Lynette Fromme: Gerald Ford’s Trial Testimony Released By Federal Court Monday


Lynette Fromme, a member of the Manson family popularly known as Squeaky Fromme, is back in the headlines on Tuesday. Fromme got famous trying and failing to assassinate then-President Gerald Ford in a park in Sacramento, California in September1975.

She spent most of the following decades in prison. She was paroled in 2009 after serving 34 years for the failed attempt on Gerald Ford’s life.

According to WTNH, the Eastern District Historical Society filed a motion to unseal long-forgotten video testimony that Ford gave in connection with the Lynette Fromme trial. A federal court released the roughly 20-minute video on Monday.

The Washington Post said the footage was important because it was the first time a sitting president had ever given oral testimony in a criminal trial.

In the calm, fairly unemotional description of events, Ford said that he noticed a weathered woman in a bright dress but didn’t notice her face.

His attention seemed to have been distracted by her outfit and then captured by the gun, which he saw at a distance of about two feet away.

According to Ford, what he saw was “simply a hand with the weapon in it, at a height between my knee and my waist, approximately.”

Fromme was stopped by a Secret Service agent. Gerald Ford was not hurt and passed away at age 93.

Although she was a member of the notorious Manson family, Fromme was never implicated in any of the 1969 murders that sent several of her associates to prison for life. Charles Manson, the leader, was sentenced to death. However, his sentence was changed to life in 1972 when California called a temporary halt in executions.

There are occasional rumors that the family was involved in several other unsolved cases. This year, Los Angeles prosecutors have been reviewing old audiotape to see if they can find new leads in some cold cases.

Lynette Fromme is now 64 years old and remains free on parole.

[Lynette Fromme, Gerald Ford photos via Wikimedia]

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