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LYNETTE "SQUEAKY" FROMME
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From Newsweek, November 24, 1975:
TRIALS: Squeaky and Jerry
Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme's lawyer opened her defense in Sacramento last week with a historic announcement: "I'd like to call as my first witness the President of the United States, Gerald R. Ford." With that, Ford's twenty-minute testimony, videotaped in Washington two weeks before, was screened for a packed courtroom. It was the first time a U.S. President had answered questions as a witness in a criminal trial; ironically, it was on behalf of a woman charged with attempting to assassinte him. "I noticed person . . .in a brightly colored dress," Ford said, recalling his encounter with the red-robed Fromme last Sept. 5. "I assumed she wanted to shake hands and so I hesitated instead of keeping moving and as I stopped I saw a hand come through the crowd in the first row . . .in the hand was a weapon." Ford said that Fromme's .45 was aimed at him "between my knee and my waist approximately," but he could not tell if a hand was on the trigger or if the trigger was pulled.
The details that Ford could not recall could be significant for Squeaky's defense. She claims that she did not intend to shoot Ford - that she only wanted to gain publicity for her guru, Charles Manson. The prosecution, which must prove she really intended to kill Ford, last week produced an FBI agent and a criminologist who testified that Fromme's .45 automatic pistol was in firing condition - although no bullet was in the chamber when the pistol was recovered. Two other witnesses said they heard the distinctive click of the hammer hitting the firing pin, and the government holds that only a missed procedural step by Fromme prevented the weapon from discharging.
Squeaky herself spent the week in stubborn isolation from the proceedings, having been banished by the judge unless she promised not to make any further interruptions. Each day she had to be carried bodily - and sometimes blindfolded - into the courthouse, where she repeatedly refused to sit in the courtroom. She also refused to watch a closed-circuit broadcast of the trial in her holding cell, but she did listen from a seat in the hallway, taking notes on a yellow legal pad and sending questions - reportedly quite acute one - to her attorney. The case is expected to go to the jury for a verdict this week.
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