do now. When idiot wingnuts screaming at dem townhalls is the most crazy news of the day, politically.

    Maybe cause I was younger, but I really don’t think that’s it. Mysterious.

  35. 35.

    Jay B.

    I just wonder how people like her are supposed to make it on the outside.

    Join a society of like-minded lunatics, preferably one led by a charismatic sociopath.

    Also, John Hinckley just got a hard on for the first time in 10 years.

  36. 36.

    Napoleon

    @The Grand Panjandrum:

    I followed your link to Wiki and read up on the song, and started checking out other songs from that album on Wiki and ran into this about Ob La Di, Ob La Da:

    “According to studio engineer Geoff Emerick, John Lennon openly hated the song, calling it “Paul’s granny shit”. After leaving the studio during recording of the song, (after several days and literally dozens of takes of the song, trying different tempos and styles) Lennon returned a few hours later, heavily drugged, declaring loudly that he was stoned. He then went to the piano and banged out the unique piano introduction to the song, claiming that it was what the song needed. The chords that he played are the ones used in the final mix of the song.”

    God I love The Beatles.

  37. 37.

    srv

    @Demo Woman:

    Maybe she is rehabilitated but as a former member of the Manson family, I find it odd that she is about to be paroled.

    Hinckley has been doing weekly family visits for awhile.

    Maybe his brother and GW’s brother can start having dinners again, when Dad isn’t meeting with the bin Ladens.

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    Ya just take it one president at a time.

    Don’t even joke. Any bets on the first talkshow moron to suggest she be given a gun and a bus ticket to DC?

  39. 39.

    bobbo

    ZOMG they’re letting her out?!?!? Call your Senators! We can’t have convicted attempted murderers roaming our streets. Mittens was right – we need to double Guantanamo.

  41. 41.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    Arty Bremer’s out of jail, too. Maybe the two of them should get married or something.

  44. 44.

    D-Chance.

    Now, if they will on pardon John Warnock Hinkley Jr, all will be good and right in our justice system.

  45. 45.

    Josh

    Squeaky Fromme? She is unworthy of our love.

    [Just to fix the absence of a hip song reference for ya]

  46. 46.

    Trollhattan

    I understand Squeaky was convicted of a federal rap and am not sorry she has had a good long stint in the slam, but will also note waving a pistol at some regular schlub would probably harvest a sentence measured in months rather than decades.

    Just don’t dump her back in Sacto, mmm-kay feds?

  47. 47.

    D-Chance.

    Now, if they will only parole John Warnock Hinkley Jr, all will be good and right in our justice system.

  48. 48.

    Warren Terra

    This is off topic, but highly enjoyable:
    Ezra Klein pens another long post slapping down the glibertarian anti-intellectualism of McMegan.

    More topically: I understand that the Manson “family” continues to be a huge, huge deal with people who were around for the event, and that’s fine and I totally understand, but surely I can’t be the only under-40 who’s a bit puzzled by all the tsuris about them every time one comes up for a parole hearing or whatever.

  49. 49.

    The Moar You Know

    More topically: I understand that the Manson “family” continues to be a huge, huge deal with people who were around for the event, and that’s fine and I totally understand, but surely I can’t be the only under-40 who’s a bit puzzled by all the tsuris about them every time one comes up for a parole hearing or whatever.

    @Warren Terra: These weren’t your garden variety murders – Manson’s group (not Manson, he didn’t actually kill anyone) killed rich people. Some real movers and shakers. That’s the big deal. Can’t allow rich people to be murdered in a civilized society.

    Everyone else seems to be fair game.

  51. 51.

    Steve

    @Warren Terra: These weren’t your garden variety murders – Manson’s group (not Manson, he didn’t actually kill anyone) killed rich people. Some real movers and shakers. That’s the big deal. Can’t allow rich people to be murdered in a civilized society.

    Exacta Mundo!

    And with the ever widening gap between rich and poor it will get a LOT worse before it gets better.

    The tipping point will be when you see up-scale gated communities contracting with the Blackwaters of the world to protect their boodle. No more Mister Rogers at the gate politely directing you to the turn-around.

  52. 52.

    JGabriel

    NonyNony:

    I mean yeah, it wasn’t exactly the world’s most competent assassination attempt, and it’s an open question about whether [Fromme] was really trying to kill him or if she was just going for a suicide by cop thing or trying to get herself thrown into prison like Manson or what.

    Fromme wasn’t part of the Manson murders, and it appears in the Ford case that she was using the gun to make sure she got attention – like John said, not the most stable person out there. The gun itself didn’t have a chambered bullet, and only had one loaded.

    In retrospect, it seems like the assassination charge should have been dropped; she should have just been given a few years instead, say 5 or so, for threatening the president and assault.

    Thirty-four years seems like overkill, though given that it was a president Fromme pointed the gun at, plus the Manson family associations, once can understand the reaction.

    .

  53. 53.

    Maus

    “These weren’t your garden variety murders – Manson’s group (not Manson, he didn’t actually kill anyone) killed rich people.”

    They were also pretty, white, and famous.

  54. 54.

    Linkmeister

    @Warren Terra: Read Bugliosi’s interview in the current Newsweek about the Tate-LaBianca murders. It might give you a better feel for the shocking nature of the crimes:

    The killings were so terribly brutal and savage: 169 stab wounds, seven gunshot wounds. They appeared to be random, with no discernible conventional motive.

  55. 55.

    linda

    It is odd to me though, that with all the chaotic events in the 60’s and 70’s, I never felt as worried about the fabric of our society coming unraveled as I do now.

    i know exactly what you’re saying; i’m truly expecting this to end badly.

    and it’s so weird when you think how serious the social and political protest was.

  56. 56.

    Ash Can

    The morning after that stupid asshole Squeaky took her potshots at the prez, Susan Ford, who sat next to me in poli sci, gave a question-and-answer session for the entire class period. Like the rest of her family, she was the picture of class and grace under pressure. When I think of how far the Republican party has fallen since the days of Gerald Ford, it makes me want to weep, and I’m not even a Republican.

    PS: If Squeaky somehow ends up with a gun in her possession now that she’s out of the big house, I’m going to have a goddamned conniption.

  57. 57.

    Robin G.

    I think it was really the “entire cult bent on bringing about apocalyptic race war via murder so as to rule the world” part that creeped people out — though, yes, the fact that they were rich was big, too.

  58. 58.

    Karatist Preacher

    There is an excellent biography called ‘Squeaky’ that has the best research on the Family as anything I’ve read.

    If you’re into that sort of thing.

  59. 59.

    El Cid

    …with all the chaotic events in the 60’s and 70’s, I never felt as worried about the fabric of our society coming unraveled as I do now.

    Although I still sense a high risk, my feeling for that is way, way down than I felt during the Republican Triumvirate of Venal Idiocy, 2005.

  61. 61.

    robertdsc

    President Ford’s autobiography, A Time To Heal, was an impressive read for me. I gained a measure of admiration for him after reading it.

  62. 62.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @El Cid:

    This is true. In 2006, I was wondering how bad the skeeters would get from living in Guatemala.

  63. 63.

    Deborah

    @HumboldtBlue:
    I heard him interviewed on NPR. Chilling as hell, very “things are hard for the families of the victims*, but they’re really really hard for the poor criminals who followed Charles Manson. These people move me so much…” There might be a case for the woman to be released, but Waters distracted me from that argument with his casual disregard for the seemingly dull murder victims.

    *Also they were hard for the victims, something which doesn’t seem to bother Waters.

  64. 64.

    Darkrose

    @Josh:

    Squeaky Fromme? She is unworthy of our love.

    Dude, you should totally win the interwebs for that one. Creepiest moment in an incredibly creepy show.

  66. 66.

    Batocchio

    I can’t forget Ford, mostly due to the whitewashing of his deal to pardon Nixon, and the media ignoring that he ended the Vietnam War. As others have noted, though, Reagan got much more hoopla, and was depicted (falsely) in much more saintly terms than Ford. (Will Bunch’s Reagan book is great, BTW.)

  67. 67.

    Bass

    “I can’t conjure up one thing that he did besides to pardon Nixon.”

    Didn’t he also try to eat a tamale without unwrapping it?

  68. 68.

    Bass

    “I can’t conjure up one thing that he did besides to pardon Nixon.”

    Didn’t he also try to eat a tamale without unwrapping it?

  69. 69.

    JB

    “I can’t conjure up one thing that he did besides to pardon Nixon.”

    Didn’t he also try to eat a tamale without unwrapping it?

  70. 70.

    Punchy

    Speakin of guns and threats and stuff, Dem Rep (Miller?) now gettin death threats. Can’t link from phone.

  71. 71.

    MikeJ

    “I can’t conjure up one thing that he did besides to pardon Nixon.”

    Fell down the steps of AF One. I always preferred Chevy Chase’s impersonations to those done by later SNLers. No makeup, no accent, just funny.

  75. 75.

    kay

    I have been to the Ford library, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, not once, but twice, because… there’s too much to see in one day! That part isn’t true. I don’t remember why I went the second time.

    It looks like him. Low-key. His library is a little sad because it’s completely eclipsed by that other Michigan Ford, Henry, who has a popular museum.

  76. 76.

    Napoleon

    @Linkmeister:

    Without reading the story, and going off of a 35 year old memory, didn’t they, for example, leave a table fork sticking in the belly of one of the victims.

  77. 77.

    kay

    Ford tried to Whip Inflation Now but Americans wouldn’t help him because we’re not team players.
    You’d know all this if you’d go to his library. Plenty of parking.

  79. 79.

    Linkmeister

    @Napoleon: That’s not mentioned in the interview I linked to. I don’t remember. When it happened I was living on Guam with no TV and the Stars and Stripes for a newspaper, so I’m not quite au courant on the details.

  80. 80.

    PeakVT

    Ezra Klein pens another long post slapping down the glibertarian … McMegan.

    He doesn’t slap her down; he feeds her through a wood chipper.

  81. 81.

    mcd

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    It is odd to me though, that with all the chaotic events in the 60’s and 70’s, I never felt as worried about the fabric of our society coming unraveled as I do now.

    I was 8 in ’78 when the Memphis police and firefighters went on strike at the same time. The National Guard came in to patrol the streets and to fight fires that were set, some by strikers. Dusk to dawn curfew. (Not to mention double digit inflation, gas lines, mortgage rates through the roof — some of which was caused by Nixon’s price and wage controls *damned socialist*).

    I’m not saying we’re not going to get there, but we certainly haven’t yet.

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    Although I still sense a high risk, my feeling for that is way, way down than I felt during the Republican Triumvirate of Venal Idiocy, 2005.

    During the Cheney Administration, I was frequently afraid that “we”, i.e. the guys with access to nuclear weapons, would manage to destroy the whole godsdamned world. These days, I’m more afraid that the Rethuglican bitter-enders, in conjunction with the lost, desperate, and crazy, will manage to destroy what’s left of the American Experiment — partially out of malice, mostly through sheer incompentence / insanity. So I guess it’s an improvement in the general sense, but on the other hand, if the Dubya Regency had managed to spark a nuclear conflagration, it would have been a lot quicker to not-live through.

  83. 83.

    2th&nayle

    @Bass: Now, now, let’s give credit where it’s due. Ford was an All-American linebacker/center for the Michigan “Wolverines!” And he was also on the Warren Commission. If that don’t qualify you to be appointed President what does? Oh, wait….

  84. 84.

    Lesley

    Too bad she couldn’t have been out sooner. Someone could have matched her with the PA shooter.

  85. 85.

    Michael #2

    I just lectured on this the other day to my students – I told them that she was up for parole, and now I bet all of them still don’t care. Squeaky was nuts; the other attempted assassin of Ford (Sarah Jane Moore) was paroled in 2007. (Again, Ford having died in 2006.) In honor, as an alum: Hail to the Victors! (Which Ford had played instead of “Hail to the Chief” at some events.) Best. Fight. Song. Ever.

    And as an aside, the Ford Library is on North Campus in Ann Arbor (right next to the Bentley Library) – the Museum is in GR. But still, the library is kind of sad, kind of lonely. Ignominy is fitting though, since he got Darth Dick and Donald their starts (and Nixon once called Rumsfeld “a ruthless little bastard,” though Nixon meant that as a compliment).

  86. 86.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Demo Woman:
    Hell, I find it surprising that someone who made an assassination attempt on a President would ever even be eligible for parole.

    @NonyNony
    I mean yeah, it wasn’t exactly the world’s most competent assassination attempt, and it’s an open question about whether she was really trying to kill him or if she was just going for a suicide by cop thing or trying to get herself thrown into prison like Manson or what. Still, I’m surprised that she didn’t get enough of a sentence to not make her eligible for parole until she was 90 or something.

    Well it wasn’t like they were shooting at a real president who was elected or anything. It was just Jerry Ford.

  88. 88.

    Robert Waldmann

    I too complete forgot that Ford passed away.

    We have a serious shortage of ex presidents not named George Bush.

  89. 89.

    Ken J.

    I’m still reasonably proud of having been a Gerald Ford backer in my younger days. Richard Nixon’s crimes against his political opposition and SE Asia mostly passed from the scene with his resignation, and on domestic policy, Nixon & Ford presided over an era which was far to the left of anything seen since. I miss that party, sometimes.

    What passes for my radicalization started with Reagan in 1980 and was complete by about 1988, when the saner members of the old GOP establishment had departed and the southern fundamentalist loons took full control, and when the GOP drift towards mob-based authoritarianism had become clear.

    As someone else said, I didn’t leave the party, the party left me.

    The nation’s unfortunately problem is that our system of government still requires a sane opposition party.

  90. 90.

    Sad_Dem

    @Demo Woman:

    Maybe she is rehabilitated but as a former member of the Manson family, I find it odd that she is about to be paroled.

    So, you are a former member of the Manson family?

    /grammar nazi

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