Fromme Indicted in Escape From Prison; Could Get Five More Years

CHARLESTON, W. Va. — A federal grand jury Tuesday handed up an escape indictment against Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, the Charles Manson follower who is serving a life sentence for trying to kill President Gerald R. Ford.

Fromme, 39, will be arraigned within 10 days in Bluefield before Magistrate Charles Cunningham, Assistant U.S. Atty. Kirk Brandfass said.

She slipped away from the campus-like grounds of the Federal Correctional Institution in Alderson on Dec. 23 and roamed the surrounding hill country for two days before she was recaptured about two miles from the prison.

Fromme, 39, received a life sentence for aiming a .45-caliber pistol at Ford in 1975. She has been described as a cornerstone member of the Manson “family.”

If convicted on the single charge of unlawful escape from a federal institution, she could be sentenced to an additional five years in prison and fined as much as $250,000, Brandfass said.

The indictment does not mention any motive and prison officials have refused to speculate on what prompted her to escape.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Jesse South said Fromme has told him little. “She’s wise enough to know her constitutional rights,” he said.

Fromme, whom one prison worker described as a fitness buff, eluded a search team of about 100 people and dogs for 40 hours before a prison road patrol spotted her near a fishing camp. She surrendered without a struggle.