Where is Brenda Spencer now? She might secure release after her next parole hearing

In late January 1979, Brenda Spencer killed two adults and injured eight children and one adult because of her hate for Mondays. She started her killing spree to ‘liven up the day.’ Spencer’s murderous rampage might have claimed more victims had the police not obstructed her line of fire using a garbage truck.

Spencer barricaded herself in her house for hours before an offer for a Burger King meal from negotiators convinced her to surrender. Brenda pled guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon. The court sentenced her to life in prison with a possibility of parole after 25 years. 

California rarely grants parole for people convicted of murder, but it hasn’t stopped Brenda from trying. As of December 2015, she’d been denied parole four times. 

She had a parole hearing in September 2021, but she waived the hearing for one in 2022. Her next parole hearing will happen no later than 9th September 2022. 

“I know saying I’m sorry doesn’t make it all right,” Spencer told the parole board in 2001. “With every school shooting. I feel I’m partially liven up the day. What if they got the idea from what I did?”

Spencer has tried to garner sympathy by stating that her father beat and sexually abused her. At parole hearings, the panel reminds her of statements during the shooting. 

Brenda told police negotiators that the children were easy targets and warned that she would ‘come out shooting.’

The likelihood of a successful parole hearing is slim at best. Victims of her crime have opposed Brenda’s likely parole, stating that their lives were forever affected by her actions. 

Brenda Spencer has spent over four decades in prison and currently belongs to the Golden Girls Club at her prison. Any inmate over 55 years can join the club, which offers its members special privileges. 

Spencer signed up as soon as she hit 55. The perks of Golden Girl membership include a front-line pass for meals and medication and access to a specific dining room closest to the members’ cell. 

Brenda also gets two mattresses and pillows, three blankets and is the priority for the coveted bottom bunk. A spokesperson for the prison told the Daily Mail:

“The Golden Girls program at California Institution for Women is geared toward addressing the emotional and physical needs of the older population. Any inmate aged 55 or older is eligible to be identified as a GG and participation is voluntary.”