( CNN ) -- Lynette `` Squeaky '' Fromme was released from federal custody Friday , a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said . Lynnette `` Squeaky '' Fromme , left , appears in court in Los Angeles , California , in December 1969 . Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento , California . She was released Friday morning from Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth , Texas , said Felicia Ponce , a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Washington . Fromme , a follower of Charles Manson , pointed a gun at Ford a year after he became president . Secret Service agents prevented her from firing ; the gun was later found to have ammunition in it , but no bullet in the chamber . In a 1987 interview with CNN affiliate WCHS , Fromme , then housed in West Virginia , recalled that the president `` had his hands out and was waving ... and he looked like cardboard to me . But at the same time , I had ejected the bullet in my apartment and I used the gun as it was . '' She said she knew Ford was in town and near her , `` and I said , ' I got ta go and talk to him , ' and then I thought , 'That 's foolish . He 's not going to stop and talk to you . ' People have already shown you can lay blood in front of them and they 're not , you know , they do n't think anything of it . I said , 'Maybe I 'll take the gun , ' and I thought , ' I have to do this . This is the time . ' `` She said it never occurred to her that she could wind up in prison . Asked whether she had any regrets , Fromme said , `` No . No , I do n't . I feel it was fate . '' However , she said that she thought her incarceration was `` unnecessary '' and that she could n't see herself repeating her offense . `` My argument to the jury was , if she wanted to kill him , she would have shot him , '' John Virga , a Sacramento attorney appointed to defend Fromme , told CNN recently . `` She 'd been around guns . And let 's be realistic : We know the Manson family , at least some of them , are killers . '' See more about Manson 's followers » . Fromme was sentenced to life in prison , and parole was an option at the time , although the federal system later abolished it , Ponce said . Inmates do receive `` good time '' -- for every year and one day they serve , Ponce said , 54 days are lopped off their sentence .
Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Ford . She was in the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth , Texas . The case against her is that she pointed it at him and he fired one shot into his chest.