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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
A follower of cult leader and mass murderer Charles Manson, Lynette ‘‘Squeaky’’ Fromme (October 22, 1948– ) was convicted of trying to kill President Gerald Ford on September 5, 1975, in Sacramento, California. Although she was only two feet from the president, the gun failed to fire because she did not chamber a round into her borrowed Colt M1911A. She was immediately arrested by Secret Service agents.
In 1980, while serving a life sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia, she claimed to have intentionally ejected the top round from the magazine because she was undecided about shooting the president, although this explanation has been challenged, particularly since it occurred five years after the assassination attempt. She escaped from Alderson on December 23, 1987. Authorities captured her two days later near the prison. Upon sentencing for her escape, Fromme was transferred to the Lexington Federal Correctional Institution in Kentucky. She was released from federal custody on August 14, 2009, about 32 months after Ford’s death.
On September 22, 1975, only 17 days after the Fromme attempt, Charleston native Sara Jane Moore unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Ford, in San Francisco, and was also sentenced to the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson.
Encyclopedia of Assassinations. New York: Facts on File, 1991.
Fromme Transferred to Kentucky Prison. Charleston Gazette, 6/5/1988.