SACRAMENTO, Sept. 6 – Lynette Alice Fromme, 27-year-old disciple of mass slayer Charles Manson, is being held alone in a cell in Sacramento County Jail today, charged with “willfully and knowingly” attempting to assassinate the President of the United States.

Her bail is $1 million, the highest ever set for a defendant in Sacramento federal court.

Ms. Fromme’s arraignment on the charge took place about 4 p.m. yesterday, only hours after a flock of eyewitnesses and Secret Service agents said she pulled a pistol on President Gerald R. Ford as he walked through Capitol Park on his way to address the California Legislature.

Her courtroom appearance before U.S. Magistrate Esther Mix was brief.

The charge of attempting to murder the President is a violation of a federal law set up after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

In addition to court officials and a squadron of marshals, Secret Service agents and FBI men who escorted her into the magistrates’s court, the only other persons present were about 20 members of the press.

After the one-page complaint charging her with the assassination attempt was read, the magistrate asked Ms. Fromme:

“Do you have any statement to make before I set bail?”

“No,” Ms. Fromme replied in a barely audible voice.

Clad in the same flowing red gown she wore when she wielded the pistol toward Ford; her red, shoulderlength hair flowing, Ms. Fromme was met at the counsel table by her court-appointed attorney, Federal Public Defender E. Richard Walker. It is expected the federal grand jury will be asked to return an indictment against Ms. Fromme next Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney Dwayne Keyes said he recommended the huge bail because of the woman’s background – her police record and association with Manson.

After the incident in Capitol Park, Sacramento police detectives rushed to Ms. Fromm’s apartment at 1725 P St., where they took into custody Sandra Collins Good, 30, Susan Katherine Murphy, and a third young woman they refused to identify. After questioning all three were released.

Ms. Fromme and Sandra Good were prominent members of the “Manson Family” and were spokespersons for the clan during Manson’s trial for the murders of actress Sharon Tate and six other persons in Los Angeles.

Still bearing scars of the “Xs” they carved in their foreheads in tribute to Manson, the women moved to Sacramento about a year ago, presumably to be close to their infamous leader who was then housed in Folsom Prison. He now is at San Quentin. U. S. Attorney Dwayne Keyes said Manson is expected to be questioned to determine if there was a possible conspiracy to kill the President.

Ms. Good said last night that her roommate, the accused would-be assassin, watched the President on television Thursday night. She said she didn’t know where Ms. Fromme got the gun.

Ms. Good told a Canadian newsman, in an interview shortly after yesterday’s assassination attempt: “Tell your prime minister to stop killing seals and whales or he will be assassinated. This act (referring to Ms. Fromme’s attempt) is a symptom of many, many problems that are moving across the states. Nixon lied and now Ford is doing the same.”

Ms. Good described something called “The International People’s Court of Retribution,” which she says is 2,000 strong, and will “assassinate the presidents and chairmen of the boards of Exxon, Ford Motor Co., and Dow Chemical Co.”

“None of these people are safe,” Ms. Good warned last night.

She said after she and Ms. Fromme watched the President Thursday night, they looked at a book with pictures of pollution and “people killing the air and the trees. We were crying. I guess this morning she thought the time for tears was over.”

Last night, at county jail, Ms. Fromme told one of her guards: “You don’t give anybody time to cry.”

Ford has just emerged from the Hotel Senator for what was to be the first “walk” of his visit. Earlier in the day, apparently solely for security reasons, the President was driven the two blocks to and from the Sacramento-Earl Warren Community Center in his bullet-proof limousine.

Ford had sat through more than an hour of introductions of state industrial leaders at the annual Sacramento Host Breakfast and had given a 23-minute speech advocating tax incentives and fewer business regulations — then stopped back at the Senator for a brief rest.

It was approximately 9:55 a.m. when he appeared in the hotel doorway. As a crowd of a few hundred clapped, the President started south into Capitol Park, greeting well wishers and shaking hands.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the presidential party. Ms. Fromme was thrown to the ground, a phalanx of Secret Service men “literally grabbed the President physically, put their arms around him, clutched his clothing and hustled him out of there at a trot,” according to one reporter at the scene.

Ford’s face was described as ashen; his expression, bewildered.

Later Ford told reporters he saw “a hand coming up behind several others in the front row and obviously, there was a gun in that hand.”

Ford added he did not, “under any circumstance, feel that one individual in any way represented the attitude on the part of the people of California. I just thank them for being so friendly and hospitable.”

The President was solemn as he spoke in the hotel lobby, less than three hours after the attempt on his life.

Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf was the man who wrestled the .45-caliber automatic pistol from Ms. Fromme’s hand. She was thrown to the ground and handcuffed.

Before she was taken to the Sacramento Police Department for questioning, Miss Fromme kept speaking softly to the aghast circle of spectators around her. “He’s not a public servant,” she repeated in a dazed tone. “He’s not a public servant.”

Authorities said the gun was loaded but there was no bullet in the firing chamber.

There were conflicting reports about whether the woman pulled the trigger. Some eye-witnesses said they heard a “click,” while agent Buendorf received a cut on his hand he thinks might have come when the firing hammer snapped as he grabbed for the weapon.

Ford walked right in front of where Miss Fromme was standing. He had just gone by when agents — and Ford —spotted the gun.

The incident was over — the gun-woman on her way to jail and Ford in his scheduled meeting with Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. — by a little after 10 a.m.

But the mood of the trip was shattered.

Ford’s 15-hour visit until that point, had been lackluster. The crowds were small, the long Host Breakfast introductions had taken their toll, it was a hot day, Ford had failed to bring down the house with his remarks even before a thousand California business leaders.

Then tension reigned.

Secret Service men blocked doors and hallways that had previous been clear. Reporters raced back and forth between news sources and telephones. The relaxed, confident air of White House staffers became stern.

The crowds, ironically, grew. As word of the assassination attempt spread, the rows of people around the Senator Hotel deepened.

Some seemed caught by the scent of danger and excitement: others appeared concerned — as if they’d suddenly shown up in kind of “Sacramento cares” morale booster for the shaken President.

A vendor moved through the new throng selling tiny American flags.

In any case, when Ford finished his talk before the California Legislature — speaking this tense day about the fact there is a “truly alarming increase in violent crime throughout this country,” — he returned to his hotel to the biggest crowd and loudest ovation of his trip.

There was no more handshaking. The squad of Secret Service men tightened to a near wall around Ford.

He was whisked to McClellan Air Force Base, driven straight to the ramps of the Air Force One, and managed one, jaunty, two-arm wave, before he disappeared inside.

The presidential jet took off for Washington at 3:20.

The three or four thousand persons, who’d lined the base runway with expectations of a presidential hand-shake, slowly left for home.

By NANCY SKELTON and MAX MILLER