The Real Squeaky Fromme Vs. Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood's Spahn Ranch Redhead

The Manson Family is back in the spotlight thanks to Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood. The film includes a re-imagined version of the Manson Murders, an event orchestrated by Charles Manson and his "Family" of followers. He had many people in his cult-like following, including infamous redhead, Squeaky Fromme. She's played by Dakota Fanning in the movie, and though she's more of a spooky set piece at Spahn Ranch in the Tarantino film, she actually was a central part of the Manson Family in the late '60s.

The movie isn't a strict re-telling of the rise of the Manson Family, and some may be surprised to know that Squeaky Fromme — one of the most famous Manson Girls, as they were called — was never charged as being involved in the murder itself. However, she did end up doing time for another attempted murder. Here's everything you need to know about the real Fromme before (or after) you see Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood.

According to The Post-Standard, her given name is Lynette Fromme. Reports differ on where the nickname came from. The Post-Standard reported that it came from what her voice sounded like. But the New York Post reported that it specifically came from "the noises she made when [the Manson Family ranch owner] grabbed her." In any case, she became largely known to the media by her nickname after the Tate murder put the Manson Family in the spotlight.

According to The Sun, Fromme met Manson in 1967 in Venice Beach. He had just been released from prison, and she was a homeless teenager. They bonded and she fell in with his crowd, which soon became a cult. Despite their early introduction, Fromme was reportedly not part of the group responsible for the 1969 Tate murder, per Rolling Stone. She did, however, frequent the courthouse as the trial went on to support Manson and his Family.

In 1975, Fromme was convicted of attempting to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford by pointing a loaded gun at him. She didn't discharge the weapon, and Ford was unharmed, but she was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for pointing the gun at him.

According to the Associated Press, after serving over three decades in prison, Fromme was released on parole in 2009. The conditions of her release stated that she needed to be supervised for two years and could not own a gun or associate with other criminals.

Fox News reported in early 2019 that the 70-year-old lives in Upstate New York with her boyfriend in what the outlet called a "skull-decorated ramshackle home." Fox News reported that some of Fromme's neighbors said she mostly kept to herself and was "friendly."

"It was such a dream come true for me to be a part of it and really something to cross off the list," she told The Hollywood Reporter about Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood. "I would have probably played any character that he had asked me or had chosen me for. It was a real cherry on top that it was an incredible, fascinating, challenging character."

You can see Fanning's take on Fromme in theaters, but she appears only briefly, mostly to spook Brad Pitt's Cliff. And though the hook for this film is the Manson Murders, just know that wasn't really a direct chapter of Fromme's life. Her real story has enough twists on its own.