Who Is Lynette Fromme? New Details On The Woman Still In Love With Charles Manson
50 years after the Manson murders, one woman still loves the cult leader. Who is Lynette Fromme?
Getty In the 50 years since members of the so-called Manson Family murdered nine people in a savage killing spree in California, the mystique surrounding the murderous cult leader hasn’t dissipated. That’s especially true for Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme who lived with the Manson Family from 1967 until Mason’s arrest in 1969. Even after he was jailed, she never stopped trying to contact him, attempting to visit him, and, at one time, escaping prison to go be with him as he was treated for cancer. Now, Fromme, along with fellow Family member Dianne Lake, have agreed to appear in an ABC special called “Manson Girls," which debuted on April 30. In the special Fromme speaks admiringly of the cult leader and says she was “honored to have known him. Fromme wasn’t part of the infamous killings in Hollywood but she was sentenced to life in prison in 1975 after attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford. She was paroled after serving 34 years and moved to upstate New York, where she still lives. Who is Lynette Fromme?
1. Mason took her in
Fromme was a runaway from her home in Redondo Beach, California when she met Mason in Venice Beach in 1967. The New York Post reports that she said: “My father and I, we argued one night and he said, ‘Get out and don’t ever come back,’ I hitchhiked to a place in Venice. …I thought maybe somebody would take me in… and here comes Charlie.” She claims that in her time living on the ranch with Mason, he never asked her to do anything, which is a direct contrast to nearly everyone else involved with Manson who all reported following his orders. Fromme said: “He said, ‘I can’t make up your mind for you.’ That’s why I went with him. And he never did make up my mind for me. These stories that have come out about his ordering people to do things … [he] never ordered me.”
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme in the 1960s.
2. Support
Fromme was one of the women who appeared every day during Mason’s trial, singing and sitting in the courthouse to show their support for the murderous mastermind. She and the other women even carved Xs into their foreheads to show their solidarity with him. At the time, they all believed that this was part of some master plan to incite a race war that would change the world order. In 2019, Radar Online reports that Fromme recalls, “There was going to be a revolution, and it would be violent.”
Fromme and other Manson supporters at his trial.
3. Attempted Assassination
Fromme was not involved with the Sharon Tate murders but she didn’t avoid jail time eventually. In 1975, she entered a federal building with a weapon and pointed the gun at President Gerald Ford in a failed attempt at assassinating him. She was arrested and convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in federal prison. While serving, she had to be transferred from one facility to another after attacking a fellow inmate with a hammer. In 1987, she escaped from a prison in West Virginia in an attempt to go find Manson, who had cancer at the time. She was ultimately imprisoned in Texas until she was paroled in 2009.
Fromme at her trial.
4. After Manson
Fromme ultimately settled in Macry, New York where she lives with Robert Valdner, 69, who spent some time in prison himself for the 1989 manslaughter of his brother-in-law. The two met as prison pen pals before Fromme’s release. A neighbor told Radar Online: “He’s got a wild past and a collection of books on Manson and murders. At Christmas, he decorates his tree with lighted skulls. He has a large collection of knives and swords.” Manson served the remainder of his life at California State Prison in Corcoran and died in 2017 at the age of 83.
Fromme now lives in upstate New York.
5. Still in love
The New York Post reports that Fromme is still in love with the now-dead cult leader. “Was I in love with Charlie? Yeah, oh yeah, oh, I still am, still am. I don’t think you fall out of love, “ she said on the ABC special “Manson Girls,” which aired on April 30, 2019. She went on to say: “I feel very honored to have met him, and I know how that sounds to people who think he’s the epitome of evil.”
Fromme appeared on "Manson Girls."
Dakota Fanning will play Fromme in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a Quentin Tarantino directed film about Manson set to open later this month.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.