LOS ANGELES, Jul. 14 — Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore — both serving life sentences for trying to kill former President Gerald Ford — were moved from California prisons this week to a West Virginia federal institution.

The routine transfers were prompted by completion of a new wing of the prison at Alderson, West Va., built specifically for long-term female inmates, officials said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Mrs. Moore, 47, left the federal correctional institution at Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor. She was convicted on charges of firing a .38-caliber pistol at Ford in San Francisco on Sept. 22, 1975.

Miss Fromme left the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego Sunday. The former member of the Charles Manson “family” was arrested Sept. 5, 1975, after pointing a .45-caliber Army surplus pistol near the former president in Sacramento, A Secret Service agent wrestled the semiautomatic from her hand.

Mrs. Moore has appealed her life sentence and conviction, with the claim that she was mentally incapable of entering a plea when she pleaded guilty.

Associate Warden Lowell Kinkaid at the San Diego facility said Miss Fromme was transferred because of “better facilities and a better atmosphere” for long-term inmates at the West Virginia facility.

At the Terminal Island prison, a spokeswoman said Mrs. Moore was transferred because the California facility is not designed for long-term inmates. The West Virginia location was the natural place for Mrs. Moore to go, she said.