I don't like Mondays

On January 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer sat inher bedroom window with a .22 rifle her father had given to her as a gift.  She opened fire on children arriving at Cleveland Elementary Schoolin San Diego asthey were arriving for school.  She woundedeight students and a police officer. The Principal was killed while he wasattempting to rescue children in the line of fire,  The custodian was slain attempting to aid theprincipal.

During police negotiations she said such things as:  ''There was no reason for it, and it was justa lot of fun'' and ''It was just like shooting ducks in a pond'' and ''they(the children) looked like a herd of cows standing around, it was really easypickings.''

However, when all was said and done she wasasked what hadprompted the shooting spree, she told a reporter, “I don't like Mondays. Thislivens up the day.''

At her trial, Spencer pled guilty to two counts of murderand assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 25 years to life inprison. She has been up for parole four times and has been turned down eachtime.

Despite pleading guilty at her trial, during her parolehearings she claimed that she hadn’t hit anybody with her gun and said theymust have been shot by the police.  Shealso asserted that she had been under the influence of alcohol andhallucinogenic drugs at the time of the shootings; this despite the fact that evidenceshowed that there had been no drugs in her system. She finally, expressed remorsebut still said that she had been drunk and high on marijuana laced with PCP theday of her deadly rampage.

She is eligible to again apply for parole in 2019. It's unlikely that she will ever be released . . . California doesn't generally parole convicted murderers.