While attending Orville Wright Junior High in Los Angeles in the 1960s, Phil Hartman had already begun earning a reputation as a gifted actor. It was during that time that the future Saturday Night Live star struck up a friendship with a classmate by the name of Lynette Fromme. In drama class, Hartman and Fromme would entertain the other students by performing scenes from plays by Shakespeare and Molière. The senior class even selected the two as among their favorites at the school, with Hartman voted Happy-Go-Lucky Boy and Fromme was named Personality Plus.
Hartman later referred to Fromme as “Very sweet—and very shy.” But despite their friendship, he said that she wasn’t the type of girl he would’ve asked out on a date. The two eventually grew apart by the time they graduated from high school. While Hartman was busy participating in peace demonstrations and working as a roadie for the band Rockin’ Foo, Fromme had dropped out of college and become friendly with an aspiring musician who was on the verge of becoming a household name himself.
Following the Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by the Manson Family in 1969, Hartman was shocked when he saw Fromme—now known as “Squeaky”—defending the cult’s leader, Charles Manson, on television. The images of long hair and acid that Hartman once saw as symbols of peace and love now represented mass murder in his eyes. “Darkness,” Hartman believed, was “descending on the movement.” Fromme remained devoted to Manson and was arrested in 1975 after trying to shoot President Gerald Ford. She was convicted of attempted assassination and sentenced to life in prison.
When Hartman was murdered by his wife in 1998, Fromme reacted to the news in a letter to journalist Paul LaRosa, writing, “I wonder if he had any notion that such was possible or did he not believe her—or did she not say.” Fromme went on to say, “I think he was funnier in high school than on TV although some of what I saw on SNL of him was excellent…we took drama together for 18 months or 2 years and we had fun. He was more supportive than competitive and so enthusiastic that it was fun to go to class with him and anyone like him.”
Fromme was paroled in 2009, and continues to speak highly of Manson all these years later, telling ABC News in 2019, “Was I in love with Charlie? Yeah, oh yeah, oh, I still am, still am. I don’t think you fall out of love.”
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