Parole granted to Squeaky Fromme after serving 30+ years in prison

This New York Times article provides the details on a high-profile parole granted to a notorious female offender:

Lynette A. Fromme, the waifish acolyte of Charles Manson who tried to kill President Gerald R. Ford in September 1975, was released on parole from federal prison in Texas on Friday morning after spending three decades behind bars, a prison official said.  At 8 a.m., Ms. Fromme, 60, walked out of the Federal Medical Center Carswell, a prison and hospital complex in Fort Worth.

Citing privacy rules, federal officials would not say where Ms. Fromme, whose nickname is Squeaky, intended to live or who had picked her up, though they said she would be closely supervised. “She is on parole for the rest of her life,” said Tom Hutchison, the chief of staff of the United States Parole Commission.

Ms. Fromme was 26 when she pushed through a crowd in Sacramento, pulled a pistol from a holster on her thigh and tried to fire at President Ford, who was walking from his hotel to the State Capitol. The gun clicked.  It had no bullet in the chamber, but four in the magazine.  Secret Service agents wrestled her to the ground.

Ms. Fromme was sentenced to life in prison after a raucous trial during which she tried to represent herself, tried to call Mr. Manson as a witness, was removed from the courtroom for violent outbursts and threw an apple at the judge.

Mr. Manson had recruited Ms. Fromme off the street in the Venice section of Los Angeles when she was a troubled 18-year-old college student.  She remained obsessed with Mr. Manson, even after he and five followers murdered the actress Sharon Tate and eight other people in 1969. Ms. Fromme was never charged in connection with that crime, though she had been living with Mr. Manson’s group at the time.  She kept a vigil at Mr. Manson’s trial and, like other supporters, carved an X in her forehead in a gesture of solidarity.

In 1987, she escaped from a low-security woman’s prison in Alderson, W. Va., but was recaptured two days later.  She said she had run off to be closer to Mr. Manson, who is serving a life term in Corcoran State Prison in California.

Though she was eligible for parole in 1985, she refused to apply.  She was finally granted an automatic parole hearing in July 2008 and released for good conduct, officials said.  Still, her release was delayed a year as she completed another sentence for her escape.