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LYNETTE "SQUEAKY" FROMME
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From the Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1975:
Grand Jury Indicts Fromme
No Conspiracy Alleged in Ford Death Attempt
By William Endicott
Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO--Charles Manson cultist Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme was indicted by a grand jury here Wednesday for attempting to assassinate the President.
The maximum penalty, if found guilty, is life in prison.
Amid strict secrecy and security, the 22-member grand jury heard the government's case against Fromme for almost five hours before returning the indictment just before 3 p.m.
The single count would seem to indicate that officials are convinced Fromme acted alone when she leveled a .45-caliber automatic at Mr. Ford just outside the state Capitol last Friday, but U.S. Atty. Dwayne Keyes told reporters:
"There was no conspiracy alleged (but) the investigation is continuing."
Concerned about pretrial publicity, U.S. Dist. Judge Thomas J. MacBride issued a gag order prohibiting those involved in the case, including the defendant herself, from discussing it.
MacBride said he imposed the restrictions "because of the sensitive nature of the case."
The one paragraph indictment said Fromme "on or about Sept. 5, 1973 [sic], in the city and county of Sacramento, state and Eastern District of California, did knowingly and willfully attempt to kill Gerald R. Ford, the President of the United States."
She will be arraigned on the indictment this morning in the federal courthouse just four blocks from the Capitol where the attempt on Mr. Ford's life took place.
The attempt occured as the President walked through a crowd in Capitol Park en route to a meeting with Gov. Brown and an address to a joint session of the California Legislature.
Fromme thrust the pistol at Mr. Ford from a distance of 2 or 3 feet, but no shot was fired and she was grabbed by a Secret Service agent. It was later determined that there were four bullets in the gun's clip but none in the firing chamber.
Among the key witnesses before the grand jury was the gun's owner, Harold Eugene Boro of Jackson, a 66-year-old grandfather described by sources as a "sugar daddy" for Fromme and other of Manson's female followers now living in Sacramento.
Boro, wearing a yellow baseball-type golf cap and a yellow golf shirt, was whisked into the courthouse by FBI agents Wednesday afternoon and out again about an hour later. He looked grim and nervous and made no comment to reporters.
Keyes later said he contemplated no charges being filed against Boro, who apparently befriended Fromme and was unaware of her relationship to Manson.
There have been conflicting reports about how Fromme got the gun from Boro.
Columnist Jack Anderson reported Tuesday that Boro was showing it to her when she grabbed it and ran away. But FBI sources told The Times Boro gave it to her because she said she needed it for protection.
It is not known whether she knew how to operate the weapon, which had not been cocked, although Boro reportedly had demonstrated its use for her.
Meanwhile, The Times learned that Fromme had been using Boro's name, and the name of a "Kay Boro", and Post Office boxes in Sacramento and Jackson to recieve mail from Manson during a period when he was in nearby Folsom State Prison and prohibited from writing to her.
After he was moved to San Quentin, however, the mailing restrictions were lifted and he and Fromme have been communicating frequently, according to prison authorities.
Sources also told The Times that a "Kay Boro" was on Manson's approved visitors list at San Quentin, but authorities said no such name was listed. They said Manson's only visitor has been Los Angeles attorney Irving Kanarek, a defense lawyer in Manson's 1970 and 1971 trials for the murders of actress Sharon Tate and eight others.
MacBride continued the $1 million bail under which Fromme is being held under tight security in the Sacramento County Jail. Keyes, the U.S. attorney, said he expected her trial to begin in 60 to 90 days, but would say little else because of MacBride's gag order.
In a brief press confrence after the indictment was returned, Keyes read a four-paragraph news release and turned aside nearly all other questions, including an inquiry on the number of witnesses called before the grand jury.
It was the first time since the law was passed after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 that anyone has been indicted on the federal charge of attempting to kill a President.
In addition to the gag order, MacBride also set down rigid rules for behavior in the courtroom during Fromme's arraignment today and her trial to follow.
Among the rules are a ban on standing in the courtroom and a prohibition on cameras and tape recorders not only in the courtroom but in the hallway outside.
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