Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Former Manson Follower, to Leave Prison: What Will She Do?

Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was subdued by secret service agents after pointing a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol at President Gerald Ford in 1975.  Since that time she has been incarcerated.  She was 26 at the time, and now she is 60 years old.   What will a 60-year old ex-convict with such notoriety do when she is released.  She is untrained in any work, except what she did in prison.  She spent years with the “Manson family”, and never graduated from college.  What do felons do when they leave prison?  They live for a while in a halfway house, and the state tries to find them entry level jobs.  However, in today’s world of electronic data and background checks, one cannot simply move to a new community as a stranger and expect to “start over.”  

She may be on the interview circuit for a short while, and perhaps she will write a book that might interest enough readers to provide her some income.  She probably knows quite a bit about the Manson murders, but that is such history that there may not be more than a very small group of people interested in such an old story.  

Interestingly, she never fired the weapon she aimed at President Ford, and it was never clear if that was her error in loading the weapon or whether the weapon malfunctioned.  Nevertheless, any attempt to assassinate a president carries a maximum life sentence, which she received, although her parole will cut short that life sentence.  One can only hope that with limited options she does not commit further crimes to live where she has lived for most of her life — in prison.