Highlighted Crime
Story of the Week -
On December 17, 1975, a federal jury in Sacramento,
California, sentenced Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, to life in prison for her
attempted assassination of President Gerald R. Ford. On September 5, a Secret
Service agent wrestled a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Fromme, who
brandished the weapon at the President as he walked through the grounds of the California
State Capitol in Sacramento. Fromme, was a follower of convicted murderer Charles
Manson.
Seventeen days later, Ford escaped injury in another
assassination attempt when 45-year-old Sara Jane Moore fired a revolver at him
as he left the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Moore, a leftist radical who
once served as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a
history of mental illness. She was arrested at the scene, convicted, and also sentenced
to life in prison.
In trial, Fromme pleaded not guilty to the “attempted
assassination of a president” charge, arguing that although her gun contained
bullets, it had not been cocked, and therefore she had not actually intended to
shoot the president. She was convicted, sentenced to life in prison, and sent
to the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia.
Fromme remained a dedicated disciple of Charles Manson
and in December 1987 escaped from Alderson Prison after she heard that Manson,
also imprisoned, had cancer. After 40 hours roaming the rugged West Virginia
hills, she was caught on Christmas Day, about two miles from the prison. Five
years were added to her life sentence for the escape. She was eventually
released on parole in August 2009.
Check back every
Monday for a new installment of “This Week in Crime History.”
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com as is the author
of seven nonfiction books that includes the soon to be released In the Company of Evil Thirty Years of
California Crime, 1950-1980 and the award winning Murder and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949.
Visit Michael’s website www.michaelthomasbarry.com
for more information. His books can be purchased from Amazon through the
following links:
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