A handgun, a president, a Manson follower came together in Sacramento 45 years ago

In October 1998, while the impeachment process against then-President Bill Clinton was raging, former President Gerald R. Ford paid a visit to Sacramento for a speaking engagement at Cal Expo.

Before his speech, the former president took time out for an interview with The Sacramento Bee and mused about a previous visit he paid to Capitol Park on Sept. 5, 1975 — 45 years ago Saturday.

“I drove by the place where Squeaky Fromme tried to take a shot at me and, obviously, it was interesting,” Ford said. “That was what, 24 years ago? Well, I’m glad to be here as I am.”

Ford, who was uninjured in the assassination attempt by Lynette Alice “Squeaky” Fromme, died in 2006, at the age of 93.

But his one-day visit to Sacramento that day, which included plans for a breakfast speech, then a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown and speech to the Legislature, has lived on in Sacramento history.

In recent years, a videotape of Ford’s deposition, taken for use as evidence in the trial against Fromme, was released in digital form in response to motions filed in federal court by the Eastern District Historical Society and The Bee.

And a 132-minute audiotape of Fromme’s 1975 psychiatric exam following the attempt was released in 2014 in response to a request by The Bee.

“What are you charged with, Lynette?” psychiatrist James R. Richmond asks on the recording.

“Attempted assassination of the president of the United States,” Fromme replied.

Fromme, who was 26 at the time, was later convicted in a trial in federal court in Sacramento and imprisoned until her release in 2009. Fromme, who maintained following the attempt that she didn’t actually mean to kill the president, now lives in upstate New York.

A Santa Monica native, Fromme moved to Sacramento in the 1970s to be closer to Charles Manson, who at the time was serving nine life terms in Folsom Prison following his 1969 convictions in the slayings of actress Sharon Tate and others.

Fromme and fellow Manson disciple Sandra Good lived in a $100-a-month attic apartment in the 1700 block of P Street, not far from The Sacramento Bee newsroom, which she frequently visited to advocate for Manson.

She also was a dinner guest once at her landlord’s home, said Evan Chesler, who grew up in Sacramento and recalled a Thanksgiving feast on P Street in the 1970s after his grandfather had rented the apartment to them.

“The doorbell rang, and I went to answer it,” Chesler wrote in an email recounting the story that has become part of family lore. “When I opened the door, I found two women standing there.

“They wore simple red dresses and each woman had a ‘cross’ cut into her forehead. Now, I might not have been the smartest 13-year-old kid in the history of the world, but I recognized ‘Manson Family’ members when I saw them. Mustering up my courage and trying to make my 13-year-old voice sound as tough and macho as I could, I said, ‘Can I help you?’

“One of the women said, ‘We’re here for Thanksgiving.’”

Chesler, now 60, says he sat next to Fromme at dinner that night.

“This story has been repeated many times between family and friends over the years,” he wrote in an email. “With the passage of time, the story has transitioned from a kind of scary story to something of a comedy.

“I don’t remember much else about that Thanksgiving. But I’ll tell you one thing for sure — I kept a close eye on Fromme’s dinner knife during that ENTIRE meal.”

Months later, around 9:30 a.m. on that Friday in September, Fromme left the P Street house wearing a flowing red robe and carrying a .45-caliber pistol loaded with four rounds and strapped into a holster on her leg.

She walked to the L Street side of Capitol Park near 12th Street, where Ford was walking from the Senator Hotel and shaking hands as he headed for a meeting with the governor.

Fromme pulled the handgun out, pointed it at the president from about 2 feet away, and nothing happened. The gun did not fire, and a Secret Service agent, Sacramento police officer and bystander wrestled her to the ground.

“My first impression was that she wanted to come closer and extend — I thought at the time — a hand to shake, or to say something to me,” Ford said in his 20-minute videotaped deposition, which was taken in a room in the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House on Nov. 1, 1975.

The tape was played during Fromme’s trial, and she was convicted without testifying but after making repeated outbursts. At one point, she was carried into the courtroom after refusing to attend the trial. At another, after closing arguments, she beaned U.S. Attorney Dwayne Keyes with an apple.

She was sentenced to life in prison and, five years after her conviction, told Sacramento Bee reporter Wayne Wilson she had not planned on killing the president.

“I was not determined to kill the guy,” Fromme said then.

That did not dissuade another attempts, however.

Less than three weeks after Fromme was arrested in Sacramento, Ford was targeted outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, where Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at him that missed.

She was sentenced to life in prison and later said she regretted firing the shot. Moore was released from prison in 2007.

Ford ultimately did not hold his misfortunes during his trips to California against the state. He eventually settled into a home in Rancho Mirage, where he died Dec. 26, 2006.

This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.