TRIALS: Fromme's Fate

On the final day of her trial, she arrived in court carrying the red robe that she had been wearing on the day of the incident. When she disrupted the proceedings, the judge sent her to wait in a cell of the federal courthouse in Sacramento. There she even refused to watch her fate unfold on closed-circuit TV. Boycotting her own trial, defiant to the end, Lynette ("Squeaky") Fromme, 27, was found guilty last week of attempting to assassinate President Ford. She could be sentenced to prison for life.

Fromme's trial was as bizarre as her actions in front of the California state capitol on Sept. 5, when she pointed a loaded .45 Colt automatic at Ford. She insisted upon running her own defense. Although the demand was reluctantly granted by Judge Thomas J. MacBride, he named Attorney John Virga to help her out. Fromme later tried to fire Virga, but MacBride vetoed the attempt.

Calling Manson. Fromme claimed that she could not be tried fairly unless she could call as a witness her mentor Charles Manson, who still heads a "family" of disciples. When MacBride turned her down, Fromme leaped to her feet and declared, "Your honor, Manson and that family is my own heartbeat ... it's going to get bloody if they are not allowed to speak."

After that outburst, Fromme virtually dropped out. Because she refused to leave her cell, she had to be carried to the courtroom. She would arrive with her eyes blindfolded by a red bandanna that she tied on herself.

The defense's prize witness was Gerald Ford, who appeared on video tape. His account — given under oath in Washington — was the first testimony ever presented by a sitting President in either a criminal or civil case. Dramatically, Ford told how he had been confronted by Fromme. "I saw a hand come through the crowd," he said, adding, "in the hand there was a gun."

But Ford seemed to undermine the Government's claim that Fromme actually pulled the trigger of her automatic in an effort to kill him. The President said he could not recall hearing the gun click. Virga argued that his client had no intention of killing Ford, but simply wanted to get publicity for her concerns about the environment and her efforts to free Manson.

After deliberating nearly 20 hours, the jurors gave their verdict and disappeared without granting any interviews. They reportedly feared reprisals from the Manson family if their names became well known.

Fromme will return to Judge MacBride's court for sentencing on Dec. 17. On that date, Sara Jane Moore is scheduled to be on trial in San Francisco for firing a shot at President Ford a fortnight after Fromme made her attempt.