September 5, 1975: President Gerald Ford Faces an Assassination Attempt

September 5, 1975: President Gerald Ford faces an assassination attempt on a visit to Sacramento, the capital of California.

He was visiting the city to attend the annual Sacramento Host Breakfast, a gathering of wealthy California business leaders at the Sacramento Convention Center. The new Governor, Jerry Brown -- Edmund G. Brown Jr., son of former Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown -- refused to attend, because he wanted to show them, after 8 years of the archconservative Ronald Reagan, the new Governor wasn't going to be their friend.

To spite Brown, a Democrat, who was already talking about running for President in 1976 -- or, perhaps, to counter-spite him -- they invited President Ford, a Republican, as was Reagan. Ford, who had become President 13 months earlier upon the resignation of Richard Nixon, knew that winning a term of his own would be difficult, and that California would be crucial. (This included in the Republican Primaries, in which Reagan was expected to run.) So he accepted.

In August 1975, The New York Times printed an article detailing Ford's visit to California in September. It included the fact that, as a Congressman from Michigan, he had voted against the Clean Air Act of 1970.

This angered Lynette Alice Fromme. Born on October 22, 1948 in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California, As a child, she was a member of the Westchester Lariats, a Los Angeles-based dance group that appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show -- and had even been invited to perform at the White House, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was President. As far as I know, this is the only time that someone who would go on to attempt to assassinate a President would visit the White House before that President took office.

In 1967, she became a follower of cult leader Charles Manson. Another of his followers, George Spahn, noticed that she made a sound like a squeak when he touched her, so he gave her the nickname "Squeaky." She was not charged in connection with the Tate-Labianca Murders, unlike Manson and some of his other followers.

In 1975, she was 26 years old, still committed to the imprisoned Manson, and paranoid about the environment. When she saw the article about Ford, she saw a chance to strike a blow for both the environment and Manson.

Ford was crossing L Street from the Senator Hotel to the State Capitol, shaking hands, at 10:02 AM. Fromme got within 2 feet of him. In his memoir, Ford wrote, "As I stopped, I saw a hand come through the crowd in the first row, and that was the first active gesture that I saw, but in the hand there was a gun."

Fromme didn't know that she needed to pull back the gun slide to insert a cartridge into the pistol's chamber. She pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. Secret Service Agent Larry Buendorf grabbed the gun, and forced Fromme to the ground. Other Agents pulled Ford away, and dragged him to the Capitol's entrance.

Ford was unhurt, and, when the Agents determined that the threat was over, he resumed his schedule, including meeting with Governor Brown. He returned to Washington that night. He would go back to California later in the month -- and face another assassination attempt, totally unconnected to this one.

Had the attempt succeeded, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller would have become President. Next in line was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Carl Albert of Oklahoma.

Ford lost the California Primary to Reagan in 1976, and almost lost the nomination to him. He won it, and did win California in the general election, but narrowly lost both the popular vote and the Electoral Vote to former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. In 1981, he opened his Presidential Museum in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The U.S. Attorney's office in Sacramento donated Fromme's gun to the Museum. Ford lived until 2006.

Fromme was convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to life in prison. On Christmas Eve 1987, she escaped, but was captured 2 days later. She was released in 2009, after serving 34 years.

As of September 5, 2022, she is 72 years old, and lives with a fellow ex-con in Marcy, New York, outside Syracuse. Unlike most of Manson's followers, she has never renounced him.

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September 5, 1975 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in a doubleheader Memorial Stadium, the result of a rainout on the preceding May 6. The O's won the opener, 5-4. Ken Singleton, later to broadcast for the Yankees, hit a home run for the O's. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-2 with a walk.

Graig Nettles and Chris Chambliss each had 3 hits for the Yanks, in support of George "Doc" Medich, but to no avail.

The O's won the nightcap, 2-1. Ross Grimsley outpitched Larry Gura, and this was one of the games that led Yankee manager Billy Martin to ask that Gura be traded, which led to him pitching well against the Yankees for the Kansas City Royals over the next few years. Brooks only appeared as a pinch-hitter in this game, and did not reach base. Future Yankee Rick Dempsey got 3 hits, but the rest of the Yankees only got 2 hits: A home run by Bobby Bonds, and a single by Sandy Alomar Sr.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2 at Shea Stadium. Dave Kingman hit a home run for the Mets, not exactly a surprise. Mike Vail also hit one for them, which was a bit of a surprise. Tom Seaver only went 6 innings, but got his 21st win of the season. Lou Brock went 1-for-4 with a stolen base.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Willie Horton hit 2 homers for the Tigers. Indians manager Frank Robinson, not yet retired as a player, did not put himself into the game.

* A doubleheader was split at Jarry Park in Montreal, the result of a rainout on the previous July 2. In the 1st game, the Montreal Expos beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3. Richie Zisk hit a home run, and Willie Stargell had a single as a pinch-hitter. Pepe Mangual drew a bases-loaded walk off Kent Tekulve to win the game in the bottom of the 10th inning. The Pirates won the 2nd game, 5-2. This time, Stargell went 1-for-4, his hit a solo home run.

* A doubleheader was split at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, the result of a rainout on the previous August 6. In the 1st game, the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3. Bill Bonham outpitched Steve Carlton. In the 2nd game, the Phillies won, 6-3. Mike Schmidt went 4-for-8 with a homer and 2 RBIs over the 2 games.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with a homer and 2 RBIs. Johnny Bench went 0-for-3, but did draw a walk.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Uncharacteristically, Rod Carew went 0-for-4.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Dave Winfield went 2-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angels, 5-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim). George Brett went 5-for-5 with 4 RBIs.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3.

August 9, 1969: The Manson Family Murders

Sharon Tate

August 9, 1969: A pair of horrific multiple murders in Los Angeles shocks the country. They will be known as the Tate-La Bianca Murders, the Benedict Canyon Murders, the Helter Skelter Murders, and the Manson Family Murders.

Film director Roman Polanski -- a few years before his own shocking crime led him to flee to his native France -- and his wife, actress Sharon Tate, who was near full term of a pregnancy, had rented a house belonging to Terry Melcher, hit music producer, and son of actress Doris Day.

Polanski was in Europe, filming The Day of the Dolphin. With Tate, 26, that night were Jay Sebring, 35, a popular hairstylist and her former boyfriend; Abigail Folger, 21, a social worker and an heir to the Folger's coffee fortune; Wojciech Frykowski, 32, a Polish actor who had worked with Polanski; and Steven Parent, 18, who was staying at the house as a guest of its caretaker, William Garretson, who was not there that night.

Parent heard a car pull up to the house, went to see who it was, and was shot. The other four occupants -- five, if you count Tate's unborn child -- were stabbed to death. Someone else wrote the word "PIG" on the wall, with blood later determined to be Tate’s.

This was just after midnight on August 8 into 9. The following night, elsewhere on the West Side of Los Angeles, supermarket executive Leno LaBianca, 43, and his wife, dress shop owner Rosemary LaBianca, 39, were murdered in their home.

Again, words were smeared on the walls in victims' blood: "WAR," "RISE," "DEATH TO PIGS," and "HEALTER SKELTER." (A misspelling of "helter skelter.") So the police realized that the killers at the LaBianca home were also the killers of Tate and her friends.

On October 24, police raided the Spahn Ranch, in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth, and arrested Charles Manson and several others, whom he called his "Family," but acted more like a cult. He was soon linked to other murders with similar modii operandi.

Their trial began on July 24, 1970, and became a sensation. Witnesses, including "Family" members, testified that Manson knew that a "race war" was coming, and he wanted to make it happen sooner. Hence, the use of the term "pigs," which black activists had used to describe the police and had entered white people's lexicon as well.

Manson, like so many others, most of them not as crazy as he was, was fascinated by The Beatles. He wasn't the first person to misinterpret their songs, and he certainly wasn't the last. Making a hideously wrong guess, he thought "Piggies" and "Helter Skelter," 2 songs off of their 1968 self-titled album (a.k.a. The White Album), were about the coming race war. His use of Nazi imagery and claim of being Jesus (about as far from being true as you could imagine) terrified people who saw the proceedings on television. 

I was born at the end of 1969, so my mother and Tate were pregnant for a few of the same months. Mom said the thing that really worried her was that Manson might pass his insanity down to his children, and he'd admitted that he didn't know how many children he had.

As far as is publicly known, there were 3:

* Charles Manson Jr. was born to Manson and his 1st wife, Rosalie Jean Willis, in 1956. When his mother remarried, he took his stepfather's name, and became Jay White. But he struggled with this connection, and committed suicide in 1993. He had a son, who goes by the name Jason Freeman.

* Charles Luther Manson was born to Manson and his 2nd wife, Candy Steven, in 1959. He changed his name to Jay Warner, is believed to have had a daughter, and died in 2007. It is interesting that both of these sons named Charles Manson changed their name to a "Jay W."

* And Valentine Michael Manson was born to Manson and Mary Brunner, whom he never officially married, in 1968. Named for the lead character in Manson's favorite novel, Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, he was sent to live with Mary's parents, changed his name to Michael Brunner, has a son, and says he feels no connection to Manson. None of Manson's descendants are known to have a criminal record.

Manson and the other defendants were convicted on January 25, 1971. Manson was sentenced to death, but, a year later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, and Manson's sentence then became life. A later Supreme Court ruling reversed the earlier decision, but, ex post facto, Manson's sentence had to remain life.

He occasionally granted interviews, sometimes (but not always) in a straitjacket, living mostly at Folsom State Prison, outside Sacramento, California (the famous Johnny Cash concert there having taken place before these murders), until his death from colon cancer on November 19, 2017. He was cremated, and there is no final resting place.

At that point, Sharon Tate would have been 74 years old; her child, 48.

As for the other defendants: 

* Susan Atkins died in prison in 2009, age 61.

* Charles "Tex" Watson is 76, and imprisoned outside San Diego.

* Patricia Krenwinkel is 74, and imprisoned outside Los Angeles.

* Linda Kasabian is 73, and never served time, the result of a deal to be the prosecution's chief witness.

* Leslie Van Houten is about to turn 73, and is in the same prison as Krenwinkel.

* Steve "Clem" Grogan is 71, and was paroled in 1985.

All of them eventually renounced Manson, and expressed remorse for what they did.

In 2019, on the 50th Anniversary of the murders, director Quentin Tarantino released the film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a fictionalized version of the events leading up to the murders, resulting in an "alternate history": A declining actor, Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend and stuntman, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) prevent the murders at the Polanski-Tate house, and all victims survive, including Tate (Margot Robbie). Damon Herriman played Manson for the 2nd time in his acting career.

Tarantino has not explained what happened to the characters in years since, including the fictional version of Tate.

UPDATE: Linda Kasabian died in 2023. The same year, Tarantino posted an obituary for Rick Dalton on his Instagram page, but still hasn't said whether his version of Tate, or her child, is still alive -- or whether Tate stayed with Polanski, who is still alive.

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August 9, 1969 was a Saturday. It was the offseason for the NFL, the NFL, the NBA, the ABA and the NHL. But there was a full slate of Major League Baseball games was played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-1 at the old Yankee Stadium. The day before, Thurman Munson had made his major league debut, going 2-for-3. He did not play in this game, as Jake Gibbs was the catcher. But Joe Pepitone hit a home run off Chuck Dobson, to make a winning pitcher out of Mel Stottlemyre.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-3 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.) This would turn out to be an unexpected preview of the National League Championship Series.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 5 to 1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. This would turn out to be a very expected preview of the American League Championship Series. As with the NLCS, the team that won this game would also win the Pennant.

* The Seattle Pilots beat the Washington Senators, 8-6 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. The Senators jumped out to a 5-0 in the 1st inning, knocking John Gelnar out of the box, and also scoring a run off Jim Bouton in the 2nd. I guess Gelnar didn't smoke 'em inside, and was Bouton's Super Knuck working? Yeah, surrre!

The Senators still led 6-3 after 5 innings. But the Pilots scored 2 runs in the 6th, 1 in the 7th to tie it, and 2 in the 8th to win it. The Pilots zitzed 'em, and then probably went and pounded some Budweiser. (If you don't get the references, read Ball Four, Bouton's diary of the season.)

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 9-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Bill Butler pitched a 1-hit shutout, but this would be the highlight of his career.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at Crosley field in Cincinnati. The Phils took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th, but Lee May hit a home run to tie the game, and Pete Rose hit a home run in the 12th to win it.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Houston Astros beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Joe Morgan won it with a home run in the 11th.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Bill Hands pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.