`Squeaky's' Helter-Skelter Life / Detailed biography has some holes
Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, June 18, 1997
To many, the murderous Manson Family is symbolic of everything bad about the psychedelic '60s: excessive drugs, obsessive sex and twisted rock 'n' roll, all culminating in serial murders to the frenzied rhythm of "Helter Skelter."
Except for Charles Manson's leering face, there is probably no image more symbolic of the Manson clan than that of Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme being wrestled to the ground after attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
In "Squeaky," Jess Bravin attempts to broaden the public's view of Fromme by recounting the events that brought her to that historic moment. Bravin, a member of the University of California Board of Regents and former Chronicle correspondent, has reconstructed Fromme's life from various sources, including thousands of pages of court testimony, newspaper and magazine articles, and his own interviews.
He begins with her childhood in the Los Angeles suburbs, where her talent as a dancer and poet was squelched by her toxic family relationships and abusive father. After dropping out of school for a bohemian life of casual jobs, drinking and drugs, Fromme met Manson through a sheer quirk of fate. She ended up as his lover, worshiper and, ultimately, a disciple in his religion of mindless violence.
Bravin follows Fromme up to the Ford assassination attempt and through her trial and conviction for the botched shooting. He summarizes her public effect in the book's conclusion by noting that "she has secured a place as (a) troubling footnote. . . . Since 1975, she has been mentioned thousands of times in books, newspapers, magazines, films and television programs. In most instances, the name Squeaky Fromme is used as shorthand for violence-prone kook."
As a biography of an admittedly small player in the national drama, "Squeaky" has its moments. Bravin's careful reconstruction of Fromme's troubled early years and school life is interesting as a study in the ways a dysfunctional family can crush a promising child's potential. He also goes into considerable detail about the defense strategy during Fromme's trial -- she was trying to stop the pollution of the Earth -- although the trial was thoroughly covered in the media at the time.
However, Bravin often leaves the reader dangling just short of certainty about critical events in Fromme's life and why she took the path she chose. For example, he strongly suggests that she was sexually abused by her father but never clearly resolves the issue, leaving the reader feeling unsure about what could have been a factor in her later actions.
He also clogs his book with snip pets of trivia that lead nowhere, such as pointing out that one associate, Gregg Jakobson, was "a talent scout who was the son-in-law of Lou Costello, the thicker half of Abbott and Costello," or noting that during the California visit that led to Fromme's assassination attempt, Ford declined to meet with UFW leader Cesar Chavez.
Perhaps a more annoying failing is Bravin's penchant for using superficial descriptions as a form of journalistic shorthand -- a practice that repeatedly results in passages that read as snide put-downs. After noting that Mendocino County was named for a Spanish viceroy, for example, Bravin bluntly tells the reader that the place is really famous for dope: "In 1967, the mammoth, sparsely populated expanse of woods and streams was mainly known for sinsemilla, the potent strain of marijuana obtained from unpollenated female plants."
"Squeaky's" biggest fault, however, is that it fails to explain why Manson and his followers were suddenly transformed from drug- addled hippies into homicidal lunatics. Bravin mentions that the group's members had switched from LSD and marijuana to methamphetamine in the late '60s, but he describes no corresponding shift in the family's philosophical line.
This is a crucial point: Until Manson and his followers blundered into their first murder after a drug burn in 1969, Manson spouted spiritualistic gibberish and free-love nonsense to his disciples. Suddenly, the group had blood on its hands. What led to the change?
On this subject, Bravin's book offers little help. Exactly why Fromme chose to make herself "a troubling footnote" never becomes clear.