Well, neither does Brenda Spencer. At least, that's what she said when asked why she opened fire on a schoolyard on January 29, 1979. Brenda, who was 17 at the time, was given a rifle for Christmas by her father. She ended up taking almost 11 lives, including a school janitor and the principal, during her 20 minute shooting spree. This took place in San Diego at Cleveland Elementary School's playground- her home was across the street. At the time, she said that "Mondays always get me down" and she had done it to cheer herself up.
At first, she plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and underwent two psychiatric exams. Spencer ended up changing her plea to guilty and was convicted.
There's more information here: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/female_mass_murderer/13.html
At first, she plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and underwent two psychiatric exams. Spencer ended up changing her plea to guilty and was convicted.
There's more information here: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/female_mass_murderer/13.html
My first reaction to this story was wow seems that Brenda Spencer had some pretty deep issues that have yet been touched. To be a teenage female and go into a killing spree you must be pretty disturbed, especially when the main victims were children and all because she hated Mondays. What I liked to know is why children? Was it because they were the first in sight, because they were easy targets and knew that they were defenseless compared to the knowledge of an adult, or was it because of a horrible childhood experience that she went through suddenly flashed before her eyes and then started to think that if she gets rid of the children that will help her in some sick way? Why Monday? Did a certain situation happened on Monday, was Monday when a friend died at a young age, or was Monday the usual day when she would abuse drugs or certian substances? Was she under any type of medication or drugs during the shooting? Because of how it happened I would agree with her first plea of insanity, she did it on an impulse, at young children, had a background of substance abuse that does affect you psychologically, mostly makes you exaggerate your senses, and at age 17, there had to be some traumatizing moment her life that had led her to this type of crime. One prime example that could have led her to this was possibly child abuse either sexually or just unwanted touching and harassment. What ever the case there is absolutely no excuse for what she has done but it would have been better if she would have continue some counseling, it's like I said before there are some deep issues that have not been touched.
I have a hard time with many cases that include "not guilty by plea of insanity". I know that I do believe that there are many different Psychological issues that make us reflect a certain behavior, but I do not think this is an excuse for committing a crime. A person may be insane or not in the right frame of mind when they commit a crime, but I do not think this is an excuse for them to not be guilty. Even if a person in not psychologically right they still have had to have some thought about committing a crime and some form of thought process that allows them to go through with these actions. I agree with the question of why children? The fact that she targeted someone younger than her shows that there was some form of complete thought. By shooting children there would be no chance of them over taking her or stopping her until she was done. This in my mind is contradicting to I was not in the right mind to think through my options. In this case like many others the plea of insanity should carefully looked over and thought through.
I watched a biography on Brenda Spencer not too long ago. I found it interesting that the biography pointed out that we always say that Columbine was the first school shooting incident when in fact it was actually this case.
There's a lot of controversy that surrounds the details regarding Spencer's childhood. If I remember correctly, there were claims of abuse and neglect which her father denied.
An interesting thing to note, there was a song written about this incident. Most of you are probably way too young to know about it but being a child of the 80s I do. Its called "Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats (I posted the link for it below). The popularity of this song caught on in the early 80s and every Monday, radio stations would play it not truly realizing what they were singing about.
Now as a one of Spencer's unfortunate victims of the shooting spree, imagine the turmoil you would have to experience every time you heard the song because you knew where the inspiration came from to write it. The biography that I had watched spoke a little about this from one victim's point of view. She spoke about how every Monday while she was at work, this song would play and she would have to re-live the event. She had commented on how hard it was because it really was a catchy song.
http://vodpod.com/watch/382954-boomtown-rats-i-dont-like-mondays