She moved on, back in 1998, to the topic of age: 'I turn 50 October 22nd. He was more supportive than competitive and so enthusiastic that it was fun to go to class with him and anyone like him.' '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.

'I have somewhere my junior high school yearbooks with Phil's writings and a little cartoon surfer he drew,' she wrote. Lynette said she had read reports of the murder-suicide in the National Enquirer and The Star, and did not believe the level of detail they provided. She wrote, 'I wonder if he had any notion that such was possible or did he not believe her – or did she not say.' Hartman had been murdered, shot to death by his wife who then killed herself. I had asked her about the murder of comedian Phil Hartman because, I knew from reading her biography, that the former Saturday Night Live comic and Lynette went to the same high school and were close friends (yes, truth is stranger than fiction). Can we decide not to? I don't know if life can go on without the animal competition for territory, food, sex.'

In September, 1998, came her longest missive and somewhere in the middle, she wrote: 'I miss real life….I suppose that I could see myself here specifically for the purpose of understanding people, but I'd hate to think I'd have to give myself over to people as entirely as Manson has and does because they – we? – humanity – will do what humanity has always done – until it decides not to. She was paroled after serving 34 years and moved to upstate New York, where she still lives.Her next two letters were handwritten. In the special Fromme speaks admiringly of the cult leader and says she was “honored to have known him. Fromme wasn’t part of the infamous killings in Hollywood but she was sentenced to life in prison in 1975 after attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Even after he was jailed, she never stopped trying to contact him, attempting to visit him, and, at one time, escaping prison to go be with him as he was treated for cancer. Now, Fromme, along with fellow Family member Dianne Lake, have agreed to appear in an ABC special called “Manson Girls,' which debuted on April 30. That’s especially true for Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme who lived with the Manson Family from 1967 until Mason’s arrest in 1969. In the 50 years since members of the so-called Manson Family murdered nine people in a savage killing spree in California, the mystique surrounding the murderous cult leader hasn’t dissipated.

Lynette fromme