The Brenda Spencer Murder Case, which was published in 2012, and is the single best source I am aware of regarding Spencer. Chris decided his method of investigation into the case would be through social media, and he did so by making online accounts based on a persona he invented of a good-looking teenager who went to West Virginia University in Morgantown. Police were quick to arrive on the scene and rushed to the Spencer household to arrest their suspect, yet even though they were hasty in their response, Brenda was faster and had already sealed herself indoors. When questioned why she did it, she simply said, "I don't like Mondays." . It was so bad that the two of them slept on a common mattress in the living room surrounded by empty beer and liquor bottles. One of his most traumatizing memories is lying in the ambulance next to Mike Suchar when the ambulance rounded a curve, and the dead custodian rolled on top of him. Spencer has claimed that she was sexually abused by her loner father as a child - allegations he strongly denied when he was alive. The smallest victims are grown now, their lives changed in ways both subtle and searing. The reason murder rises to the level of a capital crime is because you cant restore what you have stolenanothers life. Brenda Spencer | WickedWe - The Dark Side Of Humanity The charge was first-degree murder, and the case had so much negativity surrounding it as well as such little likelihood that Shelia could be innocent that it was hard for her to get an attorney. [9], In early 1978, staff at a facility for problem students, into which Spencer had been referred for truancy, informed her parents that she was suicidal. As a voluntary member of the program, Brenda enjoys a front-of-line pass for meals and medication lines, and authorization to eat in a specific dining room. Spencer was a predictably poor student with truancy issues, but she had a talent for photography. If Skylar was the grounded one, Shelia was the one who kept things exciting. On January 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine when she fired on San Diego's Grover Cleveland Elementary School with a .22-caliber rifle from her family's house across the street. It is something they could never possibly get past, and the rest of their lives will be defined by what happened to their little girl. She keeps a scrapbook of newspaper articles and photos, and still has the jacket she wore that day stashed away somewhere. Because there was no trial, few details about her family or her past ever came to public light. I agree. Historical Guns, Spencer pled guilty to two counts of 1st-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. In 2001 Brenda accused her father of having drunkenly subjected her to beatings and sexual abuse. Despite his belief in the teenage killer, he was not hired to represent Brenda at her parole hearings. I came to the conclusion that it all depends on how much you want the convicted to suffer. They were practically family, and it was totally normal for them to stroll right into each others houses with no questions asked from their parents. Though all eight of the children ultimately recovered, Wragg and Suchar were killed. We didnt understand why she was shooting at us. It wasnt until Mary was reunited with her mother that the bullet hole through her zipper jacket was discovered. Being on the wild side, Shelia was seen as influencing her best friend in a negative way that made people uncomfortable. She wrote, Too bad my friends are having lives without me. The threesome appeared to become lopsided, with Skylar feeling more like a third wheel than an essential member. Shelia, however, was right by Mary Neeses side throughout the search process. In late January 1979, Brenda Spencer killed two adults and injured eight children and one adult because of her hate for Mondays. Brenda Spencer, the Notorious School Shooter With a Bizarre Motivation Brenda Spencer Teen Killer School Shooter - My Crime Library Thanks for another well written, informative article. Not long after Brenda Spencer went to jail, her father married his daughter's teenage cellmate. Wallace Spencer was an enthusiastic gun collector, and his daughter appeared to share his interest in this hobby early on. "I didn't talk about it. "Dad didn't want me to see a psychologist. Have All Attackers in US School Shootings Been Men? Her father had given her the gun as a Christmas gift, and she was itching to use it. In Norway in 2011, a man killed 77 people in a mass shooting. Mary Neese said, She proceeded to tell me that her, Skylar, and Rachel snuck out the night before and they had driven around Star City, and getting high, and that the two girls dropped her back off at the house. Brenda Spencer shot and killed two adults, wounded eight children and a San Diego police officer at Cleveland Elementary School in San Carlos on Jan. 29, 1979, 40 years ago. Her parents were dealing with a shock they never expected, but they had someone with them to comfort them and be a part of their search, and that was Skylars best friend Shelia Eddy. 2019-01-30 - PAULINE REPARD Repard writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune. After killing two innocent people, and injuring nine, Brenda Spencer locked herself in the home for more than six hours. After an emotionally intense trial, Brenda Spencer was found guilty of two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 25 years to life. She injured eight children and a police officer, and killed the principal and a custodian. He took a month-long training course to learn how to handle a weapon himself with more confidence. Brendas life flashed before her eyes, just as the lives of her victims flashed before theirs. The Devil Conspiracy - Wikipedia Hart was a private investigator involved in the case and interviewed Spencer's mother, father, brother, sister, friends, and neighbors within months of the attack. [5], Further casualties were avoided only because the police obstructed her line of fire by moving a garbage truck in front of the school entrance. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/school-shooting-in-san-diego, George W. Bush describes Iraq, Iran and North Korea as "axis of evil", Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter sign accords, Future president William McKinley is born, U.S. A Case of the Mondays: Brenda Spencer and the Cleveland Elementary Based on Michael's beliefs, Brenda was sexually abused by her father. [28], Bob Geldof, then the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, read about the incident when a news story about it came off the telex at WRAS-FM, the campus radio station at Georgia State University in Atlanta. However, the .17HMR and .22 Win Mag versions were only available for a couple of years. Her Catholic upbringing was strict, but she was still popular and she expressed herself by acting in the school plays. The song was number 1 for four weeks in the UK, though it did not break the top 40 in the US. Where Is Brenda Spencer Now? - vimbuzz.com Brenda Spencer wanted a radio for Christmas in 1979. Blue made him a target. There is a memorial to Skylar at a tree in Pennsylvania that David Neese visits to mourn, and even if it may bring him some peace, the sadness never goes away. This seemed convincing enough for Skylar, who went along with questioning things. Though she worked hard during the school year, she was free over the summer and was able to spend hertime with her friends. Rachel was unable to betray her lover by wearing a wire and getting her to confess, but what she was willing to do was take the police to the site of the murder so that they could find Skylars body, which would confirm the story of the murder once and for all. Brenda Spencer: "I Don't Like Mondays" - Medium The standard Ruger 10/22 features a blued finish and walnut stock, though there are plenty of factory options available. Shelia and Skylar were fighting a lot, he said, and he told a story of the sort of petty nastiness that can plague some teenage friendships. Spencer told the reporter she had shot at the school children and adults because, "I don't like Mondays. Suggest an edit or add missing content. I may not have grown up with a grandpa, but many children grew up to have their own families. As Haley has come forward with her story, others have shared their own experience from the day. Not long after Brenda Spencer went to jail, her father married his daughter's teenage cellmate. Authorities say they are investigating the marriage of Wallace Spencer, the 41-year-old father of convicted San Diego schoolyard sniper Brenda Spencer, to his daughter's former 17-year-old cellmate. Dad set the direction, and I took the path. Thanks, Will. At her 2001 parole hearing, Spencer claimed that her father had been subjecting her to beatings and sexual abuse, but he said the allegations were not true. Spencer later said: "I asked for a radio and he bought me a gun." When asked why he might . However, the raw reality of what happened at the school continues to haunt those that were impacted. Best explanation why the death penalty for deliberate murder is not only just but the society that disregards it deserves to fall. In 2016, he took his final breath at 87 years old. After six long hours, Brenda threw in the towel and surrendered herself. When another school shooting is on the evening news, be it Jonesboro or Paducah or Pearl or Littleton, Cam Miller finds himself watching for the fearful faces of young survivors. In 2016, he took his final breath at87 years old. She also told police negotiators the children and adults whom she had shot were easy targets and that she was going to "come out shooting". We stabbed her, Rachel said, and it immediately became clear that Skylars death was not accidental but premeditated and over a month in the works. Despite being under scrutiny from the police, Shelia remained calm in a way that just seems creepy. Today, Cam Miller is a probation officer who still feels nervous around guns, leaving the room even if it's just a friend showing off a new hunting rifle. Asked why he had done that, she answered, "He bought the rifle so I would kill myself. Please hurry.. SCHOOL SHOOTER - BRENDA SPENCER - CMM-Crime, Mystery & Mayhem ". Aftermarket parts and accessories are so prolific that you can actually build a Ruger 10/22 nowadays that doesnt include a single Ruger part. At age fifteen she was arrested for shooting out the windows in the school with her air rifle as well as burglary. Richard Sachs, a San Diego County deputy district attorney explains that she was demonstrating emotional instability. What if they got the idea from what I did?. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, who lived in a house across the street from the school, was convicted of the shootings. He continued to say, She claimed she wasnt trying to kill anybody, she was just shooting. When challenged she claimed the words were actually Unforgiven and Alone. She is currently 59 years old and resides at the California Institution for Women in Chino. This livens up the day." The morning was unusually cold, they still remember. [25] In the ensuing decades, it was leased to several charter and private schools. . Then, she put the rifle down, barricaded herself inside her home, and waited. For years, Haley was taught to fear Brenda Spencer and stay silent. Brenda Spencer was sixteen years old when she shot and killed two people at a school in California. Thats it. A custodian, Michael Suchar, was also killed as he attempted to pull a student to safety. I just started shooting. Real Life Three shots rang out. Brenda Ann Spencer was born in San Diego, California, on April 3, 1962. The basic chassis has been adapted to emulate a crank-powered, tripod-mounted Gatling gun, a miniaturized MG42 machinegun, and even an M1 Garand. The stories that came out of there are epic. But Wallace Spencer reportedly refused to admit her, claiming that he could handle his daughters mental health issues on his own. 8+ Legendary Brenda Spencer Facts - Be Surprised That shooting probably affected every person on that campus," says ProfessorRon Avi Astor,"It has a very strong ripple effect; even if youre not hit by a bullet, that stays with you forever. In lesser crimes, such as stealing property, the thief can restore what was stolen, in most cases. Patricias call led to authorities coming to carry Rachel off to a mental institution where she remained for three days. However, there yet remain some fundamental differences that are empirically demonstrable between men and women. Shockingly, during this time Brenda also spoke with several reporters, includingThe San Diego Union Tribune. Brenda later said of the gift, I asked for a radio and he bought me a gunI felt like he wanted me to kill myself.. The other best friend who completed the trio was Rachel Shoaf, who was at summer camp at the time. Before 1979, school shootings were few and far between. "I went over there father-to-father, hoping to talk to him," he recalls. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. School shooting in San Diego - History Skylar wrote about how she felt watching her two friends become intimate. [13] She injured eight children; she began with nine-year-old Cam Miller, since he was wearing Spencer's favorite color blue. On three, Rachel said, and they went in for the kill. Once the profiles were set up, he friended Rachel and Shelia on Facebook and followed them on Twitter. Our drivers ed teacher was a compulsive hunter. . Daryl Barns was a teacher at Cleveland Elementary, dedicating his days to children in the fifth and sixth grades. "I think it's really sad all those kids are going to have to go through what I've gone through all my life," he says. Neighbours reported that she repeatedly abused Principal Wragg rushed into the line of fire to drag children to safety and was shot down as well. She also vividly remembers other children lying in bloodon the stage. He blacked out briefly. Spencer, then 16, armed with the rifle and scope her father gave her for Christmas, started picking off students heading to the elementary school directly across the street from her Lake Atlin. As a consequence of her actions, Brendas probation officer suggested that she spend some time in a mental hospital to treat depression. One day the little girl announced to her: "My sister's in jail. The bullet struck Cam in the back and exited his chest, missing internal organs but leaving scar tissue that still hurts two decades later if he stretches the wrong way or lifts weights. Spencers deadly plot was far from the earliest attack on an American school, but it was one of the first modern school shootings that led to multiple deaths and injuries. In a crazy turn of events, more than two decades later, his son, Dan Barnes, found himself the victim of a school shooter as well when Jason Hoffman opened fire at Granite Hills High School. History, It should be an eye for eye and the debt gets paid. This seemed to inspire Spencer into more grandiose plans, and she started telling her classmates that she was going to do something to get on TV. When Monday morning rolled around, Burton Wragg, the principal of Cleveland Elementary, was opening the gates of the school when Spencer started firing her rifle from across the street. She just sat there and glared at me," Miller says. . 40 years after school shooting - PressReader They had a child, and the little girl attended Buell's preschool. Then, read about the Dunblane Massacre, the deadliest school shooting in the U.K. Before The Columbine Massacre Or Parkland Shooting, There Was Brenda Ann Spencer. The last time Spencer came up for parole, the district attorney's office contacted the victims it was still able to locate and asked them to write impact statements. Sometimes Wallace Spencer would say hello when he came to pick his daughter up, and Buell is certain that he knew who she was, and she wonders now what he thought. Will Dabbs A native of the Mississippi Delta, Will is a mechanical engineer who flew UH1H, OH58A/C, CH47D, and AH1S aircraft as an Army Aviator. We feel a life sentence is only fair for someone guilty of all those things. While society continued to condemn Brendas actions, she hasbeen inducted into the Golden Girls club. Will works in his own urgent care clinic, shares a business build-ing precision rifles and sound suppressors, and has written for the gun press since 1989. The reveal of this information was just the tip of the iceberg pertaining to her fathers role in the situation. . She was not aware that Rachel came clean, and the police came up with the idea of wiretapping Shelia so they could get it from her lips that they actually killed Skylar. She has thus far been before a parole board four times and has been denied each time. More security footage saw the same car in different locations throughout the night, one of which was at a convenience store in Blackstone, West Virginia. [15] Ultimately, she surrendered and left the house, reportedly after being promised a Burger King meal by negotiators. He was only sentenced to the maximum of 21 years (with the possibility of 5 years at a time being added in the future). No! In the process, he was shot and killed. Then, she aimed it out the window and began firing at the kids. In December a psychiatric evaluation arranged by her probation officer recommended Spencer be admitted to a mental hospital due to her depressed state, but her father refused to give permission. According to The Daily Beast, she would later claim that her father was abusive toward her and that her mother "just wasn't there." [3] Geldof has later mentioned that, "[Spencer] wrote to me saying 'she was glad she'd done it because I'd made her famous,' which is not a good thing to live with. . Brenda Spencer leaves court, Oct. 1, 1979, in Santa Ana after pleading guilty to charges stemming from her shooting spree. He wore T-shirts when swimming to cover his scar. In her 2001 parole hearing, Brenda would claim, for the first time, that her father sexually molested her almost nightly from the time that she was nine years old until the shooting when she was 16. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, Brenda Ann Spencer fired a total of 36 rounds at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School and when the shooting stopped, the principal and a custodian were dead, dying where they had fallen in front of the school. When out of earshot we called him Poach Smith. The 2006 British documentary I Don't Like Mondays also revisits the case. Wallace Spencer - IMDb Yet Brenda didnt appear to be intoxicated. Even more shocking than the fact that she took two lives, and injured nine others, is the reason for her actions that she gave to the police. Christy Buell never left the old neighborhood, still living in her childhood home just a few blocks from the school, and from the ranch-style house where Brenda Spencer's father still lives. Brenda Ann Spencer (born on April 3, 1962) is an incarcerated American murderer who in 1979, committed a school shooting at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in the San Diego Unified School District in the San Carlos neighbourhood of San Diego, California, U.S. At the time, Brenda lived in a house across the street from the school. What many people don't realize is thatthere were a few school mass shootings in the nation beforehand. According to court documents she would open fire from her home aiming at young children waiting to get into the school. Her post that said, They say you remember the past better than it was also raised eyebrows in light of everything that happened. Disturbed teens are just as capable of committing the most heinous crimes as their adult counterparts, and Skylar Neese's story proves that even further. (Disturbingly, Wallace Spencer later married one of his daughters 17-year-old cellmates who bore a striking resemblance to her.) Once there, Spencer decided to withdraw her bid for parole. Her attorneys continued to argue that the treatment she received from her father which allegedly included sexual abuse was the real reason for her act of senseless violence. When they went to get Skylar, they told her that they were just out driving for the night and were going to a town close by called Brave where they would go into the forest to smoke marijuana. Since her incarceration, indefinite imprisonment has been made illegal after the United Nations adopted the Conventions Against Torture Act in 1984. On Monday morning, January 29, 1979, a herd of children had gathered outside the gates of the elementary school. Still, her father gave her a .22 semi-automatic rifle and ammunition as a Christmas gift at the end of 1978. The Baffling Disappearance Of Jodi Huisentruit, The News Anchor Who Vanished Forever Just Before A Broadcast, The Disappearance Of Kristal Reisinger, The Colorado Mother Who Went Missing From A Drum Circle, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Sadly, there has been a number of school shootings since Brenda Spencer's rampage, yet she is often considered the first person to ever target the (many) vulnerable victims at a school. She reportedly answered: "I don't like Mondays. I am so glad that we outnumber you. He is married to his high school sweetheart, has three awesome adult children, and teaches Sunday School. She was a problem child who was widely known as a drug abuser with a violent streak. Luckily, no one was hurt at the time, but Brenda was put on probation for her crime. Also on social media were other people making claims that Rachel and Shelia were guilty of killing Skylar. While most 16-year-olds spend time scrolling on social media, singing into a hairbrush, or gossiping about their crush, Brenda Spencer was toying with the idea of firing live ammunition into the schoolyard opposite her home. The Neeses could never get their girl back but they may live with the satisfaction of knowing that they may have saved the lives of others. He bizarrely married Brendas 17-year-old prison cellmate after her release, and they had a daughter together. EMC EMC /T1_3 1 Tf EMC /T1_3 1 Tf ( )Tj 0.006 Tw 2.118 0 Td 6. [18] Early reports indicated that Spencer had scratched the words "courage" and "pride" into her own skin; Spencer corrected this during her parole hearing as reading "unforgiven" and "alone". There were many stories going around, and rumors spread across the school, most notably that Skylar died of a heroin overdose at a party. At 16 and using a .22 rifle her father had given her as a Christmas present she started shooting, wounding 8 and killing 2. The body belonged to Skylar Neese. She remembers how her dad used to walk her slowly through the hospital corridors, and how they would stand in a breezeway and watch the lights of passing cars on the freeway below. Cam saw the principal and the custodian both lying on the ground, and thought, with childlike logic, that if he could just make it out of that square of sidewalk, "it will all go away.". Every 10/22 rifle is tapped for a scope mount that comes with the gun. After killing the schools principal and custodian and wounding eight children and a first responder, Spencer barricaded herself in her home for more than six hours until she finally surrendered herself to the authorities. The song was a raging success around the world, getting notable airtime in the United States and topping the UK charts for a month. The why was answered to authorities by Rachel who stated, We just didnt like her. Its a horrifying revelation, and it got even worse when Rachel explained that after stabbing her over 50 times the girls watched Skylar bleed until she ultimately died. "He said to go away, and I respected that," Norm recounts. Brendas former attorney, Michael McGlinn, had decades' worth of experience working with juvenile offenders. Despite these earlier shootings, Brendas has gone down in history and is said to have created a deadly trend in America. After learning about Brenda Ann Spencer, discover the true stories behind Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the infamous Columbine shooters. She even had a few violent instances on her track record, including firing a BB gun into the windows of the elementary school campus, shattering the windows. For example, it was revealed that Brenda had tried to shoot the school one year prior, using a BB gun. Aged 16 at the time of the shooting, she was 5'2" (157cm) and had bright red hair. [5] A 28-year-old police officer, Robert Robb, had responded to a call for assistance during the incident, where he was wounded in the neck as he arrived. The standard .22LR rifle feeds from a flush-mounted 10-round helical-feed magazine, though aftermarket magazines and drums carry fifty rounds or more. Skylar never got a chance to grow up, and she would always be the intelligent, lovely blue-eyed girl that he knew before she died. On January 17, 1989, almost ten years after the events at San Diego's Grover Cleveland Elementary, there was another shooting at a school coincidentally named Grover Cleveland Elementary, this one in Stockton, California. The young woman eventually left him, but he lived in the same house across the street from the school until his death in 2016. Two saplings planted in their memory took root in the bloodstained earth and have grown into trees now, sentries that stand tall and strong over an empty playground. Based on the pen I was at. One tweet from Skylar definitely suggested something curious was up as she wrote on May 31, 2012, Youre a two-faced bitch and obviously f***ing stupid if you thought I wouldnt find out.. I asked for a radio, and he bought me a gun, Brenda Ann Spencer later said. Eventually, Brenda grew peckish. Just a few months after the BB gun incident, Spencers probation officer had suggested that she spend some time in a mental hospital for depression. Nowadays things are a bit more opaque. Whether these theories are true or not, Brenda Spencer was tried as an adult and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and nine counts of assault. The sentence is a harsh one, but it is hard to argue for anything else after what she did. Cam Miller was wearing the down vest he had just gotten from Santa Claus. Since Brendas outburst, the school has been sold and the ground has been leveled. Since he/she cannot give back that which was stolen, he/she must do the next best thingthat is forfeit his/her own life. While at the California Institution for Women in Chino, she worked repairing electronic equipment.[7][18]. She had no problem accepting that their sexuality differed from hers, but it was still uncomfortable to watch them, and even worse, it made the two of them closer with each other than they were with her. Blue was Brenda Spencer's favorite color, he later heard. I know you, or whomever moderates the comments, cant be available 24-7. Brenda's story and the story of her crime remind us that crime has no age limit. Still, she finds herself thinking about it in the abstract at the preschool where she teaches, especially when she's outside with the children. Her father gave her a gun instead. 'I don't like Mondays' killer is inducted into the 'Golden Girls' club This is a law that is as old as mankind itself and is not to be trifled with, but . As an honors student going into her junior year atUniversity High School near Morgantown in West Virginia, she got good grades, even in classes such as science and math which she didnt especially enjoy. Brenda alleged that her father Wallace both beat and sexually abused her. He didnt even call the boys parents. 7. [5][7] Police officers found beer and whiskey bottles cluttered around the house but said Spencer did not appear to be intoxicated when arrested. According to Brenda, I asked for a radio and he bought me a gun. Brenda Spencer liked violent TV shows, shooting with her BB gun and engaged in petty theft. Murder, rapes, gang rapes, assaults, forced prostitution, etc, etc. Police were forced to send negotiators to speak with her, but she refused to cooperate. As of 2022, Spencer has been unsuccessful at six parole board hearings. "My wife saw her through the window and said, `There she is.' If I hear a loud bang or a car backfire, it gets my heart beating, but that's about it.". The Spencer family made a concerted effort to keep the song off the air on this side of the pond, but it received fairly extensive airplay regardless. As the children lined up outside of the gates, Spencer took out the .22 semiautomatic rifle that shed received as a Christmas gift from her father. She remembers that there was snow in the mountains on the morning of the shooting; her father, Norm (her mother died when she was 3), considered letting his kids play hooky so he could take them up to play in it. School custodian, Mike Suchar, was also killed while trying to pull a student to safety, and incredibly, all of the children survived, although eight of them were injured alongside a responding police officer.
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