A Life Thrown Away

40 years ago America was deeply divided, torn asunder by forces the country didn’t even know it was dealing with. War raged in Viet Nam, American Blacks were still fighting for their Civil Rights won earlier in the 1960’s, struggling for an identity in what many of them perceived as a “White man’s world,” and a hippie sub-culture was growing, along with the drug culture and “free love” attitude associated with it.

The country, much like today, was tearing at the seams as everybody decided they had a better way. Revolution was in the air and many were acting out violently against traditional America.

In the midst of all that, pure evil reared its head in Los Angeles as the Manson Family went on a short but gruesome and brutal murder spree, throwing the city into near panic.

Not all followers of the cult took part in the murders and after the convictions and death sentences were handed down, many scattered to all corners, some still mesmerized by Charles Manson and others realizing how mislead they had been by this purely evil person.

How this purely evil persona could poison the minds of young people as he did, convincing such moldable youth that he was some sort of god and convince them to murder people so brutally, including a pregnant Sharon Tate, then use their own blood to write messages of hate inside their homes, is something that I cannot fathom.

I am the same age as many of those young people and looked upon the same world they did, held many of the same worries and maybe even wanted many of the same things. We all did.

They drifted to drugs, mayhem and a false messiah.

I joined the United States Army.

Those directly involved in the murderous spree were tried, convicted and sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment after the US Supreme Court ruled death penalties were unconstitutional in 1972.

Various other members of the Manson Family drifted away after the trials, some never heard from again, some still carrying on in other crimes less notable, but one relatively unknown at the time, was to become almost as notorious as those who carried out Manson’s order for murder.

That one, Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, an innocent looking waif of a girl made headlines for the group in 1975 when she approached President Gerald Ford with a 45 Automatic Pistol in her hand, pointed right at him. Only later was it learned she did not have a round chambered, although it had a 4 bullets in the magazine. Secret Service Agents did their jobs and took her down immediately, understandably assuming an assassination attempt.



Hidden behind that youthful appearance of innocence was the heart of a very disturbed young woman who would fall prey to Charles Manson, posing for nude photo’s that Manson used to entice some members of an Aryan Brotherhood to protect him in prison and who would camp outside the court with others during the trials.

She was a girl my age, just a few weeks younger, who grew up in a home with privileges I could only dream of in my own youth.

In High School, she drifted into drugs and booze, but graduated. She left home, but returned when her father paid her way into a Community College, which didn’t last. Moving out again, she and Manson ‘found’ each other and the family began and grew, ultimately leading to the murders.

I recall seeing of her in the news for the first time right after her arrest for the run-in with President Ford and thought even then, why would such an innocent looking young woman go down that road? Such sad eyes and a peculiar cuteness in her physical appearance than many guys I knew would have warmed to.

It all hid a malicious heart, as her biography today shows.

At 27 years of age, Lynette received a life sentence for her acts. She had a couple run-ins while in prison. She escaped once for two days in 1987, adding to her time before parole. She even turned down opportunities to go before the parole board and was denied parole the last time.

Today, August 14, 2009 she walked out of prison, a drawn 60 year-old woman still drawn to Manson as far as any one knows.



No husband. No children and of course, no grandchildren to greet her and take her home. No fond memories of children growing up, giving birth to their own children, building a life and a home together, just memories of a lifetime of prison walls and before that, life on a decrepit ranch in the California desert with the Manson family, both of which are also gone today.

Could she possibly feel it was worth it? Her involvement with a pure evil person like Charles Manson? Spending her early adulthood in crimes, taking advantage of people who mistook her look of innocence for a sweet person, only to cause them hurt?

A human life, thrown away and wasted.

What now for Lynette?

Only time will tell, but the facade of sweet innocence is forever gone, replaced by the look of a drawn old lady with nothing to show for a life and undeserving of sympathy.

She threw it away before it even had a chance to begin.