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Larry Buendorf, U.S. Agent Who Saved President Ford, Dies at 87; Sunday, March 16, 2025
Larry Buendorf, U.S. Agent Who Saved President Ford, Dies at 87
By grabbing a loaded handgun from Squeaky Fromme in 1975, Mr. Buendorf, as part of a Secret Service detail, thwarted a would-be assassin in California’s capital.
Larry Buendorf, foreground, with President Gerald R. Ford at McClellan Air Force Base in California the afternoon after the assassination attempt by Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme. David Hume Kennerly/Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
By Sam Roberts
Published March 13, 2025
Updated March 15, 2025
Larry Buendorf, the Secret Service agent who, by wresting a handgun away from Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, was credited with saving the life of President Gerald R. Ford in an assassination attempt in 1975 in California, died on Sunday at his home in Colorado Springs. He was 87. ... His death was announced by his wife, Linda. ... After leaving the government in 1993, Mr. Buendorf (pronounced BOON-dorf) was the chief security officer for the United States Olympic Committee until he retired in 2018.
On Sept. 5, 1975, President Ford spurned his limousine, which was idling outside the Senator Hotel in Sacramento, and, flanked by Secret Service agents, strode across the street to greet a throng of well-wishers on his way to the State Capitol to meet with Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. ... “My position was right at his shoulder,” Mr. Buendorf recalled in 2010 in an interview for the President Gerald R. Ford Oral History Project.
“Squeaky was back in the crowd, maybe one person back, and she had an ankle holster on with a .45,” he said, referring to a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol. “That’s a big gun to have on your ankle. So, when it came up, it came up low, and I happened to be looking in that direction, I see it coming, and I step in front of him, not sure what it was other than that it was coming up pretty fast, and yelled out ‘Gun!’ When I yelled out ‘Gun!’ I popped that .45 out of her hand.”
He added: “I got ahold of her fingers, and she’s screaming — the crowd is screaming — and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t have a vest on, I don’t know where the next shot is coming from,’ and that I don’t think she’s alone. All of this is going on while I’m trying to control her.”
{snip}
By grabbing a loaded handgun from Squeaky Fromme in 1975, Mr. Buendorf, as part of a Secret Service detail, thwarted a would-be assassin in California’s capital.
Larry Buendorf, foreground, with President Gerald R. Ford at McClellan Air Force Base in California the afternoon after the assassination attempt by Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme. David Hume Kennerly/Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
By Sam Roberts
Published March 13, 2025
Updated March 15, 2025
Larry Buendorf, the Secret Service agent who, by wresting a handgun away from Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, was credited with saving the life of President Gerald R. Ford in an assassination attempt in 1975 in California, died on Sunday at his home in Colorado Springs. He was 87. ... His death was announced by his wife, Linda. ... After leaving the government in 1993, Mr. Buendorf (pronounced BOON-dorf) was the chief security officer for the United States Olympic Committee until he retired in 2018.
On Sept. 5, 1975, President Ford spurned his limousine, which was idling outside the Senator Hotel in Sacramento, and, flanked by Secret Service agents, strode across the street to greet a throng of well-wishers on his way to the State Capitol to meet with Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. ... “My position was right at his shoulder,” Mr. Buendorf recalled in 2010 in an interview for the President Gerald R. Ford Oral History Project.
“Squeaky was back in the crowd, maybe one person back, and she had an ankle holster on with a .45,” he said, referring to a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol. “That’s a big gun to have on your ankle. So, when it came up, it came up low, and I happened to be looking in that direction, I see it coming, and I step in front of him, not sure what it was other than that it was coming up pretty fast, and yelled out ‘Gun!’ When I yelled out ‘Gun!’ I popped that .45 out of her hand.”
He added: “I got ahold of her fingers, and she’s screaming — the crowd is screaming — and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t have a vest on, I don’t know where the next shot is coming from,’ and that I don’t think she’s alone. All of this is going on while I’m trying to control her.”
{snip}
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page {in 2022}
• 1975 – Squeaky Fromme, a devotee of Charles Manson, attempted to assassinate U.S. president Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.
Squeaky Fromme
Fromme as a high-school junior in 1964
Born: Lynette Alice Fromme; October 22, 1948 (age 76); Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Other names: Red
Criminal status: Paroled
Conviction(s): Attempted assassination of the President of the United States (18 U.S.C. § 1751(c))
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme (born October 22, 1948) is an American criminal who was a member of the Manson family, a cult led by Charles Manson. Though not involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders for which the Manson family is best known, she attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. For that crime, she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled from prison on August 14, 2009, after serving approximately 34 years. She published a book about her life in 2018.
Early life
Fromme was born on October 22, 1948, in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Helen (née Benzinger) and William Millar Fromme, an aeronautical engineer. As a child, Fromme performed with a popular dance group called the Westchester Lariats, which began touring the United States and Europe in the late 1950s, and had an appearance on The Lawrence Welk Show and at the White House.
A section from a wall of Fromme's Redondo Beach apartment
In 1963, the family moved to Redondo Beach, and Fromme began using alcohol and drugs. Her grades dropped at Redondo Union High School, but she graduated in 1966. She moved out of her parents' house for a few months before her father convinced her to enroll at El Camino College. She returned home for two months before her father kicked her out following an argument, rendering her homeless.
Charles Manson and Manson Family involvement
By 1967, at the age of 19, Fromme had dropped out of college. She went to Venice Beach after her parents threw her out of the family house. Suffering from depression, she sat on a curb and watched a bus arrive, and Charles Manson exited. Manson stopped and looked at her and said, "Your parents threw you out, didn't they?" Fromme immediately decided Manson was a psychic. Manson walked away and Fromme picked up her belongings and followed him. Manson had recently been released from the federal prison at Terminal Island, and Fromme became the second member of what would become the Manson Family.
Fromme found Manson's philosophies and attitudes appealing, and the two became friends and traveled together with other young people, including Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins. She lived with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch where they worked for their keep, and at the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, which was owned by the grandmother of one of the Family members. Ranch owner George Spahn gave her the nickname "Squeaky" because of the sound that she made when he touched her.
{snip}
Assassination attempt on President Ford
Main article: Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in Sacramento
The Colt M1911 .45-caliber pistol used in Fromme's
attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford
On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme went to Sacramento's Capitol Park, ostensibly to plead with President Gerald Ford about the plight of the California redwoods, dressed in a red robe and armed with a Colt M1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. The pistol's magazine was loaded with four rounds, but there was no round in the chamber. When Fromme pointed the gun at Ford she was immediately restrained by Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf. She managed to say a few sentences to the on-scene cameras while being handcuffed, emphasizing that the gun "didn't go off". In 1980, Fromme told The Sacramento Bee that she had deliberately ejected the round from her weapon's chamber before leaving home that morning, and investigators later found a round on her bathroom floor.
Fromme refused to cooperate with her own defense during her trial. Despite claiming that "I was not determined to kill the guy", Fromme was eventually convicted of the attempted assassination of the president and received a life sentence under a 1965 law that made attempted presidential assassinations a federal crime. Attorney Dwayne Keyes recommended severe punishment because she was "full of hate and violence"; Fromme threw an apple at him, hitting him in the face and knocking off his glasses. She told the press that she "came to get life. Not just my life but clean air, healthy water, and respect for creatures and creation."
{snip}
Fromme as a high-school junior in 1964
Born: Lynette Alice Fromme; October 22, 1948 (age 76); Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Other names: Red
Criminal status: Paroled
Conviction(s): Attempted assassination of the President of the United States (18 U.S.C. § 1751(c))
Criminal penalty: Life imprisonment
Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme (born October 22, 1948) is an American criminal who was a member of the Manson family, a cult led by Charles Manson. Though not involved in the Tate–LaBianca murders for which the Manson family is best known, she attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. For that crime, she was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled from prison on August 14, 2009, after serving approximately 34 years. She published a book about her life in 2018.
Early life
Fromme was born on October 22, 1948, in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Helen (née Benzinger) and William Millar Fromme, an aeronautical engineer. As a child, Fromme performed with a popular dance group called the Westchester Lariats, which began touring the United States and Europe in the late 1950s, and had an appearance on The Lawrence Welk Show and at the White House.
A section from a wall of Fromme's Redondo Beach apartment
In 1963, the family moved to Redondo Beach, and Fromme began using alcohol and drugs. Her grades dropped at Redondo Union High School, but she graduated in 1966. She moved out of her parents' house for a few months before her father convinced her to enroll at El Camino College. She returned home for two months before her father kicked her out following an argument, rendering her homeless.
Charles Manson and Manson Family involvement
By 1967, at the age of 19, Fromme had dropped out of college. She went to Venice Beach after her parents threw her out of the family house. Suffering from depression, she sat on a curb and watched a bus arrive, and Charles Manson exited. Manson stopped and looked at her and said, "Your parents threw you out, didn't they?" Fromme immediately decided Manson was a psychic. Manson walked away and Fromme picked up her belongings and followed him. Manson had recently been released from the federal prison at Terminal Island, and Fromme became the second member of what would become the Manson Family.
Fromme found Manson's philosophies and attitudes appealing, and the two became friends and traveled together with other young people, including Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins. She lived with the Manson Family at Spahn Ranch where they worked for their keep, and at the Barker Ranch in Death Valley, which was owned by the grandmother of one of the Family members. Ranch owner George Spahn gave her the nickname "Squeaky" because of the sound that she made when he touched her.
{snip}
Assassination attempt on President Ford
Main article: Attempted assassination of Gerald Ford in Sacramento
The Colt M1911 .45-caliber pistol used in Fromme's
attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford
On the morning of September 5, 1975, Fromme went to Sacramento's Capitol Park, ostensibly to plead with President Gerald Ford about the plight of the California redwoods, dressed in a red robe and armed with a Colt M1911 .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol. The pistol's magazine was loaded with four rounds, but there was no round in the chamber. When Fromme pointed the gun at Ford she was immediately restrained by Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf. She managed to say a few sentences to the on-scene cameras while being handcuffed, emphasizing that the gun "didn't go off". In 1980, Fromme told The Sacramento Bee that she had deliberately ejected the round from her weapon's chamber before leaving home that morning, and investigators later found a round on her bathroom floor.
Fromme refused to cooperate with her own defense during her trial. Despite claiming that "I was not determined to kill the guy", Fromme was eventually convicted of the attempted assassination of the president and received a life sentence under a 1965 law that made attempted presidential assassinations a federal crime. Attorney Dwayne Keyes recommended severe punishment because she was "full of hate and violence"; Fromme threw an apple at him, hitting him in the face and knocking off his glasses. She told the press that she "came to get life. Not just my life but clean air, healthy water, and respect for creatures and creation."
{snip}
Larry Buendorf
Buendorf (in foreground, with sunglasses) protecting Ford
on 5 September 1975, Ford's attempted assassination day
{snip}
Buendorf (in foreground, with sunglasses) protecting Ford
on 5 September 1975, Ford's attempted assassination day
{snip}
Mon Sep 9, 2024: On September 5, 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford.
Wed Jul 31, 2024: On this day, July 31, 1969, Gary Allen Hinman was found murdered in Topanga Canyon, California.