Why Would Have Anyone Wished To Harm Gerald R. Ford, All-American? September 5, 2010

 

 

A Fine Way to Protest Charles Manson's Arrest and Trial

Ford Cosmo Cover Boy 1942

On This Date in History: Gerald R. Ford was a long standing and well respected Congressman from Michigan’s 5th Congressional District for nearly 25 years.  For eight years, he served as the Republican House Minority Leader and was well thought of by both sides of the aisle.  In 1973, he was appointed to be the 40th Vice President of the United States following the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.  When President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Gerald R. Ford became the 38th President of the United States and the first to hold the highest office in the land without ever being elected as either President  or Vice-President.  Ford is generally regarded as a good man who did the best that he could holding the country together following the end of the Vietnam War and also following the fisaco that was Watergate.  He was an Eagle Scout, an All-American football player at Michigan, graduated from Yale Law School.  Gerald R. Ford was even was a magazine model. He also served his country in the United States Navy in World War II and was appointed by President Johnson to be a part of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy.  In spite of this good-guy image, not one,  but two people tried to assassinate President Ford in 1975.  I mean, what did he do to get shot?

Fromme Arrested at the Scene in Sacarmento

Nothing I suppose except perhaps, for some, his pardon of Richard Nixon just a month following Nixon’s resignation may have been an issue.  But, by 1975, the  ink on that pardon had long since dried.  Where Ford may have gone wrong was  to get that attention of Charles Manson’s followers. On this date in 1975, the woman shown above, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme raised a loaded .45 Colt automatic pistol toward Ford.  Secret Service agents intervened before any shots were fired.  But, she plead not guilty, saying that since the gun wasn’t cocked…well that proved he had no intent to shoot the President. No one bought that story and off to a life sentence she went…until she escaped in 1987. She was quickly recaptured and, get this, our criminal justice system added five years to her life sentence. I guess her corpse will remain behind bars for 5 years, unless its released for good behaviour.

A Picture Of a Would Be Assassin

Lynette Fromme was from California and began drinking and drugging while she was still in high school.  She managed to graduate in 1966, tried college but dropped out after a few months.  She then came upon Charles Manson and became one of his followers.  She took up with Manson and a bunch of other hippies at the Spahn Ranch in Death Valley.  She got the name “Squeaky” because she would squeak whenever the proprietor of the ranch, George Spahn  tried to grope her, which supposedly was often.  She was never implicated in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969 that sent Manson to prison for good, but she did do some time for trying to prevent Manson’s followers from testifying at his trial as well as for her own refusal to testify.

She didn't really want to shoot Ford. The gun wasn't cocked!

She moved to Stockton, California and ended up in another murder mystery.  The couple with whom she was living wound up dead.  She was taken into custody but escaped the justice system for a lack of evidence.  Now, supposedly she had a history of mental illness so perhaps she was looking to get caught or something because she certainly made sure there was no lack of evidence with her next brush with the law.  When Ford was scheduled to visit Sacramento, California, she decided to go see the president to plead with him about the plight of California’s Redwoods.  What better way to plead with the president and get his attention than by showing up in the crowd in a nun’s outfit packing a forty five?  Not only were there a bunch of witnesses, but she also managed to get herself on TV and even say a few words into the cameras as she was hauled away in handcuffs.

Fromme and Part of the "Manson Family"

Preparing for her trial was a nightmare for her attorney as she refused to cooperate in her own defense.  Thus, she ended up with the old “the gun wasn’t cocked” defense.  During her trial, when the prosector was explaining why he urged the court to sentence Fromme to the maximum sentence, she threw an apple at the prosecutor, who was hit in the face by the flying forbidden fruit.   A few years after being sent up for life, she was transferred out of the women’s unit in Dublin, California after she attacked another inmate with the claw end of a hammer.  For some reason, in 1987, she found herself not in a tough prison, but instead to the same minimum security, Alderson Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia that later housed none other than Martha Stewart.   It was from that facility that she fled thinking that she would be able to see Charles Manson, whom she heard was suffering from testicular cancer.  It only took two days to recapture her and she was later transferred to a Federal Medical Center in Carswell, Texas.  Each time she came up for parole, she waived her rights.  

Squeaky Made the Papers

To sum it all up, Lynette Fromme had a history of drug abuse, alchohol abuse, violence and mental illness and had been associated with events that surrounded two murder cases.  So, she was released from prison from her “life sentence” (plus 5 years) in August 2009. 

Ford Hustled Away in San Francisco Following Moore's Attempt

The second assassination attempt on President Ford came 17 days after Fromme’s botched attempt by another woman, Sara Jane Moore. This time the alleged Manson follower assailent squeezed a shot off but missed because a former Marine was nearby who grabbed her arm. I’m not sure if the bullet hit anything but I know she went to jail too for life to the same prison as Fromme.  It has been argued that Moore was, in fact, not a member of the Manson Family.  However, Moore and Manson actually grew up in the same town in West Virginia.  That doesn’t make her a Manson follower but it would be a strange coincidence.  Further, a former inmate at a prison that held Moore refers to her, Sandra Good and “other Manson girls”  as she recounts conversations the inmate had with Sara Jane Moore.   In any event, in 1989,  Moore also escaped and was later captured.  Like Fromme, the then 77-year-old Moore was released from prison in 2008. 

For some reason, I don’t believe that Moore got an extra five years for her escape attempt.  I think they need a new prison and maybe they shouldn’t refer to sentences as life since its obvious that all will be forgiven 30 years after one tries to kill the president.

President Escapes Assassination Attempt; Omar Lurks In Tropics? October 14, 2008

Rain Total Forecast Through Sat Night 1018

Our forecast stays generally on track with some modifications. We have a weak boundary in the middle of the week that will bring perhaps some light showers late Wednesday into early Thursday. But, with the long wave (jetstream) pattern shifting east, this feature will most likely lift north and then a more significant boundary will move through. The models seem to have come around with a continuity advertising a shortwave moving down on Friday, which will elevate our rain chances higher than perhaps I suggested before. The HPC rain total shown above is the total rain for both features with a total of 1/2″ to 3/4″ area wide so neither event will be huge but collectively we will take what we can get. Much cooler air filters in for the weekend. Wouldn’t be surprised to see some frost on the pumpkin in outlying areas on Saturday night.

Atlantic IR Satellite 1014 0215Z

Tropical Depression 15 Forecast Track 1013 11pm

Tropics: The tropics are active in regard to the number of systems but not in the

Invest 99 Spaghetti Model 1013 12Z

significance. Tropical Storm Nana is in the process of being ripped to bits so we won’t worry about that. Invest 90 is way out there and there are lots of variables. On a more significant note, Tropical Depression 15 is not Omar yet but probably will be sometime during the day. It is the feature in the Easstern Caribbean on the satellite photo above. It is forecast to become a hurricane but be mainly of concern for mariners. The feature on the west side of the Caribbean looks interesting but is very close to land and should move into Central America over the next day or so. But the steering currents are such that it probably is worth monitoring.
On This Date in History: Lost to much of the pages of history are attempted assassinations. (Here is a list of failed presidential assassinations) President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 was a former President who was running to get his old job back. He had filled the term of the assassinated President McKinley and finished his own term in 1908. In deference to the precedent set by President Washington, Teddy Roosevelt decided against running in 1908, instead promoting his Vice-President William Howard Taft who won handily. Teddy was not happy with the way in which Taft ran things and decided to challenge him for the Republican nomination for the 1912 election but power interests in the party which had fared better with Taft than Roosevelt, backed Taft and Roosevelt did not get the Republican nomination. So, he formed his own party, the Progressive Party, which came to be known as the “Bull Moose Party” after TR’s tough-guy bull-moose image. Roosevelt ended up getting about 12 million votes to Taft’s 8 million but the pair split the Republican vote which led to the election of Woodrow Wilson as President.

On October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt got into a car after dining at a hotel in Milwaukee. He was headed to give a speech. When he turned to wave to the crowd, a shot rang out from the .38 caliber revolver in the hand of John Schrank. Schrank had been pursuing Roosevelt for many days over many miles. He had been reported to be having dreams of William McKinley and also felt that no one should get more than two terms as president. When Roosevelt turned to the crowd from his car, it opened up and opportunity for Schrank to shoot the candidate at close range.

The shot his Roosevelt squarely in the chest. But, in his breast pocket, Teddy had the thick, 50 page, folded up text of his planned 90 minute speech. He also had a metal spectacle case. The bullet was slowed by the eye-glasses case and the thick speech. While the bullet entered his body, it did not penetrate his heart. Initially, Roosevelt did not realize that he had been shot but, after he did, he insisted on giving his speech. He arrived on the podium and proudly showed the crowd the hole in his speech and said that it took more than an assassins bullet to kill a bull moose. While the speech (text of speech) was abbreviated, he still stood before the crowd for quite awhile and rebuffed attempts to get him to conclude the speech so he could go to the hospital for attention. He went to the hospital in Milwaukee and reluctantly allowed for a tetnus injection and then went to a Chicago hospital where he was released on October 23. But, that was just a little more than a week before the election and he was prevented from making important campaign stops, which may have influenced the election and leading to Wilson’s victory.

Here’s the kicker. The bullet was never removed.