SACRAMENTO, Sept. 6 — Lynette Fromme watched President Ford on television the night before her assassination attempt and talked with two friends about Mr. Ford being a “dummy, an empty head,” her roommates said Friday.

Sandra Good, 31, a member of the Charles Manson “Family,” and Susan K. Murphy, 33, talked on the lawn outside their Victorian apartment after four hours of interrogation by authorities.

Good, wearing a red hooded gown similar to one worn by Fromme when she was arrested, said she was “shocked” by the incident and declared the “assassination of Ford won’t stop anything. We need whole new thoughts.”

In sometimes incoherent, rambling interviews, Good said the three women talked about pollution and other world problems after listening to Mr. Ford on television Thursday night and they remarked, ‘The people were like sheep looking up to this deadhead. A dead shell with dead thoughts.”

“I’d say she was attacking a lie,” Good said. “A lie that has people duped. Children have been taught to blindly accept…”

Asked if Fromme acted on orders from Manson, the convicted mass murderer and cult leader, Good said: “No, orders didn’t come from him.”

“She apparently was just moved this morning,” Good said. “I don’t know what her state of mind is.

“I guess she got tired of talking about it. That’s a lot of weight (the problems). She’s been carrying that weight.

“The big, big money people are allowing it to go on. Ford knows it and he’s not doing anything about it. We are beyond the point of anger. We have been trying to wake you people up for five years.”

Murphy, who wore a red scarf around her hair, said the color “signifies blood that is going to be sacrificed for the earth?’

“We are nuns,” she added.

Good said she did not know Fromme had a gun. She said she did not see her roommate Friday morning. “She got up before I did,” Good added.

Good said they corresponded daily with Manson, who is locked up in San Quentin, and were working on a court appeal. In the backseat of a car parked in front of the apartment and registered to Fromme were several books, including one entitled “Questions and Answers About Criminal Law.”

“Every law was broken to put Manson in prison,” Good said. “Nixon was freed. The world is falling apart.”

Murphy, who said she was “excited and scared” when she learned of the assassination attempt, said Fromme was “moved by the truth to do whatever she does.”

Asked if she was sorry Fromme didn’t shoot Mr. Ford, Good replied: “I’m only sorry if Lynette is sorry.”

By ROBERT B. GUNNISON